In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful. [This is] The Book of the Affirmation of the Punishment of the Grave and the Questioning of the Two Angels, according to what has been reported in the sacred law (Shariʿa) through the recited verses, the transmitted reports, and the statements of the predecessors of this community, along with the rational possibility of such things being within the power of Allah – Glorified and Exalted is He.

1. Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Sulaymān al-Faqīh informed us: Ismāʿīl ibn Isḥāq al-Qāḍī narrated to us: al-Ḥawḍī narrated to us; [alternatively] Abū Zakariyyā Yaḥyā ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Muzakkī and Abū ʿUthmān Saʿīd ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdān informed us: Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Ḥāfiẓ narrated to us: Yaḥyā ibn Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā informed us: Abū ʿUmar narrated to us: Shuʿba narrated to us on the authority of ʿAlqama ibn Marthad, on the authority of Saʿd ibn ʿUbayda, on the authority of al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib, on the authority of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – that he said: “The believer, when he testifies that there is no deity but Allah and recognizes Muḥammad [as the Messenger of Allah] – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – in his grave, that is the word of Allah – Glorified and Exalted is He: 'Allah keeps firm those who believe with the firm word in the life of the world [Ibrāhīm: 27].'” Narrated by Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ, on the authority of Abū ʿUmar Ḥafṣ ibn ʿUmar al-Ḥawḍī.^[2]​

2. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb informed us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣaghānī narrated to us: Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik informed us; [alternatively] Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Rūdhbārī informed us: Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Bakr ibn ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us: Abū Dāwūd Sulaymān ibn al-Ashʿath al-Sijistānī narrated to us: Abū ʾl-Walīd al-Ṭayālisī narrated to us: Shuʿbah narrated to us on the authority of ʿAlqamah ibn Marthad, on the authority of Saʿd ibn ʿUbaydah, on the authority of al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: "Indeed, when the Muslim is questioned in the grave, he bears witness that there is no deity except Allah and that Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace; and that is the word of Allah – Mighty and Sublime is He – Allah keeps firm those who believe, with the firm word, in the life of the world and the Hereafter [Ibrāhīm: 27]." This is the wording of the hadith of Abū Dāwūd,^[20]​ and in the hadith of al-Ṣaghānī he said: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said, and he mentioned it. Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Abū ʾl-Walīd Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, and narrated by Abū ʾl-Ḥusayn Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj al-Naysābūrī on the authority of Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā, on the authority of Abū ʾl-Walīd, according to what our shaykh Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ claimed; as for me, I have not seen it in the book of Muslim except from the narration of Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar Ghundar on the authority of Shuʿba. ^[4]​

3. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī ʿAmr informed us, saying: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār narrated to us: Abū Muʿāwiya narrated to us on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Saʿd ibn ʿUbayda, on the authority of al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib regarding His statement: Allah keeps firm those who believe, with the firm word, in the life of this world [Ibrāhīm: 27], that he said: “When the angel comes to the man in the grave at the time he is buried and says to him, ‘Who is your Lord?’ he says, ‘My Lord is Allah.’ He says, ‘And what is your religion?’ he says, ‘My religion is Islam.’ And he says to him, ‘Who is your prophet?’ he says, ‘My prophet is Muḥammad.’ That is [the meaning of] being kept firm in the life of this world.” And Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shayba narrated it on the authority of Abū Muʿāwiya, who said [in his wording]: “When the two angels come to the man in the grave.”

4. Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Hāshimī informed us in Baghdad: ʿUthmān ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Sammāk narrated to us; [alternatively] Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū Sahl Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ziyād and Abū al-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Yaḥyā ibn Abī Ṭālib narrated to us: Wahb ibn Jarīr narrated to us: Shuʿba narrated to us on the authority of Abū Isḥāq, on the authority of al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib he said: The Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – mentioned the believer and the disbeliever, then he mentioned things that I did not memorize, and he said: "Indeed, when the believer is questioned in his grave, he says, 'My Lord is Allah,' and that is the word of Allah – Mighty and Sublime is He – Allah keeps firm those who believe, with the firm word, in the life of this world and in the Hereafter [Ibrāhīm: 27] to the end of the verse."

5. Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad informed us: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥasan al-Qāḍī informed us in Hamadhān: Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ḥusayn narrated to us: Ādam ibn Abī Iyās narrated to us: Ḥammād ibn Salama narrated to us on the authority of Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, on the authority of Abū Salama, on the authority of Abū Hurayra – may Allah be pleased with him – he said: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – recited “Allah keeps firm those who believe, with the firm word, in the worldly life and in the Hereafter” [Ibrāhīm: 27] and he said: “That is when it is said to him in the grave: 'Who is your Lord? What is your religion? And who is your Prophet?' He will say: 'Allah is my Lord, Islam is my religion, and Muḥammad is my Prophet; he came to us with the clear proofs from Allah, so I believed in him and testified to his truth.' It will then be said: 'You have spoken the truth; upon this you lived, upon this you died, and upon this you shall be resurrected, if Allah wills.'”

6. Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-Muʾammal ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿĪsā – may Allah have mercy on him – informed us, by reading to him from his original source: Abū ʿUthmān ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Baṣrī narrated to us: Abū Aḥmad Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb informed us: Jaʿfar ibn ʿAwn informed us: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh informed us: on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mukhāriq, on the authority of al-Mukhāriq ibn Sulaym he said: ʿAbd Allāh, meaning ibn Masʿūd, said: "Whenever we relate a ḥadīth to you, we bring you the confirmation of that from the Book of Allah – Mighty and Sublime is He –: Indeed, when the Muslim enters his grave, he is seated therein and asked: 'Who is your Lord?' and 'What is your religion?'—meaning, 'And who is your Prophet?' He said: Then Allah – Mighty and Sublime is He – makes him firm, and he says: 'My Lord is Allah, my religion is Islam, and my Prophet is Muḥammad – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –'. He said: Then his grave is widened for him and it becomes spacious for him." Then he recited "Allah keeps firm those who have believed, with the firm word, in the worldly life and in the Hereafter" [Ibrāhīm: 27] the verse. "And indeed, when the disbeliever enters his grave, he is seated therein and it is said to him: 'Who is your Lord?' 'What is your religion?' and 'Who is your Prophet?' He says: 'I do not know,' so his grave narrows upon him and he is punished therein." Then ʿAbd Allāh recited "And whoever turns away from My remembrance, then for him is a constricted life, and We shall gather him on the Day of Resurrection blind" [Ṭāhā: 124].

7. Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ḥāfiẓ, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī, and Abū Saʿīd Muḥammad ibn Mūsā informed us: Abū l-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq informed us: Yaḥyā ibn Abī Bukayr narrated to us: Sharīk narrated to us on the authority of Sālim, on the authority of Saʿīd, on the authority of ibn ʿAbbās he said: Allah strengthens those who have believed with a firm word in the worldly life [Ibrāhīm: 27] he said: "The questioning in the grave is: 'Who is your Lord? What is your religion? And who is your Prophet?' And in the Hereafter, it is the same."

8. Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-Faḍl ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Aḥmad ibn Salama narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Bashshār narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar narrated to us: Shuʿba narrated to us: on the authority of ʿAlqama ibn Marthad, on the authority of Saʿd ibn ʿUbayda, on the authority of al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib, on the authority of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –: “Allah strengthens those who have believed with a firm word in the life of the world and in the Hereafter.” He said: “It was revealed concerning the punishment of the grave; it will be said to him: 'Who is your Lord?' and he will say: 'My Lord is Allah and my Prophet is Muḥammad.' That is His statement: 'Allah strengthens those who have believed with a firm word.'” Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Bashshār, and narrated by Muslim also on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Bashshār.

9. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿAmr informed us: Abū ʿl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣāghānī narrated to us: Rawḥ ibn ʿUbāda narrated to us: al-Thawarī narrated to us; [alternatively] Abū ʿAbd Allāh informed us: Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb, meaning al-Shaybānī, informed us: Aḥmad ibn Sahl narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Bashshār informed us: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, meaning ibn Mahdī, narrated to us on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Khaythama, on the authority of al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib: “Allah confirms those who believe with the firm word in the worldly life and in the Hereafter” [Ibrāhīm: 27], he said: “It was revealed concerning the punishment of the grave.” Narrated by Muslim in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Bashshār and others.

10. Abū ʾl-Ḥusayn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Bishrān al-ʿAdl in Baghdad informed us: Abū ʿAmr ʿUthmān ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allah informed us: Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Rāzī narrated to us: al-Haytham ibn al-Yamān narrated to us: Ismāʿīl ibn Zakariyyā narrated to us: Muḥammad, meaning ibn ʿAwn, narrated to me on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of ibn ʿAbbās – may Allah be pleased with them both – regarding the statement of Allah – Mighty and Sublime is He – {Allah keeps firm those who believe, with the firm word, in the life of the world and in the Hereafter} [Ibrāhīm: 27]: “The testimony; they are asked about it in their graves after their death.” He said: I said to ʿIkrima: “What is it?” He said: “They are asked about the faith in Muḥammad – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – and the matter of tawḥīd. He said: {And Allah leaves the wrongdoers in error} [Ibrāhīm: 27]; he said: 'That is the testimony, so they shall never be guided.'” And thus others narrated it on the authority of ibn ʿAbbās.

11. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿAmr informed us: Abū ʿl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣāghānī narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Aslamī narrated to us: ʿAbd al-Salām ibn Ḥafṣ narrated to us on the authority of Sharīk ibn Abī Namir, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār, on the authority of ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her –: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: "Through me the inhabitants of the graves are tested, and concerning me this verse was revealed: Allah keeps firm those who believe, with the firm word [Ibrāhīm: 27]." Abū ʿl-ʿAbbās said: I believe he said: "And concerning him it was revealed."

12. Abū ʿAbd Allāh and Abū Saʿīd informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq narrated to us: Muʿāwiya ibn ʿAmr narrated to us on the authority of Abū Isḥāq al-Fazārī, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: “Allah confirms those who believe with a firm word in the life of the world” [Ibrāhīm: 27] regarding the punishment of the grave.

13. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-Faḍl al-Ḥasan ibn Yaʿqūb al-ʿAdl informed us: Yaḥyā ibn Abī Ṭālib narrated to us: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb narrated to us: on the authority of Saʿīd, meaning ibn Abī ʿArūba, on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of Anas ibn Mālik, that the Prophet of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – he said: “When the servant is placed in his grave and his companions depart from him, he certainly hears the sound of their footsteps. Then two angels come to him and say: 'What did you used to say about this man?' meaning Muḥammad – may Allah bless him and grant him peace. As for the believer, he says: 'I bear witness that he is the servant of Allah and His Messenger.' It is then said to him: 'Look at your seat in the Fire; Allah has replaced it for you with a seat in Paradise,' and he sees them both.” Narrated by Muslim in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Zurāra, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Wahhāb; and this was narrated on the authority of ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿAṭāʾ in a more detailed manner than this.^[23]​

14. Abū ʾl-Ḥusayn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faḍl al-Qaṭṭān informed us in Baghdad: Abū Sahl Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ziyād al-Qaṭṭān informed us: Abū Bakr Yaḥyā ibn Abī Ṭālib narrated to us: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿAṭāʾ narrated to us: Saʿīd informed us; [alternatively] Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Muḥammad ibn Mūsā ibn al-Faḍl informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣaghānī narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ruzzī informed us: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿAṭāʾ narrated to us: on the authority of Saʿīd, on the authority of Qatādah, on the authority of Anas ibn Mālik: that the Prophet of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – entered a palm grove belonging to the Banū al-Najjār and heard a sound that startled him, and he said: “Who are the inhabitants of these graves?” They said: “O Prophet of Allah, they are people who died during the Age of Ignorance.” He said: “We seek refuge with Allah from the punishment of the grave, the punishment of the Fire, and the tribulation of the Dajjal.” They said: “And what is that, O Messenger of Allah?” He said: “Indeed, this community will be tested in its graves. When the believer is placed in his grave, an angel comes to him and asks him: 'What did you used to worship?' If Allah guided him” — and in the narration of al-Qaṭṭān, “if Allah – Mighty and Sublime is He – guided him” — “he says: 'I used to worship Allah.' It is then said to him: 'What did you used to say about this man?' He says: 'He is the servant of Allah and His Messenger.' He is not asked about anything other than that. He is then taken to a house he had in the Fire, and it is said to him: 'This was your house in the Fire, but Allah – Mighty and Sublime is He – protected you and had mercy on you, and replaced it for you with a house in Paradise.' He says: 'Leave me so that I may go and give glad tidings to my family.' It is said to him: 'Remain still.' As for the disbeliever, when he is placed in his grave, an angel comes to him and rebukes him, saying: 'What did you used to worship?' He says: 'I do not know.' The angel says: 'You neither knew nor followed.' He then asks: 'What did you used to say about this man?' He says: 'I used to say what the people said.' He then strikes him between his ears with an iron hammer, and he lets out a scream that is heard by all creation except for the two weighty genres.” Their wording is the same, and thus it was narrated by Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿAṭāʾ. ^[24]​

15. Abū ʿAmr Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Adīb informed us: Abū Bakr al-Ismāʿīlī informed us: Abū Yaʿlā and al-Ḥasan informed us: Muḥammad ibn al-Minhāl narrated to us: Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ narrated to us; [alternatively] al-Firyābī and al-Ḥasan informed us: al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Walīd narrated to us: Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ narrated to us: Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūba narrated to us: on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of Anas ibn Mālik: The Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “When the servant is placed in his grave and his companions turn away from him, to the extent that he hears the striking of their sandals, two angels come to him and seat him up, saying: 'What did you used to say regarding this man, Muḥammad?' As for the believer, he says: 'I bear witness that he is the servant of Allah and His Messenger.' It is then said to him: 'Look at your seat from the Fire; Allah has replaced it for you with a seat in Paradise.'” The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “He sees them both, or he said, all of them.” Qatāda said: It was mentioned to us: “His grave is widened for him by seventy cubits and filled with greenery until the Day of Resurrection.” Then he returned to the hadith of Anas, who said: “As for the disbeliever or the hypocrite, it is said to him: 'What did you used to say regarding this man?' He says: 'I do not know; I used to say what the people said.' It is then said: 'Neither did you know, nor did you follow.' Then he is struck with an iron hammer with a blow between his ears, and he lets out a scream that is heard by those near him, other than the two weighted species.” This is the hadith of al-Firyābī; narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ, who said: Khalīfah said to me: Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ narrated to us, and he mentioned it; and narrated by Muslim on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Minhāl in abbreviated form, and narrated by Shaybān ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān on the authority of Qatāda.

16. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣaghānī narrated to us: Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad narrated to us: Shaybān narrated to us on the authority of Qatāda: Anas ibn Mālik – may Allah be pleased with him – narrated to us: The Prophet of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “Indeed, when the servant is placed in his grave and his companions depart from him, he certainly hears the thumping of their sandals.” He said: “Two angels come to him and seat him up, and they say: 'What did you used to say about this man?' As for the believer, he says: 'I bear witness that he is the servant of Allah and His Messenger.' It is then said: 'Look at your seat from the Fire; Allah has replaced it for you with a seat from Paradise.'” The Prophet of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “So he sees them both.” Narrated by Muslim in his Ṣaḥīḥ.

17. Just as ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf informed us: Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yazīd and Abū Aḥmad ibn ʿĪsā narrated to us: Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Sufyān informed us: Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj narrated to us: ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd narrated to us: Yūnus ibn Muḥammad narrated to us: Shaybān ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān informed us: and he mentioned it in the same manner, adding at the end: Qatāda said: and he mentioned to us that: “seventy cubits are expanded for him in his grave, and it is filled with greenery for him until the day they are resurrected.” And on the authority of Asmāʾ bint Abī Bakr – may Allah be pleased with her –, on the authority of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –.

18. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū Bakr ibn Isḥāq al-Faqīh informed us: Muḥammad ibn Ghālib informed us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Maslamah narrated to us: on the authority of Mālik; [alternatively] Abū Aḥmad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-ʿAdl informed us: Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar al-Muzakkī informed us: Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-ʿAbdī narrated to us: ibn Bukayr narrated to us: Mālik narrated to us: on the authority of Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, on the authority of Fāṭimah bint al-Mundhir, on the authority of Asmāʾ bint Abī Bakr – may Allah be pleased with her –: that she said: “I came to ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her –, the wife of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –, during a solar eclipse, and I found the people standing in prayer, and she was standing. I said, 'What is the matter with the people?' She pointed with her hand toward the sky and said, 'Glory be to Allah.' I asked, 'Is it a sign?' She gestured that yes. I stood until the fainting overcame me, and I began pouring water over my head. When the prayer concluded, the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – praised Allah and extolled Him, then said: 'There is nothing that I had not seen except that I have seen it from this position of mine, even Paradise and the Fire. It has been revealed to me that you shall be tested in the graves like or close to the trial of the Dajjāl. As for the believer or the certain one—I do not know which of the two Asmāʾ said—he will say: ”He is Muḥammad, the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –; he came to us with clear proofs and guidance, so we responded, believed, and followed.“ It will then be said to him: ”Sleep peacefully, for we know that you are indeed a believer.“ As for the hypocrite or the doubter—I do not know which of the two Asmāʾ said—he will say: ”I do not know; I heard the people saying something, so I said it.“'” Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Maslamah al-Qaʿnabī, and narrated by Muslim from another route on the authority of Hishām ibn ʿUrwah.

19. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn al-Khalīl al-Aṣbahānī informed us: Mūsā ibn Isḥāq al-Khaṭmī al-Qāḍī narrated to us: Minjāb ibn al-Ḥārith narrated to us: ʿAlī ibn Mushir informed us: on the authority of Hishām ibn ʿUrwa: he mentioned it with its chain and meaning, and at the end of it: “And indeed, it has been revealed to me that you shall be tried in the grave in a manner similar to or close to the trial of the False Messiah (al-Masīḥ al-Dajjāl). One of you will be brought and asked: 'What do you say regarding this man?' As for the believer, he will say: 'He is the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –; he is Muḥammad, who came to us with clear proofs and guidance, so we responded and followed.' It will be said to him: 'Sleep in peace, for we certainly knew that you believed in him.' As for the hypocrite or the one in doubt, he will say: 'I do not know; I heard the people saying something, so I said as they said.' Thus, he shall be punished in his grave.” {37} And it was narrated regarding this on the authority of al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib, on the authority of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – in a detailed and explained manner.

20. Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Fūraka narrated to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar al-Aṣbahānī informed us: Yūnus ibn Ḥabīb narrated to us: Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī narrated to us: Abū ʿAwāna narrated to us on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of al-Minhāl ibn ʿAmr, on the authority of Zādhān, on the authority of al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib: Abū Dāwūd said: ʿUmar ibn Thābit narrated it to us, having heard it from al-Minhāl ibn ʿAmr, on the authority of Zādhān, on the authority of al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib; however, the narration of Abū ʿAwāna is the more complete of the two. al-Barāʾ said: We went out with the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – for the funeral of a man from the Anṣār, and we reached the grave before the niche had been dug. The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – sat down, and we sat around him as if birds were perched upon our heads. He began to raise his gaze to look toward the heaven and lower his gaze to look toward the earth, then he said: “I seek refuge in Allah from the punishment of the grave.” He repeated this several times, then he said: “When the believing servant is in a state of facing the Hereafter and severed from the world, an angel comes to him and sits by his head, saying: 'Come forth, O tranquil soul, toward the forgiveness and pleasure of Allah.' Thus, his soul emerges, flowing like the falling of rain.” ʿAmr said in his narration: Abū ʿAwāna did not say this, even if you hold otherwise. “And angels descend from Paradise with white faces, as if their faces were the sun, carrying shrouds from the shrouds of Paradise and perfumes from its perfumes; they sit at a distance as far as the eye can see. When the angel seizes the soul, they do not leave it in his hand for the blink of an eye—and that is the meaning of His statement: {Our messengers took him, and they are not negligent}—and his soul emerges as the sweetest scent ever encountered. The angels then ascend with him, and they do not pass by any host between the heaven and the earth except that they ask: 'What is this soul?' It is replied: 'So-and-so,' using his best names, until they reach the gates of the lowest heaven, where it is opened for him, and the near ones of every heaven escort him until he is brought to the seventh heaven. Then it is said: 'Record his book in ʿIlliyyūn.' Then it is said: 'Return him to the earth, for I have promised them: {From it We created you, and into it We shall return you, and from it We shall bring you forth another time}.'” He said: “Thus he is returned to the earth, his soul is returned to his body, and two sternly frowning angels come to him; they frown at him and seat him up, asking: 'Who is your Lord?' and 'What is your religion?' He replies: 'My Lord is Allah and my religion is Islam.' They ask: 'What do you say regarding this man who was sent among you?' He replies: 'He is the Messenger of Allah.' They ask: 'And how do you know?' He replies: 'He came to us with clear proofs from our Lord, so I believed in him and testified to his truth.' He said: And that is the meaning of His statement: {Allah strengthens those who have believed with a firm word in the life of the world and in the Hereafter}. Then he said: 'A caller cries out from the heaven: ”My servant has spoken the truth, so clothe him from Paradise, spread for him from it, and show him his dwelling therein.“ Thus he is clothed from Paradise, spread for him from it, and sees his dwelling therein, and it is expanded for him as far as the eye can see. His deeds then appear to him in the form of a man with a handsome face, a pleasant scent, and fine clothes, saying: ”Rejoice in what Allah has prepared for you; rejoice in the pleasure of Allah and gardens wherein there is eternal delight.“ He replies: ”May Allah give you glad tidings of good! Who are you? For your face is the face that has brought us good.“ He replies: ”This is your day which you were promised; I am your righteous deeds. By Allah, I knew you only to be quick in the obedience of Allah and slow in His disobedience; may Allah reward you with good.“ He then says: ”O Lord, establish the Hour so that I may return to my family and my wealth.“ He said: ”But if he were a wicked disbeliever, and he were in a state of facing the Hereafter and severed from the world, an angel would come to him and sit by his head, saying: 'Come forth, O wicked soul! Rejoice in the displeasure and wrath of Allah.' Then angels with black faces descend, carrying coarse garments. When the angel seizes the soul, they stand, not leaving it in his hand for the blink of an eye. He said: It is scattered throughout his body, and he extracts it while the veins and nerves are torn as if by a multi-pronged skewer through wet wool. It is taken from the angel and emerges as the foulest scent ever encountered. It does not pass by any host between the heaven and the earth except that they ask: 'What is this wicked soul?' They reply: 'This is so-and-so,' using his worst names, until they bring him to the lowest heaven, but it is not opened for him. It is said: 'Return him to the earth, for I have promised them: I created them from it, and into it We shall return them, and from it We shall bring them forth another time.'“ He said: Thus he is cast down from the heaven, and he recited this verse: {And whoever associates others with Allah, it is as though he had fallen from the heaven, seized by birds or blown by the wind into a remote place}. He said: ”Thus he is returned to the earth, his soul is returned to him, and two sternly frowning angels come to him; they frown at him and seat him up, asking: 'What do you say regarding this man who was sent among you?' He cannot find his name. It is asked: 'Muḥammad?' He replies: 'I do not know; I heard people saying that.' It is replied: 'May you never know!' Then his grave is constricted upon him until his ribs interlock. His deeds then appear to him in the form of a man with an ugly face, a foul scent, and hideous clothes, saying: 'Rejoice in the punishment and wrath of Allah.' He asks: 'Who are you? For your face is the face that has brought us evil.' He replies: 'I am your wicked deeds. By Allah, I knew you only to be slow in the obedience of Allah and quick in His disobedience.'“ ʿAmr said in his narration: on the authority of al-Minhāl, on the authority of Zādhān, on the authority of al-Barāʾ, on the authority of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –: ”Then there is appointed for him a deaf and mute [being] with a mallet; if a mammoth were struck with it, it would become dust—or he said, decayed bones. He strikes him a blow that all creation hears except for the two weighted groups [humans and jinn], then the soul is returned to him, and he strikes him another blow." This is a lengthy hadith with a sound chain of transmission, narrated by a group of trustworthy imams on the authority of al-Aʿmash, and transmitted by Abū Dāwūd Sulaymān ibn al-Ashʿath al-Sijistānī in his Sunan.

21. Just as Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Rūdhabārī informed us: Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Bakr ibn ʿAbd al-Razzāq, known as ibn Dāsah, informed us: Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistānī narrated to us: ʿUthmān ibn Abī Shaybah narrated to us: Jarīr narrated to us; [alternatively] Hannād ibn al-Sari narrated to us: Abū Muʿāwiyah narrated to us on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of al-Minhāl, on the authority of Zādhān, on the authority of al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib – may Allah be pleased with him –: “We went out with the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – for the funeral of a man from the Anṣār, and we reached the grave before the niche had been dug,” and he mentioned the hadith to that effect, and the hadith of Abū ʿAwanah is more complete. Abū Dāwūd said in the mention of the believer: “In the narration of Jarīr, he added: 'That is the word of Allah – Glorified and Exalted is He – {Allah keeps firm those who believe, with the firm word, in the life of the world and in the Hereafter}' [Ibrāhīm: 27] the verse.” And he said in the mention of the disbeliever: “In the hadith of Jarīr, he added: 'Then there is appointed for him a blind, mute [being] with him is a hammer of iron; if a mountain were struck with it, it would become dust. He said: So he strikes him with it a blow that everyone between the east and the west hears, except for the two weighty groups [humans and jinn], and he becomes dust.' He said: 'Then the soul is returned to him.'”

40.

22. A group narrated it on the authority of al-Minhāl in the same manner as the narration of al-Aʿmash: Abū Khālid al-Dālānī, ʿAmr ibn Qays al-Mulāʾī, and al-Ḥasan ibn ʿUbayd Allāh al-Nakhaʿī, on the authority of Yūnus ibn Khabbāb, on the authority of al-Minhāl ibn ʿAmr, on the authority of Zādhān, on the authority of Abū l-Bakhtarī al-Ṭāʾī: I heard al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib, and he mentioned it.

23. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-Ḥusayn ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn ʿAlī ibn Mukram al-Bazzāz narrated to us in Baghdād: Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn Bishrān narrated to us: Abū Ibrāhīm al-Turjumānī narrated to us: Shuʿayb ibn Ṣafwān narrated to us: Yūnus ibn Khabbāb narrated to us, and he mentioned it. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ said: The mention of Abū ʾl-Bakhtarī in this hadith is an error, as the trustworthy authorities have reached a consensus that he narrated it on the authority of Yūnus ibn Khabbāb, on the authority of al-Minhāl ibn ʿAmr, on the authority of Zādhān, that he heard al-Barāʾ.

24. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn Nuṣayr al-Khaladī narrated to us, by dictation: ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz narrated to us: Ibrāhīm ibn Ziyād Sabalān narrated to us: ʿAbbād ibn ʿAbbād narrated to us: I came to Yūnus ibn Khabbāb at Minā by the lighthouse while he was recounting, and I asked him about the hadith regarding the punishment of the grave, so he narrated it to me on the authority of al-Minhāl ibn ʿAmr, on the authority of Zādhān, that he heard al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib – may Allah be pleased with him – say: “We went out with the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – for a funeral,” and he mentioned the hadith. Maʿmar and Mahdī ibn Maymūn also narrated it on the authority of Yūnus ibn Khabbāb, on the authority of al-Minhāl, on the authority of Zādhān, on the authority of al-Barāʾ, in a manner similar to the narration of the group. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Numayr also narrated it on the authority of al-Aʿmash, and he clarified in the hadith that Zādhān heard it from al-Barāʾ, just as ʿAbbād ibn ʿAbbād clarified on the authority of Yūnus.

25. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣaghānī narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Numayr narrated to us: my father narrated to us: al-Aʿmash narrated to us on the authority of al-Minhāl ibn ʿAmr, on the authority of Zādhān Abū ʿUmar: I heard al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib – may Allah be pleased with him – say: “We went out with the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –”, and he mentioned the hadith.

