A fabricated hadeeth about the reward for charity given on behalf of the deceased being presented to him on a platter of light
Question

                How sound is this hadeeth: “If you offer supplication for the deceased, the angel will enter upon him with a platter of light and will say: ‘This is a gift to you from your brother or relative So and and so,’ and he will rejoice thereat”?.
Praise be to Allah.
    This hadeeth is fabricated. It 
    was narrated by at-Tabaraani in al-Mu‘jam al-Awsat (6504): Muhammad 
    ibn Dawood ibn Aslam as-Sadafi told us, ‘Ubaydullah ibn ‘Abdillah al-Munkadiri 
    told us, Muhammad ibn Ismaa‘eel ibn Abi Fudayk said: I heard Abu Muhammad 
    ash-Shaami narrate that he heard Abu Hurayrah say that he heard Anas ibn 
    Maalik say: I heard the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be 
    upon him) say: “There is no household of whom one person dies and they give 
    charity on his behalf after his death, but Jibreel (peace be upon him) will 
    present it to him on a platter of light. He will stand at the edge of the 
    grave and say: ‘O occupant of the deep grave, this is a gift given to you by 
    your family, so accept it.’ Then he will enter upon him, and he will rejoice 
    thereat and be of good cheer, and his neighbours who were not given anything 
    will be sad.” 

    At-Tabaraani said after quoting 
    it: This hadeeth was not narrated from Anas except via this isnaad, which 
    was narrated only by Ibn Abi Fudayk. 

    Al-Haythami (may Allah have 
    mercy on him) said: 

    It was narrated by at-Tabaraani 
    in al-Awsat; its isnaad includes Abu Muhammad ash-Shaami, of whom al-Azdi 
    said: He is a liar.

    End quote from Majma‘ 
    az-Zawaa’id, 3/139 

    Shaykh al-Albaani (may Allah 
    have mercy on him) mentioned it in as-Silsilah ad-Da‘eefah (486) and 
    said: It is fabricated … The problem with this hadeeth is that it is 
    narrated by Abu Muhammad ash-Shaami. Adh-Dhahabi said: He narrated odd 
    hadeeths from some of the Taabi‘een. Al-Azdi said: He is a liar. 

    This is how it appears in 
    al-Lisaan; it is as if what they meant by munkar hadeeth was this 
    report. End quote. 

    So it is not permissible to 
    attribute these words to the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon 
    him) or to narrate it from him except for the purpose of explaining its 
    status and to warn against narrating it, because the Prophet (blessings and 
    peace of Allah be upon him) said: “Whoever narrates a hadeeth from me 
    thinking that it is a lie is one of the liars.” Narrated by Muslim in the 
    Introduction to his Saheeh (1/7). 

    An-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy 
    on him) said: 

    This hadeeth contains a stern 
    warning against lying and indicates that whoever thinks it most likely that 
    what he is narrating is false but still narrates it is a liar. How can he 
    not be a liar when he is telling you of something that did not happen? End 
    quote. 

    In the same chapter there is 
    another hadeeth which says: “The dead person in his grave is like the 
    drowning person who calls for help, hoping for a supplication to reach him 
    from his father or mother or brother or friend, and when it reaches him it 
    will be dearer to him than this world and everything in it. Allah will cause 
    to reach the inhabitants of the graves gifts like mountains as a result of 
    the supplication of the inhabitant of houses (i.e., the living). And the 
    gift of the living to the dead is prayers for forgiveness.” 

    This was quoted by Shaykh al-Albaani 
    in as-Silsilah ad-Da‘eefah (799). He said: (It is) munkar jiddan 
    (very odd). End quote. 

    With regard to the hadeeth 
    which says: “When you offer supplication for the dead, the angel enters upon 
    him with a platter of light…”, we could not find any such report from the 
    Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) whether this version or 
    the first version. So it is not permissible to attribute that to the Prophet 
    (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) just as it is not permissible to 
    quote it, even if it is not attributed to the Prophet (blessings and peace 
    of Allah be upon him), because the matter of al-barzakh is one of the 
    matters of the unseen, and it is not permissible to indulge in talking about 
    it without knowledge. 

    And Allah knows best.