26. Abū ʿAlī al-Rūdhabārī informed us: Abū Bakr ibn Dāsa narrated to us: Abū Dāwūd narrated to us: Hannād ibn al-Sarrī narrated to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Numayr narrated to us: al-Aʿmash narrated to us: al-Minhāl informed us: on the authority of Abū ʿUmar Zādhān: I heard al-Barāʾ on the authority of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –: “He mentioned something to that effect.” Zāʾida ibn Qudāma also narrated it on the authority of al-Aʿmash, clarifying al-Minhāl's hearing from Zādhān and Zādhān's hearing on the authority of al-Barāʾ.

27. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbdān informed us: Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd informed us: ʿUthmān ibn ʿUmar al-Ḍabbī narrated to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yaʿlā ibn Rajāʾ narrated to us: Zāʾida narrated to us: on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of al-Minhāl ibn ʿAmr: Zādhān informed us: al-Barāʾ informed us: “We went out with the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – for the funeral of a man from the Anṣār, and we reached the grave before the niche had been dug,” and he mentioned the hadith. It was narrated on the authority of ʿAdī ibn Thābit, on the authority of al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib regarding this account, similarly to the narration of Zādhān on the authority of al-Barāʾ; and it was narrated on the authority of Abū Ḥāzim, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, on the authority of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –.

28. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿUmarī narrated to me: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq narrated to us: ʿAlī ibn al-Mundhir narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Fuḍayl narrated to us: my father narrated to me on the authority of Abū Ḥāzim, on the authority of Abū Hurayra – may Allah be pleased with him – similar to the hadith of al-Barāʾ, except that he said: “Sleep the sleep of the God-fearing believers,” and it is said to the wicked: “Sleep as one who is preyed upon.” He said: “There is no creature but that it has a share of his body.” And it was narrated on the authority of ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her – and Abū Hurayra – may Allah be pleased with him – from another route.

29. Abū Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf informed us: Abū Saʿīd ibn al-Aʿrābī informed us: Saʿdān ibn Naṣr narrated to us: Shabābah ibn Sawwār narrated to us: ibn Abī Dhiʾb narrated to us; [alternatively] Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿAmr informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq narrated to us: Yaḥyā ibn Abī Bukayr informed us: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Dhiʾb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿAṭāʾ informed us: on the authority of Dhakwān: that ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her – said: “A Jewish woman entered upon me and said, 'Feed me, may Allah protect you from the trial of the Dajjāl and the trial of the grave.' She continued, 'I kept her there until the Prophet arrived, and I said, ”O Messenger of Allah, what is this Jewish woman saying?“ The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said, ”What is she saying?“ I said, ”She says, “May Allah protect you from the trial of the Dajjāl and the trial of the grave.”'“ Then the Messenger of Allah stood up and raised his hands, extending them while seeking refuge from the trial of the Dajjāl and the trial of the grave, then he said, ”As for the Dajjāl, there was no prophet except that he warned his nation, and I shall warn you against him with a warning that no prophet has given to his nation: indeed he is one-eyed, while Allah is not one-eyed; written between his eyes is 'Kāfir' (disbeliever), which every believer will read. As for the trial of the grave, it is through me that you are tried and about me that you are questioned. When the righteous man is seated in his grave, he is neither terrified nor distraught, and it is said to him, 'In what were you?' He says, 'In Islam.' It is said, 'Who is this man?' He says, 'Muḥammad, the Messenger of Allah, who came to us with clear proofs from Allah, so we believed and testified.' It is said to him, 'Did you see Allah?' He says, 'It is not fitting for anyone to see Allah – Glorified and Exalted is He –.' Then an opening is made for him toward the Fire, and he looks at it, seeing its parts crashing into one another, and it is said to him, 'Look at that which Allah – Glorified and Exalted is He – protected you from.' Then an opening is made for him toward Paradise, and he looks at the splendor and what is within it, and it is said to him, 'Here is your seat.' And it is said, 'Upon certainty you were, upon it you died, and upon it you shall be resurrected, if Allah wills.' And when the evil man is seated in his grave, he is terrified and distraught, and it is said to him, 'In what were you?' He says, 'I do not know.' It is said, 'Who is this man?' He says, 'We heard people saying...' Then an opening is made toward Paradise, and he looks at its splendor and what is within it, and it is said to him, 'Look at what Allah diverted from you.' Then an opening is made toward the Fire, and he looks at it, seeing its parts crashing into one another, and it is said, 'This is your seat.' Then it is said, 'Upon doubt you were, upon it you died, and upon it you shall be resurrected, if Allah wills.'" This is the wording of the hadith of Yaḥyā ibn Abī Bakr, and the hadith of Shabābah is with the same meaning, and he added at the end of his report: “He said, 'And upon it you shall be resurrected, if Allah wills,'” he said, “Then he is punished.”

30. Abū ʿAbd Allāh and Abū Saʿīd informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣaghānī narrated to us: Yaḥyā ibn Abī Bukayr narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, meaning ibn Abī Dhiʾb, informed us on the authority of Muḥammad ibn ʿAṭāʾ, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Yasār, on the authority of Abū Hurayra – may Allah be pleased with him – that the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: and he mentioned that which is in the hadith of ʿĀʾisha.

31. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Khalaf ibn Muḥammad al-Karābīsī informed me: Ṣāliḥ ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥabīb narrated to us: I heard Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā, and he narrated the hadith of the grave, in which is the phrase: "It will be said to him: 'Did you see Allah?' He will say: 'It is not befitting for anyone to see Allah.'" Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā said: "This is in this world, for the people of Paradise will look upon Allah with their eyes," and it has been narrated to that effect on the authority of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, on the authority of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace.

32. Abū Ṭāhir Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Maḥmash al-Faqīh informed us: Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ṣaffār informed us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal narrated to us: my father narrated to us: Abū ʿĀmir informed us: ʿAbbād, meaning ibn Rāshid, narrated to us: on the authority of Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind, on the authority of Abū Baṣrah, on the authority of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī – may Allah be pleased with him –: We attended a funeral with the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – and he said: “O people, indeed this community shall be tested in its graves. When a person is buried and his companions depart from him, an angel comes to him with a hammer in his hand. He makes him sit up and says: 'What do you say concerning this man?' If he is a believer, he says: 'I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah and that Muḥammad is His servant and messenger.' He then says to him: 'You have spoken the truth.' Then a door to the Fire is opened for him, and he is told: 'This would have been your abode had you disbelieved in your Lord; but since you believed in Him, this is your abode,' and a door to Paradise is opened for him. He intends to rise toward it, but the angel says to him: 'Remain still,' and his grave is widened for him. But if he is a disbeliever or a hypocrite, the angel says to him: 'What do you say concerning this man?' He replies: 'I do not know; I heard people saying something, so I said it.' The angel then says: 'You neither knew, nor recited, nor were guided.' Then a door to Paradise is opened for him, and it is said to him: 'This would have been yours had you believed in your Lord; but since you disbelieved in Him, Allah – Mighty and Sublime is He – has replaced it for you with this,' and a door to the Fire is opened for him. Then he strikes him with the hammer, the sound of which is heard by all of Allah's creation except for the two weighted beings.” Some of the people then said: “O Messenger of Allah, there is no one over whom an angel stands with a hammer in his hand but that he collapses at that moment.” The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – then said: “{Allah keeps firm those who believe, with the firm word}” [Ibrāhīm: 27].

Allah – Glorified and Exalted is He – said: "Indeed, those who have said, 'Our Lord is Allah,' and then remained steadfast, the angels shall descend upon them, saying, 'Do not fear and do not grieve, but receive the glad tidings of Paradise, which you were promised'" [Fuṣṣilat: 30]. And He said: "O reassured soul, return to your Lord, well-pleased and pleasing, and enter among My servants, and enter My Paradise" [al-Fajr: 27-30]. And He said: "And if you could see when the wrongdoers are in the throes of death, and the angels stretch out their hands, saying, 'Bring out your souls; today you will be recompensed with the punishment of humiliation for what you used to say about Allah without truth and for your arrogance toward His signs'" [al-Anʿām: 93].

33. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū Bakr ibn Isḥāq al-Faqīh informed us by dictation: ʿAlī ibn al-Ṣaqr ibn Naṣr informed us: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar al-Qawārīrī narrated to us: Ḥammād ibn Zayd narrated to us: Budayl narrated to us: on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaqīq, on the authority of Abū Hurayra – may Allah be pleased with him –: “When the soul of the believer departs, two angels meet it and ascend with it.” Ḥammād said: “He mentioned the fragrance of its scent and mentioned musk.” He said: “And the inhabitants of heaven say: 'A fragrant soul has come from the direction of the earth; may Allah bless you and the body that you inhabit.' Then it is taken to its Lord, who then says: 'Take it to the final destination.'” He said: “And as for the disbeliever, when his soul departs”—Ḥammād said: “He mentioned its stench and mentioned a curse”—“the inhabitants of heaven say: 'An evil soul from the direction of the earth.'” He said: “And it is said: 'Take it to the final destination.'” Abū Hurayra – may Allah be pleased with him – said: “Then the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – pulled a shawl that was upon him over his nose like this.” Narrated by Muslim in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar al-Qawārīrī.

34. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿAmr informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq narrated to us: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿAṭāʾ informed us: Khālid al-Ḥadhdhāʾ informed us: on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaqīq, on the authority of Abū Hurayra – may Allah be pleased with him –: “Indeed, when the believer is facing death, two angels come to him and extract his soul into a silk cloth, then they ascend with it to the heaven, and the angels say, 'A pure soul has come from the earth.' So they ascend with it, and it is said, 'Rejoice in comfort, fragrance, and a Lord who is not angry.' Then it is said, 'Return it to the end of the two terms.' And if he is a disbeliever, they extract his soul into a coarse cloth, then they ascend with it to the heaven, and the angels hold their noses and say, 'A foul stench has come from the earth.' So they ascend with it, and it is said, 'Rejoice in the punishment of Allah and His contempt.' Then it is said, 'Return it to the end of the term or the two terms.'”

35. Abū ʿAbd Allāh and Abū Saʿīd informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq narrated to us: Yaḥyā ibn Abī Bukayr narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, meaning ibn Abī Dhiʾb, narrated to us: on the authority of Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿAṭāʾ, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Yasār, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, on the authority of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –: “Indeed, the angels attend the deceased. If the man is righteous, they say: 'Come forth, O tranquil soul that was within the body; come forth praised, and receive glad tidings of fragrance, greenery, and a Lord who is not angry.' This continues to be said to him until the soul departs and is ascended with until it reaches the heaven, where the gates are sought to be opened for it. It is asked: 'Who is this?' It is replied: 'So-and-so son of so-and-so.' It is then said: 'Welcome, O pure soul that was within a pure body; enter praised, and receive glad tidings of fragrance, greenery, and a Lord who is not angry.' This continues to be said to it until it reaches the heaven—I believe he meant the seventh heaven. He said: 'And if the man is evil, they say: 'Come forth, O wicked soul that was within a wicked body, disgraced, and receive glad tidings of boiling water, foul discharge, and others of its kind in pairs.' This continues to be said to him until the soul departs and is brought to the heaven, where it is asked: 'Who is this?' It is replied: 'So-and-so son of so-and-so.' It is then said: 'No welcome to the wicked soul that was within a wicked body; return disgraced, for the gates of heaven shall not be opened for you.' It is then sent down to the earth and subsequently descends into the grave.'”

36. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Muqriʾ al-Mihrajānī informed us: al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq narrated to us: Yūsuf ibn Yaʿqūb al-Qāḍī informed us: Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr narrated to us: Muʿādh ibn Hishām narrated to us: my father narrated to us: on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of Qasāma ibn Zuhayr, on the authority of Abū Hurayra – may Allah be pleased with him –, on the authority of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –: “Indeed, when the believer is attended at the time of death, the angels of mercy come to him with white silk, and they say: 'Come forth, pleased and well-pleasing, toward the relief of Allah, fragrance, and a Lord who is not angry.' Then it emerges like the finest scent of musk, such that they pass it from one to another smelling it, until they bring it to the gate of heaven, and they say: 'How fragrant is this scent! It has come to you from the direction of the earth.' Whenever they reach a heaven, they say the same until they bring it to the souls of the believers; they are more joyful at its arrival than any of you is at the return of an absent loved one. They ask him: 'What happened to so-and-so?' and they are told: 'Leave him until he finds rest, for he was in the grief of the world.' If he asks them: 'Has he not come to you?' they say: 'He has gone to his mother, the Abyss.' As for the disbeliever, the angels of punishment come to him with a coarse garment and say: 'Come forth, wrathful and hated, toward the punishment of Allah and His wrath.' Then it emerges like the foulest scent of a carcass, and they depart with it toward the gate of the earth, saying: 'How foul is this scent!' Whenever they pass over a land, they say the same until they bring it to the souls of the disbelievers.”

37. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ – may Allah have mercy on him – informed us: Abū ʾl-Naḍr Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Faqīh narrated to me: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Kathīr narrated to us: Hammām [alternatively]; Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbdān informed us: Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd al-Ṣaffār informed us: Tamtām Muḥammad ibn Ghālib narrated to us: Hudbah informed us: Hammām narrated to us: Qatāda narrated to us on the authority of Anas, on the authority of ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit: The Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “Whoever loves meeting Allah, Allah loves meeting him, and whoever dislikes meeting Allah, Allah dislikes meeting him.” ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her – or some of his wives said, “We certainly dislike death.” He said: “It is not that; rather, when the believer is attended by death, he is given glad tidings of the pleasure of Allah and His generosity, so there is nothing more beloved to him than that which lies before him; thus he loves meeting Allah, and Allah loves meeting him. And when the disbeliever is attended by death, he is given tidings of the punishment of Allah and His retribution, so there is nothing more disliked by him than that which lies before him; thus he dislikes meeting Allah, and Allah dislikes meeting him.” This is the wording of the hadith of Hudbah.

47.

38. Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Ḥajjāj ibn Minhal, and narrated by Muslim on the authority of Hudba ibn Khālid, both on the authority of Hammām ibn Yaḥyā.

Abū ʿAlī al-Rūdhabārī informed us: Abū Bakr ibn Ḥammūyah al-ʿAskarī informed us: Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Qalānisī narrated to us: Ādam narrated to us: Shuʿba narrated to us: al-Aʿmash narrated to us: on the authority of Mujāhid, on the authority of ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her –: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “Do not abuse the dead, for they have come to that which they sent forward.” Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Ādam ibn Abī Iyās.

39. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās, Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb informed us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣaghānī narrated to us: Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn narrated to us: Hishām ibn Yūsuf narrated to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Baḥīr al-Qāṣṣ informed us: on the authority of Hāniʾ, the mawlā of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān – may Allah be pleased with him – he said: Whenever ʿUthmān – may Allah be pleased with him – stood by a grave, he would weep until his beard became wet. It was said to him, “Paradise and Hellfire are mentioned and you do not weep, yet you weep because of this?” He said: The Messenger of Allah said: “The grave is the first of the stages of the Hereafter; if one is saved from it, what follows it is easier, and if one is not saved from it, what follows it is worse.” He said: And the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “I have never seen a sight except that the sight of the grave is more terrible than it.”

40. Abū ʿAbd Allāh informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās narrated to us: ʾl-ʿAbbās ibn Muḥammad ʾd-Dūrī narrated to us: Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn informed us: Hishām ibn Yūsuf ʾaṣ-Ṣanʿānī narrated to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Baḥīr narrated to us: on the authority of Hāniʾ, the mawlā of ʿUthmān: I heard ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān – may Allah be pleased with him – say: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – passed by a funeral procession at a grave while the deceased was being buried, and the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “Ask for forgiveness for your companion and ask Allah for his steadfastness, for he is being questioned now.”

41. Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf informed us by dictation: Abū Saʿīd Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ziyād al-Baṣrī informed us in Makkah: al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad al-Zaʿfarānī informed us: Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna narrated to us on the authority of al-Zuhrī, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, on the authority of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – who said: “Hasten the funeral procession, for if the deceased is righteous, it is a goodness that you are advancing him towards, and if he is otherwise, it is an evil that you are removing from your necks.” Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of ʿAlī, and narrated by Muslim on the authority of Abū Bakr and others, on the authority of ibn ʿUyayna.^[12]​

42. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbdān informed us: Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd al-Ṣaffār informed us: Milḥān narrated to us: Yaḥyā ibn Bukayr informed us; [alternatively] Abū ʾl-Ḥasan informed us: Aḥmad narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Muʾaddib narrated to us: Qutayba ibn Saʿīd narrated to us: Both of them said: al-Layth narrated to us on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Abī Saʿīd al-Maqburī, on the authority of his father, that he heard Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī – may Allah be pleased with him – say: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: "When the funeral bier is placed and the men carry it upon their shoulders, if the deceased was righteous, it says: 'Bring me forward, bring me forward'; and if the deceased was not righteous, it says: 'Woe to it! Where are you taking it?' Every creature hears its voice except for the human being, and if the human being were to hear it, he would fall unconscious." Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Qutayba ibn Saʿīd and others.^[13]​

Allah – Glorified is His Praise – said: “And never think of those who were killed in the way of Allah as dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, receiving provision, rejoicing in that which Allah has given them of His bounty, and wishing for those who did not join them from behind that there should be no fear upon them, nor shall they grieve” [Āl ʿImrān: 170]. And He said regarding the disbelievers: “They will be called, 'The hatred of Allah toward you is greater than your hatred of yourselves when you were called to faith but disbelieved.' They will say, 'Our Lord, You caused us to die twice and brought us to life twice. So we confessed our sins. Is there then any way of exit?'” [Ghāfir: 10]. It is mentioned on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī that he said: “This is the statement of the disbelievers; the death of the disbeliever is his life in this world upon disbelief, and the second is his [actual] death, thus they are two deaths; and one of the two lives is his life in his grave after his death, and the second is his life for the Resurrection.”

43. ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz informed us: Abū Manṣūr al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Faḍl al-Ḍabbī informed us: Aḥmad ibn Najda narrated to us: Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr informed us: Abū Maʿshar narrated to us: on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb: "The disbeliever is alive in body but dead in heart, and this is His statement: Is he who was dead and We brought to life [al-Anʿām: 122]; he says: 'Is he who was a disbeliever and we guided him?' Thus, the death of the disbeliever and his life are his death and his life after his death, during which he neither eats nor drinks, then his life for the Resurrection." And it is mentioned on the authority of others that he said: "One of the two deaths is the death after his life in the abode of the world, and the other is the death when the Trumpet is blown for the first time; and one of the two lives is his life after his death for the questioning of the two angels and the sensation of punishment, and the other is his life for the Resurrection." Other things have been said regarding this, yet in the sunna of the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – there is an explicit statement that his soul is returned to his body for that purpose, and it is in what...

44. Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf ibn Aḥmad al-Aṣbahānī – may Allah have mercy on him – informed us: Abū Saʿīd Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ziyād al-Baṣrī informed us in Makkah: Saʿdān ibn Naṣr al-Mukharrimī narrated to us: Abū Muʿāwiyah al-Ḍarīr narrated to us: al-Aʿmash narrated to us: on the authority of al-Minhāl ibn ʿAmr, on the authority of Zādhān Abū ʿUmar, on the authority of al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib: We went out for the funeral of a man from the Anṣār and reached the grave before the niche had been dug. The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – sat down, and we sat around him as if birds were perched upon our heads, while he held a stick with which he was scratching the ground. He raised his head and said: “Seek refuge with Allah from the punishment of the grave, for when the believing man is severed from this world and faces the Hereafter, angels with white faces—as if the sun were upon their faces—descend to him from heaven. With them is embalming paste from the embalming paste of Paradise and a shroud from the shrouds of Paradise, until one sits by his head and says: ‘O tranquil soul, come out toward forgiveness from Allah and His pleasure.’ His soul then emerges, flowing like a drop flows from the mouth of a water-skin. They take it, and once they have taken it, they do not leave it in their hand for the blink of an eye until they place it in that shroud and that embalming paste. Then there emerges from it the finest scent of musk ever found on the face of the earth. They do not pass by a gathering of angels except that they ask: ‘What is this pleasant scent?’ They reply: ‘So-and-so, son of so-and-so,’ using the most beautiful of the names by which he was called in the world, until he is brought to the lowest heaven. It is opened for him, and the close ones of every heaven escort him to the heaven following it, until he reaches the seventh heaven. Then Allah – Glorious is His Majesty – says: ‘Write the record of My servant in ʿIlliyyūn in the seventh heaven, and return him to the earth, for from it I created them, into it I return them, and from it I shall bring them forth once more.’ His spirit is then returned to his body, and two angels come to him and make him sit up. They ask: ‘Who is your Lord?’ He replies: ‘My Lord is Allah.’ They ask: ‘What is your religion?’ He replies: ‘My religion is Islam.’ They ask: ‘Who is this man who was sent among you?’ He replies: ‘He is the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –.’ They ask: ‘How do you know?’ He replies: ‘I read the Book of Allah – Glorious is His Majesty – so I believed in it and testified to its truth.’ A caller then cries out from heaven: ‘My servant has spoken the truth, so spread for him a bed from Paradise, clothe him from Paradise, and open for him a door to Paradise,’ and its breeze and fragrance reach him, and his grave is expanded as far as his sight can reach. A man with a handsome face and a pleasant scent comes to him and says: ‘Rejoice in that which will please you, for this is your day that you were promised.’ He asks: ‘Who are you? For your face is the face that brings good.’ He replies: ‘I am your righteous work.’ He then says: ‘My Lord, establish the Hour! My Lord, establish the Hour, so that I may return to my family and my wealth!’ And as for the disbelieving servant, when he is severed from this world and faces the Hereafter, angels with black faces descend to him from heaven, carrying coarse cloths, until they sit as far as the eye can see. Then the Angel of Death comes and sits by his head and says: ‘O wicked soul, come out toward the displeasure and wrath of Allah.’ His soul then disperses within his body, and they extract it along with the nerves and veins, just as a spit is extracted from wet wool. They take it and place it in those coarse cloths. There emerges from it the foulest stench of a carcass ever found on the face of the earth. They do not pass by a gathering of angels except that they ask: ‘What is this wicked spirit?’ They reply: ‘So-and-so, son of so-and-so,’ using the ugliest of the names by which he was called in the world, until he is brought to the lowest heaven. It is requested to be opened for him, but it is not opened. The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – then recited: ‘The gates of heaven are not opened for them’ until the end of the verse. Allah – Glorious is His Majesty – says: ‘Write his record in Sijjīn in the lowest seventh earth, and return him to the earth, for from it I created them, into it We return them, and from it We shall bring them forth once more.’ His spirit is then cast down. The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – then recited: ‘And whoever associates others with Allah, it is as if he had fallen from the sky, snatched by birds or blown by the wind into a remote place.’ His spirit is then returned to his body. Two angels come to him and make him sit up, and they ask him: ‘Who is your Lord?’ He says: ‘Hah, hah, I do not know.’ They ask: ‘What is your religion?’ He says: ‘Hah, hah, I do not know.’ They ask him: ‘Who is this man who was sent among you?’ He says: ‘Hah, hah, I do not know.’ A caller then cries out from heaven: ‘My servant has lied, so spread for him a bed from the Fire, clothe him from the Fire, and open for him a door to the Fire,’ and its heat and scorching wind reach him, and his grave is constricted until his ribs interlock. A man with an ugly face and a foul scent comes to him and says: ‘Rejoice in that which will grieve you, for this is your day that you were promised.’ He asks: ‘And who are you? For your face is the face that brings evil.’ He replies: ‘I am your wicked work.’ He then says: ‘My Lord, do not establish the Hour! My Lord, do not establish the Hour!’”

45. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿAmr informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣaghānī narrated to us: al-Aḥwaṣ ibn Jawwāb narrated to us: ʿAbd al-Jabbār ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Shaybānī narrated to us on the authority of ʿAmmār al-Duhnī, on the authority of Sālim ibn Abī ʾl-Jaʿd, on the authority of Ḥuḏayfa – may Allah be pleased with him – who said: “The soul is in the hand of the angel and the body is turned over; when they carry it, it follows them, and when it is placed in the grave, he scatters it therein.”

Allah – Glorified and Exalted is He – said: "And the evil torment encompassed the people of Pharaoh. The Fire, they are exposed to it morning and evening, and the Day the Hour is established, 'Admit the people of Pharaoh into the severest punishment'" [Ghafir: 45-46]. Mujāhid said: "Regarding His statement, 'they are exposed to it morning and evening', he means while they were in the worldly life."

46. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥasan narrated to us: Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ḥusayn narrated to us: Ādam narrated to us: Warqāʾ narrated to us: on the authority of ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid who mentioned it. And Qatāda said, "They are brought before it and it is said to them: 'O people of Pharaoh, these are your dwellings,' as a rebuke, humiliation, and vengeance."

47. And that is among what Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās ibn Yaʿqūb informed us: Yaḥyā ibn Abī Ṭālib narrated to us: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb narrated to us: Saʿīd informed us on the authority of Qatāda: and he mentioned it.

48. Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad informed us: Yaḥyā ibn Manṣūr al-Qāḍī informed me: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd as-Salām narrated to us: Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā narrated to us: I read to Mālik on the authority of Nāfiʿ, on the authority of ibn ʿUmar that the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “Indeed, when one of you dies, his seat is presented to him morning and evening. If he is among the people of Paradise, then from the people of Paradise; and if he is among the people of the Fire, then from the people of the Fire. It is said: 'This is your seat until Allah resurrects you to Him.'” Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Ismāʿīl, and narrated by Muslim on the authority of Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā, both of them on the authority of Mālik, and likewise narrated by a group of the companions of Nāfiʿ on the authority of Nāfiʿ.^[11]​

49. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-Faḍl ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us: Aḥmad ibn Salama narrated to us: Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm and Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā narrated to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq narrated to us: Maʿmar informed us on the authority of al-Zuhrī, on the authority of Sālim, on the authority of ibn ʿUmar, who said: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “When a man dies, his seat is presented to him morning and evening; if he is among the people of Paradise, then Paradise, and if he is among the people of the Fire, then the Fire.” It was asked of ʿAbd al-Razzāq regarding the hadith: “Is it said: 'This is your seat to which you shall be resurrected on the Day of Resurrection'?” He replied: “Yes.” Narrated by Muslim in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Razzāq.^[15]​

50. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿAmr informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣāghānī narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Wāqidī narrated to us: Salama ibn akhī ʿUmar informed us on the authority of ʿUmar ibn Shayba ibn Abī Kathīr al-Ashjaʿī, on the authority of Nāfiʿ, on the authority of ibn ʿUmar, who said: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “The grave is either a pit among the pits of Hell or a garden among the gardens of Paradise.”^[10]​

51. Abū Naṣr ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz informed us: Abū Manṣūr al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Faḍl ibn Zakariyyā al-Naḍrawī informed us: Aḥmad ibn Najda informed us: Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr narrated to us: Hushaym narrated to us on the authority of Yaʿlā ibn ʿAṭāʾ, on the authority of Maymūn ibn Maysara, who s: Abū Hurayra – may Allah be pleased with him – had two cries every day, in the morning and the evening. At the beginning of the day he would say: “The night has departed and the people of Pharaoh have been exposed to the Fire,” and no one would hear his voice without seeking refuge in Allah from the Fire. And when evening came, he would say: “The day has departed and the night has come, and the people of Pharaoh have been exposed to the Fire,” and no one would hear his voice without seeking refuge in Allah from the Fire.

Allah – Glorified is His Praise – said: "And among those around you of the Bedouins are hypocrites, and among the people of Medina are those steeped in hypocrisy. You do not know them; We know them. We will punish them twice, then they will be returned to a great torment." [al-Tawba: 101]

Qatāda said regarding His statement, "We will punish them twice" [al-Tawba: 101]: “Punishment in the grave and punishment in the Fire.”

52. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿAmr informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq narrated to us: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ghazwān Abū Nūḥ Qurād narrated to us: Shuʿba narrated to us on the authority of Qatāda: and he mentioned it.

53. Abū ʿAbd Allah al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣaghānī narrated to us: Abū ʾl-Naḍr narrated to us: Sulaymān ibn al-Mughīra narrated to us on the authority of Thābit, on the authority of Anas ibn Mālik who said: “There was a man among us from Banū al-Najjār who had recited Sūrat al-Baqara and Āl ʿImrān, and he used to write for the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace. He then fled until he joined the People of the Book. They extolled him, saying: ‘This man used to write for Muḥammad – may Allah bless him and grant him peace ,’ and they were impressed by him. It was not long before Allah broke his neck while he was among them. They dug a grave for him and buried him, but by morning the earth had cast him out onto its surface. So they left him cast out.” Narrated by Muslim in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Rāfiʿ, on the authority of Abū ʾl-Naḍr.^[7]​

54. Abū Ṭāhir Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Faqīh informed us: Abū Ṭāhir Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Muḥammad Abādhī informed us: Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Saʿdī narrated to us: Yazīd ibn Hārūn informed us: Ḥumayd al-Ṭawīl informed us: on the authority of Anas ibn Mālik – may Allah be pleased with him – that a man used to write for the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – and he had read al-Baqara and Āl ʿImrān; whenever that man read al-Baqara and Āl ʿImrān, he would appear superior among us. The Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – would dictate to him “Forgiving, Merciful,” and he would say, “Shall I write 'Knowing, Wise'?” The Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – would say to him: “Write as you wish.” He would dictate to him “Knowing, Wise,” and he would say, “Shall I write 'Hearing, Seeing'?” The Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – would say to him: “Write as you wish.” Anas – may Allah be pleased with him – said: That man then apostatized from Islam and joined the polytheists, saying, “I am the most knowledgeable of you regarding Muḥammad – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – for I used to write as I wished.” That man died, and the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “Indeed, the earth will not accept him.” Anas – may Allah be pleased with him – said: Abū Ṭalḥa – may Allah be pleased with him – narrated to me that he came to the land in which he had died and found him cast aside. Abū Ṭalḥa – may Allah be pleased with him – asked, “What is the matter with this man?” They replied, “We have buried him repeatedly, but the earth would not accept him.” ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Ṣuḥayb also narrated it on the authority of Anas with the same meaning and from the same chain. Transmitted by al-Bukhārī.^[8]​

55. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl al-Qaṭṭān informed us in Baghdād: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar ibn Darastawayh informed us: Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān narrated to us: Abū Ṣāliḥ narrated to us: al-Layth narrated to me: Yūnus narrated to me: on the authority of ibn Shihāb: al-Muṭṭalib ibn ʿAbd Allāh, meaning ibn Ḥanṭab, informed me that it reached him that the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – passed by while riding a white mule of his through the graves at Baqīʿ al-Gharqad, and his mule suddenly veered aside. Some men from among the Muslims rushed toward it to seize its bridle, but the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said to them: “Leave it, for it has heard the punishment of Saʿd ibn Zurāra being punished in his grave.” And he had been a hypocrite.^[9]​

56. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Muqriʾ informed us: al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq informed us: Yūsuf ibn Yaʿqūb al-Qāḍī narrated to us: Musaddad narrated to us: Bishr ibn al-Mufaḍḍal narrated to us; [alternatively] Yūsuf said: and Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr narrated to us: Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ narrated to us—and this is the wording of Yazīd—they both said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq narrated to us: Saʿīd ibn Abī Saʿīd informed us: on the authority of Abū Hurayra: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “When one of you, or a human being, is buried, two black, blue-eyed angels come to him; one of them is called Munkar and the other Nakīr. They ask: 'What did you used to say regarding this man, Muḥammad – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –?' So he says what he used to say. If he was a believer, he says: 'He is the servant of Allah and His Messenger,' and he testifies that there is no deity except Allah and that Muḥammad is His servant and Messenger. They then say: 'We certainly knew that you would say that.' Then his grave is widened for him seventy cubits by seventy cubits, and it is illuminated for him. Then it is said to him: 'Sleep.' He says: 'Let me return to my family to inform them.' It is said to him: 'Sleep like the sleep of a bridegroom, whom none awakens except the most beloved of his family to him,' until Allah – Mighty and Sublime is He – raises him from that bed. But if he was a hypocrite, he says: 'I do not know; I used to hear people saying that, so I used to say it.' They both say: 'We certainly knew that you would say that.' Then it is said to the earth: 'Close in upon him,' and it closes in upon him until his ribs interlace, and he remains therein being punished until Allah – Mighty and Sublime is He – raises him from that bed.”

Allah – Mighty and Sublime is He – said: "And whoever turns away from My remembrance, then for him is a constrained life, and We shall gather him on the Day of Resurrection blind" [Ṭāhā: 124].

57. Abū Saʿīd ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Shabāba ibn al-Shāhid informed us, in Hamdān: Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Faḍl ibn al-Faḍl ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Kindī narrated to us: Abū Khalīfa al-Faḍl ibn Ḥubāb al-Jumaḥī informed us: Abū al-Walīd al-Ṭayālisī narrated to us: Ḥammād ibn Salama narrated to us on the authority of Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, on the authority of Abū Salama, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, on the authority of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – regarding “for then, for him will be a constricted life” [Ṭā-Hā: 107], he said: “The punishment of the grave.”^[21]​

58. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥasan informed us: Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ḥusayn narrated to us: Ādam narrated to us: Ḥammād ibn Salama narrated to us: on the authority of Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, on the authority of Abū Salama, on the authority of Abū Hurayra – may Allah be pleased with him –: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “The constrained life is the punishment of the grave.”

59. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us, in the book of the Mustadrak: Abū Zakariyyā Yaḥyā ibn Muḥammad al-ʿAnbarī informed us: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Sallām narrated to us: Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us: al-Naḍr ibn Shumayl narrated to us: Ḥammād ibn Salama narrated to us: on the authority of Abū Ḥāzim al-Madīnī, on the authority of al-Nuʿmān ibn Abī ʿAyyāsh, on the authority of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī – may Allah be pleased with him –: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “{A depressed life}” and he said: “The punishment of the grave.” Thus he informed us as a *marfūʿ* report, and likewise Ḥafṣ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrated it on the authority of Ḥammād as a *marfūʿ* report.

60. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb informed us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣāghānī narrated to us: al-Ḥasan ibn Mūsā al-Ashyab narrated to us: Ḥammād ibn Salama narrated to us: on the authority of Abū Ḥāzim al-Madīnī, on the authority of al-Nuʿmān ibn Abī ʿAyyāsh; [alternatively]; ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Qatāda informed us: Abū Manṣūr al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Faḍl al-Ḍabbī informed us: Aḥmad ibn Najda informed us: Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr informed us: Sufyān informed us: Abū Ḥāzim narrated to us: Abū Salama narrated to us: on the authority of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī – may Allah be pleased with him – regarding the verse “a depressed life” [Tāhā: 124]: “His grave will be constricted upon him until his ribs interlace within it.”

61. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿAmr informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq narrated to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ narrated to us: Yaḥyā ibn Ayyūb narrated to me on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sulaymān, on the authority of Darrāj, on the authority of Abū ʾl-Haytham, on the authority of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī – may Allah be pleased with him – who said: “Indeed, the wretched life is that ninety-nine serpents are set upon him, biting him in the grave.”

62. Abū ʿAbd Allāh and Abū Saʿīd informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās narrated to us: Makhlad informed us: Abū Nuʿaym narrated to us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās informed us: on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mukhāriq, on the authority of his father, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh, meaning ibn Masʿūd, regarding His statement “a constrained life” [Tāhā: 124]: “the punishment of the grave.”

63. Abū ʿAbd Allāh and Abū Saʿīd informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās narrated to us: Muḥammad informed us: Qabīṣa informed us: Sufyān narrated to us on the authority of Ismāʿīl, on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ: “Indeed, for him there is a constrained life” [Tāhā: 124], he said: “The punishment of the grave.”

64. Abū ʿAbd Allāh and Abū Saʿīd informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās narrated to us: Muḥammad informed us: Qurād ibn Nūḥ informed us: Shuʿba informed us on the authority of as-Suddī regarding His statement, “a depressed life” [Tāhā: 124]: “The punishment of the grave.”

65. And it was narrated on the authority of al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī – may Allah's mercy be upon him – to the same effect.

66. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥasan al-Qāḍī informed us: Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ḥusayn narrated to us: Ādam narrated to us: Warqāʾ informed us: on the authority of ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: regarding “a depressed life” [al-Maʿīsha ḍanka], he said: “It is a narrow [existence] wherein his grave is constricted upon him.”

67. Abū ʾl-Ḥusayn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bishrān al-ʿAdl in Baghdad informed us: Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Baṣrī informed us: Mālik ibn Yaḥyā Abū Ghassān narrated to us: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿAṭāʾ narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr informed us: on the authority of Abū Salamah, on the authority of Abū Hurayrah: The Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “Indeed, when the deceased is placed in his grave, he hears the thumping of their sandals as they turn away from him. If he was a believer, prayer will be at his head, fasting will be on his right, zakāt will be on his left, and the performance of good deeds—such as charity, maintaining kinship, kindness, and benevolence toward people—will be at his feet. Then [an entity] will come from the direction of his head, and prayer will say: 'There is no entrance before me.' Then it will come from his right, and fasting will say: 'There is no entrance before me.' Then it will come from his left, and zakāt will say: 'There is no entrance before me.' Then it will come from the direction of his feet, and [the good deeds] will say: 'The performance of good deeds—such as charity, maintaining kinship, kindness, and benevolence toward people—there is no entrance before me.' Then it will be said to him: 'Sit up,' and he will sit up, while the sun is represented to him as having approached sunset. It will be said to him: 'What do you say regarding this?' He will say: 'Leave me so that I may pray.' They will say: 'You shall indeed do this, so inform us of that which we shall ask you.' He will say: 'What is it that you ask me?' They will say: 'What do you say regarding this man who was among you, and what do you testify concerning him?' He will say: 'I testify that he is the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – who came with the truth from Allah.' It will be said to him: 'Upon that you lived, upon that you died, and upon that you shall be resurrected, if Allah wills.' Then a door from the doors of Paradise will be opened for him, and it will be said: 'Look at your seat therein and what Allah – Mighty and Sublime is He – has prepared for you in it,' and he will increase in joy and happiness. Then his grave will be widened for him by seventy cubits, it will be illuminated for him, and the body will be restored as it was at the beginning, and his soul will be made like a pleasant breeze, a bird that perches upon the trees of Paradise.” Muḥammad said: I heard ʿUmar ibn al-Ḥakam ibn Thawbān say: “He will then sleep the sleep of a bride, not to be awakened except by the most beloved of his family to him, until Allah – Mighty and Sublime is He – resurrects him.” Then he returned to the hadith of Abū Hurayrah, who said: “And this is the word of Allah – Mighty and Sublime is He – {Allah keeps firm those who believe, with the firm word, in the life of the world and in the Hereafter, and Allah leads the wrongdoers astray, and Allah does what He wills}. But if he was a disbeliever, [the entity] will come from the direction of his head and nothing will be found. Then it will come from his right and nothing will be found. Then it will come from his left and nothing will be found. Then it will come from the direction of his feet and nothing will be found. It will be said to him: 'Sit up,' and he will sit up, fearful and terrified. It will be said to him: 'What do you think of this man who was among you? What man was he? What do you say regarding him, and what do you testify concerning him?' He will say: 'Which man?' It will be said: 'The one who was among you.' He will not be guided to his name until it is said: 'Muḥammad.' He will say: 'I do not know; I heard the people say a thing, so I said as the people said.' It will be said to him: 'Upon that you lived, upon that you died, and upon that you shall be resurrected, if Allah wills.' Then a door from the doors of the Fire will be opened for him, and it will be said to him: 'That is your seat in the Fire and what Allah has prepared for you therein,' and he will increase in regret and destruction. Then a door from the doors of Paradise will be opened for him, and it will be said to him: 'This was your seat in Paradise and what Allah had prepared for you therein had you obeyed him,' and he will increase in regret and destruction. Then his grave will be narrowed upon him until his ribs interlock.” Abū Hurayrah said: “And that is the word of Allah – Mighty and Sublime is He – {For indeed, he will have a distressed living, and We will gather him on the Day of Resurrection blind}.”

68. Abū Ṣāliḥ ibn Abī Ṭāhir al-ʿAnbarī informed us: my grandfather Yaḥyā ibn Manṣūr al-Qāḍī informed us: Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Ismāʿīlī narrated to us: Hārūn ibn Saʿīd al-Aylī narrated to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Wahb informed us: ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith narrated to me: on the authority of Darrāj, on the authority of Abū Ḥujayra, on the authority of Abū Hurayra – may Allah be pleased with him – that the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “The believer is in his grave in a green garden, his grave is widened seventy cubits, and it is illuminated for him like the moon on the night of the full moon. Do you know for what this verse was revealed: {For indeed, he will have a depressed life, and We will gather him on the Day of Resurrection blind}? Do you know what is the depressed life? They said: 'Allah and His Messenger know best.' He said: 'The punishment of the disbeliever in his grave. By the One in Whose hand is my soul, ninety-nine dragons are set upon him. Do you know what the dragons are? Ninety-nine snakes, and for every snake there are nine heads; they blow into his body, sting him, and scratch him until the Day of Resurrection.'”

69. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ibn al-Faḍl al-Qaṭṭān informed us, in Baghdad: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar informed us: Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān narrated to us: Abū Nuʿaym and Qabīṣa narrated to us: Sufyān narrated to us on the authority of al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm, on the authority of Abū Kurba or Kurma. Abū Nuʿaym said: Thus Sufyān said, on the authority of Zādhān: “And indeed, for those who commit injustice, there is a punishment besides that” [al-Ṭūr: 47], he said: “The punishment of the grave.”

70. Abū Zakariyyā ibn Abī Isḥāq informed us: Abū ʾl-Ḥasan al-Ṭarāʾiqī informed us: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd narrated to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ narrated to us: on the authority of Muʿāwiya ibn Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of ibn ʿAbbās – may Allah be pleased with them both – regarding His statement, “And indeed, for those who have wronged, is a punishment besides that” [al-Ṭūr: 47], he said: “The punishment of the grave before the punishment of the Day of Resurrection.”

71. Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Sakhtawayh narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Ayyūb narrated to us: Mūsā ibn Ismāʿīl, ʿAlī ibn ʿUthmān, and Hudbah ibn Khālid informed us: Hammād ibn Salamah narrated to us on the authority of Thābit al-Bunānī, on the authority of Anas ibn Mālik: That the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – left the slain of Badr for three days, then he came to them, stood over them, and said: “O Abū Jahl ibn Hishām, O Umayyah ibn Khalaf, O ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah, O Shaybah ibn Rabīʿah, have you not found that what your Lord promised you was true? For I have found that what my Lord promised me was true.” ʿUmar – may Allah be pleased with him – heard the words of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – and said: “O Messenger of Allah, how can they hear and how can they respond when they have become corpses?” He said: “By Him in Whose hand is my soul, you are not more capable of hearing what I say than they are, but they are unable to respond.” Then he ordered them, so they were dragged and thrown into the well of Badr. Narrated by Muslim in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Haddāb ibn Khālid (65), and with the same meaning it was narrated by Qatāda ibn Diʿāmah, on the authority of Anas ibn Mālik; then Qatāda said: “Allah brought them back to life in their persons so that they might hear his words as a rebuke, humiliation, vengeance, and regret.”

72. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʿUmar al-Muqriʾ and Abū Bakr al-Faqīh narrated to me: al-Ḥasan ibn Sufyān informed us: Muḥammad ibn Khallād al-Bāhilī narrated to us: ʿAbd al-Aʿlā ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā narrated to us: Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūba informed us on the authority of Qatāda: and he mentioned it. In that is evidence that their change from their [original] state did not prevent the creation of life within them, such that they heard His speech, likewise when they were crumbled.

73. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Muʾammal informed me: al-Faḍl ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Musayyib narrated to us: Saʿīd ibn Dāwūd informed us: Khalaf ibn Khalīfa narrated to us on the authority of his father: I witnessed the killing of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr – may Allah have mercy on him –, and when his head was severed, he said: “There is no deity except Allah, there is no deity except Allah,” then he said it a third time but did not complete it.

Allah – Glorious is His Praise – said regarding those upon whom He bestowed the blessing of faith and steadfastness: "The angels descend upon them, [saying], 'Do not fear and do not grieve, but receive the glad tidings of the Paradise which you were promised'" [Fuṣṣilat: 30]. Mujāhid said: "That is at the time of death."

74. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥasan al-Qāḍī informed us: Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ḥusayn narrated to us: Ādam ibn Abī ʾIyās informed us: Warqāʾ narrated to us on the authority of ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, and he mentioned it.

75. Abū ʾl-Ṭayyib Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Jaʿfarī informed us in Kūfa: Abū Aḥmad ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Mūsā ibn Abī Qutayba narrated to us: Abū ʿUmar al-Ḍarīr narrated to us: ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Ṣāliḥ narrated to us on the authority of ibn al-Mubārak, on the authority of Sufyān: "Regarding His statement the angels descend upon them, meaning at the time of death, {that you fear not} what is before you, {nor grieve} for what you leave behind of your possessions, {and receive the glad tidings of Paradise, which you were promised} [Fuṣṣilat: 30], he said: He is given glad tidings with three tidings: at the time of death, when he emerges from the grave, and when he is terrified. {We are your allies in the life of this world}, meaning they were with you” [Fuṣṣilat: 31]. And he said regarding those whom He favored with martyrdom: {And think not of those who are killed in the way of Allah as dead. Nay, they are alive with their Lord, receiving provision, rejoicing in what Allah has bestowed upon them of His grace} [Āl ʿImrān: 169-170]. Thus, He asserted that they are alive, while they are seen in the worldly abode sprawled in blood, having become corpses eaten by birds of prey and wild beasts; in this is evidence for the permissibility of Allah – Glorious is His Majesty – creating for them states in which they find enjoyment, even if we are not cognizant of them."

76. Abū Bakr ibn al-Ḥasan al-Qāḍī informed us: Ḥājib ibn Aḥmad narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Ḥammād narrated to us: Abū Muʿāwiya narrated to us: on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Murra, on the authority of Masrūq: We asked ʿAbd Allāh—meaning ibn Masʿūd – about this verse: “And do not think of those who are killed in the way of Allah as dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, receiving provision” [Āl ʿImrān: 169]. He said: Indeed, we asked about that, and he said: “Their spirits are like green birds that roam throughout Paradise wherever they wish, then they return to lamps suspended from the Throne. He said: While they are in that state, your Lord looks upon them and says: 'Ask Me for whatever you wish.' They say: 'O our Lord, what shall we ask You while we roam throughout Paradise wherever we wish?' When they saw that they would not be left without asking, they said: 'We ask You to return our spirits to our bodies in the world so that we may be killed in Your way.' He said: When He saw that they asked for nothing else, they were left [to do so].”

77. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Abī ʿAlī ʾl-Mihrajānī informed us: al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq informed us: Yūsuf ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Abū Mūsā narrated to us: and he mentioned its meaning. Narrated by Muslim in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā, and others on the authority of Abū Muʿāwiya; and thus it was stated by Jarīr ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd, ʿĪsā ibn Yūnus, and a group on the authority of al-Aʿmash: “like green birds,” while some of them said: “inside the bellies of green birds.”

78. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Qāḍī informed me in Marw: al-Ḥārith ibn Abī Usāma narrated to us: Yazīd ibn Hārūn narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq informed us: al-Ḥārith ibn Fuḍayl al-Anṣārī narrated to us: on the authority of Maḥmūd ibn Lubayd al-Anṣārī, on the authority of ibn ʿAbbās – may Allah be pleased with him –: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “The martyrs are upon Bāriq—a river at the gate of Paradise—in a green dome, to which their provision is brought morning and evening.” The Shaykh – may Allah have mercy on him – said: “The first hadith is more authentic than this one. A report similar to the hadith of ibn Masʿūd was narrated on the authority of ibn ʿAbbās, on the authority of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –; thus, if this is authentic, it is as if it refers to a group among them, while the first hadith refers to others. For the people of Paradise, there are dwellings and degrees, and likewise, the states of the people of the Fire differ in that by which they are punished. Upon this is based what we have been narrated regarding the types of reward and punishment; thus, some people are treated thus and others thus. It is not that any of these reports contradict their narrator in a manner of inconsistency, but rather their states differ in the types of reward and punishment with which they are requited.”

79. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū Bakr ibn Isḥāq informed us: al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Faḍl al-Usfāṭī informed us: Abū ʾl-Walīd al-Ṭayālisī narrated to us: Shuʿba informed us: on the authority of Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir: I heard Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh – may Allah be pleased with him – saying: “When my father was killed on the day of Uḥud, I began to weep and uncover the cloth from his face, and the companions of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – began to forbid me from doing so, while the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – did not forbid me. As my eyes continued to weep, the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: 'Do not weep, or what makes you weep? The angels continued to shade him with their wings until you raised him.'” Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Abū ʾl-Walīd, and he transmitted it by another route on the authority of Shuʿba, and it was narrated by ibn Jurayj and ibn ʿUyayna on the authority of Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir.

80. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Saʿīd ibn ʿAmr ibn Muḥammad ibn Manṣūr al-ʿAdl informed us: Muḥammad ibn Ghālib narrated to us: Abū ʾl-Walīd, Muslim, and Abū ʿUmar narrated to us: Shuʿba narrated to us on the authority of ʿAdī: I heard al-Barāʾ saying: When Ibrāhīm – upon him be peace – passed away, the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “Indeed, he has a wet-nurse in Paradise.”

81. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbdān informed us: Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd al-Ṣaffār informed us: Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh Abū Muslim narrated to us: Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb informed us: Shuʿba narrated to us: and he mentioned it with its chain of transmission: “When Ibrāhīm, the son of the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –, died,” and he mentioned it. Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ, on the authority of Abū ʾl-Walīd Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – judged regarding his son Ibrāhīm – upon him be peace – that he has a wet-nurse in Paradise, while he is buried in Baqīʿ al-Gharqad in the cemetery of Medina; and he informed regarding the angels shading ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn Ḥarām, even if his companions did not witness any of that by direct observation. In all of this, and in what has been narrated of similar examples, we have omitted them for the sake of brevity and to avoid prolixity; yet they serve as evidence for what we intended regarding the possibility of these states occurring to those who depart from this world, even if we do not witness them nor observe them, and it becomes necessary to provide their chains of transmission upon the arrival of an authentic report concerning them. Indeed, Allah – Glorified is His Praise – said regarding those judged to receive punishment: {And if you could but see when the angels take the souls of the disbelievers, striking their faces and their backs, [saying], “Taste the punishment of the Burning Fire. That is for what your hands put forth; and indeed, Allah is not unfair to [His] servants} [al-Anfāl: 51], and He said: {And if you could but see when the wrongdoers are in the throes of death, while the angels stretch out their hands, [saying], ”Bring forth your souls, this day you shall be rewarded with the punishment of humiliation for what you used to say about Allah without truth and how you were arrogant toward His signs"} [al-Anʿām: 93].

(70) And He said regarding the people of Pharaoh: “The Fire, they are exposed to it morning and evening, and the Day the Hour is established, 'Enter, O people of Pharaoh, the severest punishment'” [Ghafir: 46]. Thus, He decreed for them that the angels strike their faces and their backs at the time of their death, though we do not witness it; and [decreed] what the angels say to them at death while they stretch out their hands, though we do not hear it; and for the people of Pharaoh, their exposure to the Fire morning and evening as long as the world endures, though we are not apprised of it. In all of this is evidence for what we have stated.

82. Along the same lines is what Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ, Abū Ṭāhir al-Faqīh, Abū Zakariyyā ibn Abī Isḥāq, and Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿAmr informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam informed us: my father and Shuʿayb ibn al-Layth informed us: al-Layth narrated to us on the authority of ibn al-Hādī, on the authority of ibn Shihāb, on the authority of ibn al-Musayyib, on the authority of Abū Hurayra – may Allah be pleased with him –: I heard the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – say: “I saw ʿAmr ibn ʿĀmir al-Khuzāʿī dragging his intestines in the Fire; he was the first to release the saʾiba.” This is transmitted in the two Ṣaḥīḥs from the ḥadīth of al-Zuhrī and from the ḥadīth of Yazīd ibn al-Hādī in the book of al-Bukhārī, and it is established from the ḥadīth of ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her – and Abū ʾl-Zubayr on the authority of Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh on the authority of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –.

83. As for the hadith of ʿĀʾisha, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Ziyād informed me: ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Dīnār narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Abī Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Ḥassān ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us: on the authority of Yūnus, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, on the authority of ʿUrwa, on the authority of ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her –: The sun eclipsed, and the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – stood up, [the hadith continues]. He said: “I indeed saw Hell, parts of which were crushing others, while you saw me retreating; and I saw ʿAmr ibn Luḥayy dragging his reeds in the Fire, for he was the first to leave the camels free to graze.” Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Abī Yaʿqūb, and narrated by Muslim from another route on the authority of Yūnus ibn Yazīd.

84. As for the hadith of Abū z-Zubayr on the authority of Jābir, Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Fūraķ, the sons of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar, informed us: Yūnus ibn Ḥabīb narrated to us: Abū Dāwūd narrated to us: Hishām narrated to us on the authority of Abū z-Zubayr, on the authority of Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh: The sun eclipsed during the time of the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – and he mentioned the hadith, saying: He began to move forward and backward, then he turned to his companions and said: “Indeed, Paradise and the Fire were presented to me. I was brought close to Paradise such that if I had reached for a cluster of fruit, my hand would have been too short to reach it—or he said: I reached it; Hishām was in doubt—and the Fire was presented to me, and I began to move backward out of fear that it might envelop you. And I saw a Himyarite woman, black and tall, being punished because of a cat she had tied up, neither feeding it nor giving it drink, nor letting it eat from the insects of the earth. And I saw in it Abū Thumāma ʿAmr ibn Mālik, dragging his intestines in the Fire.” Transmitted in the book of Muslim from the hadith of Hishām ad-Dastuwāʾī.

85. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan al-Muqriʾ informed us: al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq informed us: on the authority of Yūsuf ibn Yaʿqūb: Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr narrated to us: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd narrated to us: on the authority of ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Abī Sulaymān: ʿAṭāʾ narrated to us: on the authority of Jābir – may Allah be pleased with him –: A solar eclipse occurred during the time of the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –; and he mentioned the hadith until he said on the authority of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –: “When you see anything of that, pray until it clears, for there is nothing you are promised that I have not seen during this prayer of mine, to the extent that the Fire was brought—and that was when you saw me recoil for fear that its blast might strike me. I said: 'O Lord, and I am among them,' until I saw therein the owner of the hooked staff dragging his gut in the Fire; he used to steal from the pilgrim with his hooked staff, and if he was noticed, he would say: 'It only clung to my staff,' and if he was ignored, he would take it. Until I saw therein the owner of the cat, who had tied it up and neither fed it nor gave it drink, nor let it eat the insects of the earth until it died of hunger.” Transmitted from the book of Muslim from the hadith of ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Abī Sulaymān.

86. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ, Abū Zakariyyā ibn Abī Isḥāq al-Muzakkī in Nay sābūr, and Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Abī Ṭāhir al-Daqqāq in Baghdād informed us: Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Sulaymān informed us: al-Ḥasan ibn Mukram narrated to us: ʿUthmān ibn ʿUmar informed us: Shuʿba narrated to us on the authority of ʿAwn ibn Abī Juḥayfa, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib, on the authority of Abū Ayyūb al-Anṣārī – may Allah be pleased with him – that the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – went out when the sun had declined and said: “These are the voices of the Jews being punished in their graves.”

87. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Maḥbūbī in Marw informed us: Saʿīd ibn Masʿūd narrated to us: al-Naḍr ibn Shumayl narrated to us: Shuʿba narrated to us: ʿAwn ibn Abī Juḥayfa narrated to us: I heard my father: I heard al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib, on the authority of Abū Ayyūb; [alternatively] Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb informed us: Yaḥyā ibn Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā narrated to us: Musaddad narrated to us: Yaḥyā informed us: Shuʿba narrated to us: on the authority of ʿAwn ibn Abī Juḥayfa, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib, on the authority of Abū Ayyūb: “The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – went out after the sun had set,” then he mentioned it, and in the hadith of al-Naḍr that the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – “went out one day when the sun had declined,” then he mentioned the remainder of it similarly. Narrated by al-Bukhārī and Muslim together in their Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā, on the authority of Yaḥyā, and al-Bukhārī indicated the hadith of al-Naḍr.

88. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ, Abū Zakariyyā ibn Abī Isḥāq, and Abū Bakr ibn al-Ḥasan al-Qāḍī informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: al-Rabīʿ ibn Sulaymān informed us: al-Shāfiʿī informed us: Mālik ibn Anas narrated to us on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Bakr, on the authority of his father, on the authority of ʿAmra bint ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, that she heard ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her –, and it was mentioned to her that ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar – may Allah be pleased with them both – says: “Indeed, the deceased is punished by the weeping of the living.” ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her – said: “Indeed, he did not lie, but he erred or forgot. The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – merely passed by a Jewish woman whose family were weeping over her, and he said: 'Indeed, they are weeping over her, yet she is being punished in her grave.'” Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf, and narrated by Muslim on the authority of Qutayba, both on the authority of Mālik ibn Anas.

89. Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh in Naysābūr and Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUmar ibn Ḥafṣ al-Muqriʾ, known as ibn al-Ḥamāmī in Baghdād, informed us: Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Salmān al-Nijād narrated to us: It was read to Yaḥyá ibn Jaʿfar while I was listening, ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿAṭāʾ narrated to us: Saʿīd ibn Iyās informed us on the authority of Abū Naḍra, on the authority of Abū Saʿīd, on the authority of Zayd ibn Thābit: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – entered an orchard belonging to the Banū al-Najjār while riding a mule of his. As it passed by five or six graves, the mule shied away, and he said: “Which of you knows the occupants of these graves?” A man replied: “I do, O Messenger of Allah.” He asked: “Who are they?” He replied: “They died in polytheism.” The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “Indeed, this community will be tested in its graves, and were it not that you would cease to bury one another, I would have supplicated to Allah to let you hear the punishment of the grave”—meaning that which they are in. Then he said: “Seek refuge with Allah from the punishment of the grave; seek refuge with Allah from the punishment of the Fire.” Then he said: “Seek refuge with Allah from tribulations, both those that are apparent and those that are hidden.” Then he said: “Seek refuge with Allah from the tribulation of the Dajjāl.” Narrated by Muslim in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shayba, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUlayya, on the authority of al-Jurayrī with his chain and in the same sense.

90. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿAmr informed us: on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣaghānī narrated to us: Ḥasan al-Ashyab narrated to us: Ḥammād ibn Salama narrated to us: on the authority of Thābit al-Bunānī, on the authority of Ḥumayd, on the authority of Anas: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – was riding a grey mule and passed by a wall belonging to Banū al-Najjār, when he noticed a grave whose occupant was being punished. The mule shied away, and he said: “Were it not that you should cease to bury one another, I would have prayed to Allah to make you hear the punishment of the grave.”

91. Abū ʿAbd Allāh, Abū Saʿīd, and Abū Ṣādiq ibn Abī ʾl-Fawāris informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās narrated to us: al-Rabīʿ ibn Sulaymān narrated to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Wahb narrated to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar narrated to me on the authority of Ḥumayd al-Ṭawīl: I heard Anas ibn Mālik – may Allah be pleased with him – narrating that the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – heard a sound from a grave and said: “When did this one die?” They replied, “He died during the *Jāhiliyya*,” and it seemed as though this pleased him, for he said: “Were it not that you would cease to bury one another, or as he said, I would have supplicated to Allah – Mighty and Sublime is He – to make you hear the punishment of the grave.”

92. Abū ʾl-Ḥusayn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bishrān in Baghdad informed us: Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr ibn al-Bakhtarī al-Razzāz informed us: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Daqīqī informed us: Yazīd ibn Hārūn narrated to us: Shuʿba informed us: on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of Anas – may Allah be pleased with him – that the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “Were it not that you would cease to bury one another, I would have supplicated to Allah to let you hear the punishment of the grave.” Transmitted by Muslim in his Ṣaḥīḥ from the ḥadīth of Ghundar on the authority of Shuʿba.

93. Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf al-Aṣbahānī narrated to us by dictation: Abū Saʿīd Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ziyād al-Baṣrī informed us in Mecca: Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd ibn Ghālib and Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr narrated to us: Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna narrated to us: Qāsim al-Raḥḥāl narrated to us on the authority of Anas ibn Mālik: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – entered a ruined structure belonging to Banī al-Najjār as if to relieve himself, then he emerged in a state of alarm and said: “Were it not that you would begin burying one another, I would have supplicated to Allah to let you hear the punishment of the grave as He let me hear.” And this is a sound chain of transmission supporting what preceded.

94. Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Qāḍī informed us: Abū Jaʿfar ibn Duḥaym al-Shaybānī informed us in al-Kūfa: Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Abī al-Ḥusayn narrated to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar and Abū Maʿmar narrated to us: ʿAbd al-Wārith informed us: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Suhayb narrated to us on the authority of Anas ibn Mālik – may Allah be pleased with him –: While the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – was among some of our palm trees, the palm trees of Abū Ṭalḥa, the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – passed by a grave and stopped until Bilāl came to him, and he said: “Woe to you, O Bilāl, do you hear what I hear?” He replied: “The occupant of the grave is being punished.” He then inquired about him and found that he was a Jew.

95. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb informed us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣaghānī narrated to us: ibn Numayr informed us: Abū Muʿāwiya informed us: on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Abū Sufyān, on the authority of Jābir, on the authority of Umm Mubashshir: “The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – entered upon me while I was in an orchard belonging to Banī al-Najjār, in which there were graves of theirs, and he was saying: 'Seek refuge with Allah from the punishment of the grave.' I said: 'O Messenger of Allah, is there a punishment for the grave?' He said: 'Indeed, they are punished in their graves with a punishment that the animals can hear.'” And this is also a witness to what preceded.

96. Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū Bakr ibn Isḥāq al-Faqīh informed us: ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Junayd narrated to us: al-Muʿāfā ibn Sulaymān al-Ḥarrānī narrated to us: Fulayḥ ibn Sulaymān narrated to us: Hilāl ibn ʿAlī, who is the son of Abū Maymūnah, narrated to me on the authority of Anas ibn Mālik – may Allah be pleased with him –: While the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – and Bilāl were walking in al-Baqīʿ, the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “O Bilāl, do you hear what I hear?” He replied: “No, by Allah, O Messenger of Allah, I do not hear.” He said: “Do you not hear the people of the graves being punished?” The Shaykh said: This is also a sound chain of transmission serving as a witness for what preceded (76). In all of this is evidence for whoever believes in Allah and His Messenger Muḥammad – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – regarding the permissibility of the punishment of those whose intention regarding seeing us was broken, or who have become decayed in our eyes, by a punishment that is heard by whomsoever Allah – Glorified and Exalted is He – wills to make hear, and not by those He does not will, and witnessed by whomsoever Allah – Exalted is He – wills to witness, and not by those He does not will. Indeed, the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – heard the voices of those among them being punished, while the companion who was with him did not hear them. Furthermore, when he performed the eclipse prayer, he saw one dragging his intestines in the Fire, one being punished for theft, and the woman who was being punished because of the cat, despite the fact that they had become decayed in their graves in the eyes of the people of his time; yet those who prayed with him did not see what he saw. Moreover, the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – saw in a sound report on his authority in his sleep—and the visions of the Prophets – prayers of Allah be upon them – are revelation—a group being punished in various places for different crimes, though they may have become decayed in their graves in our eyes.

97. And that is regarding what...

Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-Naḍr Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Faqīh bi-al-Ṭābirān informed me: Muḥammad ibn Ayyūb narrated to us: Mūsā ibn Ismāʿīl narrated to us: Jarīr ibn Ḥāzim narrated to us: Abū Rajāʾ narrated to us: on the authority of Samurah ibn Jundub: The Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – whenever he prayed a prayer, he would turn his face toward us and say: “Did any of you see a vision tonight?” If anyone had seen one, he would relate it, and he would say, “Whatever Allah wills.” One day he asked us, saying: “Did any of you see a vision?” We replied, “No.” He said: “But I saw two men tonight who came to me, took me by the hand, and led me to a holy land. There was a man sitting and a man standing with an iron hook in his hand, which he would insert into the man's cheek until it reached his nape, then he would do the same to the other cheek. This cheek would then heal, and he would return to place the hook in it again.” I asked, “What is this?” They said, “Come, come.” So we proceeded until we came upon a man lying on his back and a man standing over his head with a stone or a boulder, crushing his head with it. When he struck him, the stone would roll away, and he would go to retrieve it, not returning to the man until his head had healed and returned to as it was, then he would return and strike him again. I asked, “Who is this?” They said, “Come, come.” So we proceeded to a house like an oven, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, with a fire blazing beneath it. When the people inside approached, they rose until they almost exited; when the fire subsided, they returned to it. In it were naked men and women. I asked, “What is this?” They said, “Come, come.” So we proceeded until we came upon a river of blood. In it was a man standing on the bank of the river, and before him was a man with stones. The man in the river approached and wanted to exit, but the man threw a stone into his mouth, returning him to where he had been. Whenever he wanted to exit, a stone was thrown into his mouth, and he would return as he was. I asked, “What is this?” They said, “Come.” So we proceeded until we came to a green garden containing a great tree, and at its root were an old man and children. There was a man near the tree with a fire before him which he was lighting. They took me up to the tree and brought me into a house, the likes of which I had never seen more beautiful, containing elderly men, youth, women, and children. Then they took me out of it and took me up the tree, bringing me into a house that was even better and more beautiful, containing elderly men and youth. I said, “You have taken me around tonight, so inform me of what I have seen.” They said, “Yes. The one you saw whose cheek was being split is a liar who tells a lie that is carried away from him until it reaches the horizons, and he will be treated thus until the Day of Resurrection. The one you saw whose head was being crushed is a man whom Allah taught the Qurʾān, but he slept through it at night and did not act upon it during the day; he will be treated thus until the Day of Resurrection. Those you saw in the hole are the adulterers. The one you saw in the river is the consumer of usury. The old man at the root of the tree is Ibrāhīm – upon him be peace –, and the children around him are the children of mankind. The one lighting the fire is Mālik, the keeper of the Fire. The first house you entered was the house of the general believers, and as for this house, it is the house of the martyrs. I am Jibrīl, and this is Mīkāʾīl. Now raise your head.” I raised my head, and there was something above me like a cloud. They said, “That is your abode.” I said, “Let me enter my abode.” They said, “There remains for you a lifespan that you have not yet completed; had you completed it, you would have come to your abode.” Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Mūsā ibn Ismāʿīl.

98. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿAmr informed us: Abū ʿAl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Walīd ibn Mazīd narrated to us: my father informed me: ibn Jābir narrated to us: Sulaym ibn ʿĀmir Abū Yaḥyā al-Kalāʿī narrated to me: Abū Umāmah al-Bāhilī narrated to me: I heard the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – say: “While I was sleeping, two men came to me, took me by my arms, and brought me to a mountain. They said to me, 'Ascend,' and I said, 'I cannot bear it.' They said, 'We shall make it easy for you.' So I ascended until, when I was at the summit of the mountain, I heard loud voices. I asked, 'What are these voices?' He replied, 'This is the howling of the people of the Fire.' Then he took me along, and there were people suspended by their heels, their cheeks torn and flowing with blood. I asked, 'Who are these?' He replied, 'They are those who break their fast before the completion of their fasting.'” Then Abū Umāmah said, “The Jews and the Christians have failed.” Then Sulaym said, “I do not know if this was something Abū Umāmah heard from the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – or something from his own opinion.” “Then he took me along, and there were people who were the most swollen, the most foul-smelling, and the worst in appearance. I asked, 'Who are these?' He replied, 'These are the slain of the disbelievers.' Then he took me along, and there were people who were the most swollen, the most foul-smelling, and the worst in appearance, as if their scent were that of latrines. I asked, 'Who are these?' He replied, 'These are the adulterers and adulteresses.' Then he took me along, and there were women whose breasts were being bitten by snakes. I asked, 'Who are these?' He replied, 'These are those who withhold their milk from their children.' Then he took me along, and there were youths playing between two rivers. I asked, 'Who are these?' He replied, 'These are the children of the believers.' Then he elevated me further, and there were three men drinking wine they possessed. I asked, 'Who are these?' He replied, 'These are Jaʿfar, Zayd, and ibn Rawāḥah.' Then he elevated me further still, and there were three men. I asked, 'Who are these?' He replied, 'These are Ibrāhīm, Mūsā, and ʿĪsā ibn Maryam – upon them be peace –, and they are waiting for you.'”

99. Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: al-ʿAbbās ibn Muḥammad al-Dūrī narrated to us: Muṣʿab al-Zubayrī narrated to us: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad narrated to us on the authority of Yazīd ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Hād, on the authority of ʿUbāda ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Rāfiʿ, on the authority of his grandmother, on the authority of Abū Rāfiʿ: While I was in Baqīʿ al-Gharqad with the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – and I was walking behind him, the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “May you not be guided, nor find guidance” three times. Abū Rāfiʿ said: “Woe to me, O Messenger of Allah?” He said: “It is not you whom I intend; I intend the occupant of this grave who is being questioned about me, except that he does not recognize me.” And there was a grave upon which water had been sprinkled when its occupant was buried. And it was said: on the authority of ʿAbbād ibn ʿAbd Allāh on the authority of Abū Rāfiʿ; and it was said: on the authority of ʿAbbād ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Rāfiʿ on the authority of his father on the authority of his grandfather Abū Rāfiʿ.

Allah Most High said to His Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace: And had We not strengthened you, you would almost have inclined toward them a little. Then We would have made you taste twice the punishment of life and twice the punishment of death; then you would find for yourself against Us no helper [al-Isrāʾ: 75]. Abū ʾl-Qāsim al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥabīb recounted in his commentary on the authority of al-Ḥasan ibn Abī al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī regarding the phrase twice the punishment of death [al-Isrāʾ: 75], he said: "It is the punishment of the grave."

100. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿAmr informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq narrated to us: Muʿāwiya ibn ʿAmr informed us: on the authority of Abū Isḥāq al-Fazārī, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Jābir, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ regarding His statement “and the repeated deaths” [al-Qurʾān]: “The punishment of the grave.”

101. Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Ḥusayn ibn Ḥasan ibn Muhājir and Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Mihrān narrated to us: Hārūn ibn Saʿīd al-Aylī narrated to us: Ibn Wahb informed us: Yūnus ibn Yazīd informed me: on the authority of Ibn Shihāb: ʿUrwa ibn al-Zubayr narrated to me: that ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her – said: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – entered upon me while a Jewish woman was with me, and she was saying, “Are you aware that you are put to trial in the graves?” ʿĀʾisha said: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – was startled and said, “Only the Jews are put to trial.” ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her – said: We remained for several nights, then the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said, “Are you aware that it has been revealed to me that you are put to trial in the graves?” ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her – said: I heard the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – afterwards seeking refuge from the punishment of the grave. Narrated by Muslim in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Hārūn al-Aylī.

102. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-Ḥasan Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdūs informed me: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd narrated to us: Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ narrated to us: ibn Wahb narrated to us: Yūnus informed me on the authority of ibn Shihāb: ʿUrwa ibn al-Zubayr informed me that he heard Asmāʾ bint Abī Bakr – may Allah be pleased with her – saying: “The Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – stood up to deliver a sermon and mentioned the trial of the grave, that which a person is tested with in his grave. When he mentioned that, the Muslims cried out with such a clamor that it prevented me from understanding the final words of the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –. When their clamor subsided, I said to a man near me, 'May Allah bless you, what did the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – say at the end of his speech?' He said: 'It has been revealed to me that you shall be tested in the graves, nearly as much as the trial of the Dajjāl.'” Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Yaḥyā ibn Sulaymān, on the authority of ibn Wahb.

103. Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Muḥammad ibn Mūsā ibn al-Faḍl informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣaghānī narrated to us: Manṣūr ibn Abī Muzāḥim narrated to us: Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿd narrated to us on the authority of his father, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said to ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb – may Allah be pleased with him –: “O ʿUmar, how will it be for you when there is prepared for you from the earth three cubits and a span in length, and one cubit and a span in width, then your family comes to you, washes you, shrouds you, and scents you with camphor, then carries you until they conceal you, then pours the dust over you and departs from you, and then the two examiners of the grave, Munkar and Nakīr, come to you, their voices like crashing thunder and their sights like flashing lightning, having let down their hair, and they interrogate you and question you, saying: 'Who is your Lord and what is your religion?'” He said: “O Prophet of Allah, and will my heart that is with me today be with me?” He said: “Yes.” He said: “Then I shall suffice myself against them through Allah the Exalted.”

104. Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh and Muḥammad ibn Mūsā informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar narrated to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Fuḍayl ibn Abī ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us on the authority of his father, on the authority of Abū Ghaṭafān, on the authority of ibn ʿAbbās – may Allah be pleased with him –: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “How will you be, O ʿUmar, when you are brought to the earth and a grave of three cubits and a span is dug for you, then Munkar and Nakīr come to you—two black beings dragging their hair, as if their voices were crashing thunder and their eyes flashing lightning, digging into the earth with their fangs, and they seat you in terror, questioning you intensely and scrutinizing you?” He said: “O Messenger of Allah, while I am as I am then?” He said: “Yes.” He said: “By the permission of Allah, I shall be sufficient for them, O Messenger of Allah.”

105. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us, in al-Tārīkh: Sulaymān ibn Muḥammad ibn Nājiyah informed me: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Rāhawayh narrated to us: ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Madīnī narrated to us: Mufaḍḍal ibn Ṣāliḥ narrated to us: on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, on the authority of Abū Suhayl, on the authority of his father, on the authority of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb – may Allah be pleased with him –: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “O ʿUmar, how will you be when you are in four cubits of the earth in two cubits, and you see Munkar and Nakīr?” He asked: “O Messenger of Allah, who are Munkar and Nakīr?” He replied: “The two interrogators of the grave; their eyes are like flashing lightning and their voices are like crashing thunder. With them is a sledgehammer which, if the people of Minā were to gather around it, they would not be able to lift it, yet it is lighter for them than this staff of mine. They will examine you; if you hesitate or evade, they will strike you with it a blow that will turn you into ash.” He asked: “O Messenger of Allah, even in my current state?” He replied: “Yes.” He said: “I hope that you will suffice me against them.”

106. Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Rūdhabārī informed us: Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Ḥammūyah informed us: Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Qalānisī informed us: Ādam ibn Abī Iyās informed us: Shuʿba narrated to us on the authority of Saʿd ibn Ibrāhīm: Nāfiʿ, the mawlā of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, narrated to us on the authority of Ṣafiyya, the wife of ibn ʿUmar, on the authority of ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her –: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “Indeed, the grave has a squeeze; if anyone were to survive it, Saʿd ibn Muʿādh would have survived it.”

107. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUmar al-Muqriʾ in Baghdad informed us: Aḥmad ibn Sulaymān al-Nijād narrated to us: ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Muḥammad narrated to us: Abū ʿĀʾisha narrated to us: Shuʿba narrated to us: on the authority of Saʿd ibn Ibrāhīm, on the authority of Nāfiʿ, on the authority of Ṣafiyya, the wife of ibn ʿUmar, on the authority of ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her – that the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “If anyone were to be saved from the squeeze of the grave, it would be Saʿd ibn Muʿādh.” And it was said: on the authority of Nāfiʿ, on the authority of ibn ʿUmar.

108. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ibn al-Faḍl al-Qaṭṭān informed us, in Baghdād: Ismāʿīl al-Ṣaffār informed us: Muḥammad ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Anmāṭī narrated to us: Abū Ḥuḏayfa informed us: Sufyān narrated to us on the authority of Saʿd ibn Ibrāhīm, on the authority of Nāfiʿ, on the authority of ibn ʿUmar: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “If anyone were to be saved from the punishment of the grave, Saʿd ibn Muʿādh would be saved.” Then he – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – joined three of his fingers together, as if to indicate a small amount, and then said: “He was indeed squeezed and then spared.”

109. Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Qāḍī and Abū Saʿīd Muḥammad ibn Mūsā informed us: al-ʿAbbās ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: al-ʿAbbās al-Dūrī informed us: Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Masʿūd narrated to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Idrīs narrated to us on the authority of ʿUbayd Allāh, on the authority of Nāfiʿ: ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar narrated to us: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “This is the righteous servant for whom the Throne was moved, the gates of heaven were opened, and seventy thousand of the angels witnessed him, who had not descended to the earth before that; he was indeed embraced tightly and then released.” Meaning Saʿd ibn Muʿādh. He was followed by ʿAmr ibn Muḥammad al-Qurashī, on the authority of ibn Idrīs; and it has been narrated from another route on the authority of ʿĀʾisha – upon her be peace – and on the authority of ʿUmar – may Allah be pleased with him –.

110. As for the hadith of ʿĀʾisha, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb informed us: Abū ʾl-Zinbāʿ Rawḥ ibn al-Faraj informed us: ʿAmr ibn Khālid narrated to me: Ibn Lahīʿa narrated to us on the authority of ʿAqīl, that he heard Saʿd ibn Ibrāhīm informing on the authority of ʿĀʾisha bint Saʿd, that she was narrated to on the authority of ʿĀʾisha, the wife of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – who said: “A Jewish woman entered and spoke to me,” and he mentioned the hadith regarding the story of the Jewish woman and ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her – informing the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – of her words, she said: “He did not return anything to me [regarding it], but after that, he said: ”O ʿĀʾisha, seek refuge with Allah from the punishment of the grave, for if anyone had been saved from it, Saʿd ibn Muʿādh would have been saved, but it did not increase [in severity] beyond its constriction.""

111. As for the hadith of ibn ʿUmar, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ narrated to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Mūsā informed me: Ismāʿīl ibn Qutayba narrated to us: Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shayba narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Fuḍayl narrated to us on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, on the authority of Mujāhid, on the authority of ibn ʿUmar: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – entered his grave, meaning the grave of Saʿd, and was detained. When he emerged, it was said, “O Messenger of Allah, what detained you?” He said: “Saʿd was squeezed by the squeeze of the grave, so I supplicated to Allah to remove it from him.” And it was narrated on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAyyāsh ibn Abī Rabīʿa al-Makhzūmī, of whom it is said that he had seen the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – and was born in the land of Abyssinia.

112. Abū l-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faḍl al-Qaṭṭān informed us, in Baghdad: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar ibn Darastawayh informed us: Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān narrated to us: Abū Ṣāliḥ narrated to me: al-Layth narrated to me: Khālid ibn Yazīd narrated to me on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Abī Hilāl, on the authority of Abū l-Naḍr, on the authority of Ziyād ibn Abī ʿAyyāsh, on the authority of ibn ʿAbbās – may Allah be pleased with them both – that the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – sat upon the grave of Saʿd ibn Muʿādh, then uttered the prayer of bereavement and said: “If anyone were to be saved from the trial of the grave, or from its squeezing or its constriction, Saʿd ibn Muʿādh would have been saved; indeed, it constricted him with a squeeze and then he was released.” And this was reported in the hadith of Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh.

113. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār narrated to us: Yūnus ibn Bukayr narrated to us: on the authority of ibn Isḥāq: Muʿādh ibn Rifāʿa ibn Rāfiʿ narrated to me: Maḥmūd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAmr ibn al-Jamūḥ informed me: on the authority of Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh: When Saʿd ibn Muʿādh was placed in his grave, the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – glorified Allah, and the people glorified Allah with him, and he proclaimed the greatness of Allah, and the people proclaimed the greatness of Allah with him. It was asked, “O Messenger of Allah, why did you glorify Allah?” He said: “This righteous servant—his grave had constricted around him until Allah relieved him.”

114. And with his chain of transmission on the authority of Abū Isḥāq: Umayya ibn ʿAbd Allāh narrated to me: that he asked some of the people of Saʿd: “What has reached you regarding the statement of the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – concerning this?” They replied: “It was mentioned to us that the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – was asked about that and he said: 'He used to be negligent in some of the purification from urine.'”

115. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿAmr informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣaghānī narrated to us: Mūsā ibn Dāwūd narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Jābir narrated to us on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Murra, on the authority of Abū ʾl-Bakhtarī, on the authority of Ḥudhayfa: “We were with the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – at a funeral, and when he reached the grave, he began to look into it and said: 'I marvel at it; the believer is squeezed within it a squeeze such that his ribs are displaced, while it is filled with fire for the disbeliever.'”

116. Abū ʿAbd Allāh and Abū Saʿīd informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās narrated to us: Muḥammad informed us: ʿUqba ibn Mukram narrated to us: ʿAmr ibn Sufyān al-Quṭaʿī informed us: al-Ḥasan ibn Abī Jaʿfar narrated to us: on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Zayd, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib: ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her – said: “O Messenger of Allah, since the day you told me about the voices of Munkar and Nakīr and the squeeze of the grave, nothing has been of benefit to me.” He said: “O ʿĀʾisha, indeed the voices of Munkar and Nakīr in the hearing of the believers are like antimony in the eye, and indeed the squeeze of the grave upon the believer is like a compassionate mother to whom her son complains of a headache, so she gently presses his head; but, O ʿĀʾisha, woe to those who doubt in Allah—how they are squeezed in their graves like the squeezing of an egg upon a rock.”

117. Abū Ṭāhir Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Maḥmash al-Faqīh narrated to us (verbally), and Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmm Yūsuf, and Abū Saʿīd ibn Mūsā ibn al-Faḍl narrated to us (by reading to them): Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿAbsī narrated to us: Wakīʿ informed us on the authority of al-Aʿmash: I heard Mujāhid narrating on the authority of Ṭāwūs, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās – may Allah be pleased with him –: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – passed by two graves and said: “Indeed, they are being punished, and they are not being punished for something great. As for one of them, he used to spread calumnies, and as for the other, he would not shield himself from his urine.” Wakīʿ said: “He did not guard against it.” He said: He then called for a fresh palm leaf stalk, split it into two, and planted one upon this one and one upon that one, then said: “Perhaps it will lighten [the punishment] for them as long as they do not dry.” Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Abū Mūsā and Yaḥyā, and narrated by Muslim on the authority of Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm and others, all of them on the authority of Wakīʿ.

118. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿAmr informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār narrated to us: Abū Muʿāwiya narrated to us: on the authority of al-Aʿmash: he mentioned it with its chain and meaning, except that he said in the hadith: “As for the other, he did not guard himself against urine.” He said: Then he took a fresh palm-branch, split it in two, and placed one in each grave. He said: They said, “O Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –, why did you do this?” He said: He said: “Perhaps they will alleviate [the punishment] for them as long as they do not dry.” Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā, and others on the authority of Abū Muʿāwiya.

119. Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Abī Ṭāhir al-Daqqāq informed us in Baghdād: Abū ʾl-Ḥusayn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān al-Adamī narrated to us, by dictation: Abū Qilāba narrated to us: Muʿallā ibn Asad narrated to us: ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Ziyād narrated to us on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Mujāhid, on the authority of Ṭāwūs, on the authority of ibn ʿAbbās – may Allah be pleased with them both – that the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – passed by two graves and said: “Indeed, they are being punished because of tale-bearing and urine.” He then took a fresh palm branch, split it into two, and placed one on each grave, saying: “Perhaps it will alleviate for them as long as the two remain fresh.” Narrated by Muslim in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf, on the authority of Muʿallā ibn Asad; and narrated by Manṣūr ibn al-Muʿtamir on the authority of Mujāhid, on the authority of ibn ʿAbbās – may Allah be pleased with them both – and the hadith of al-Aʿmash is more authentic, as stated by al-Bukhārī in what Abū ʿĪsā al-Tirmidhī – may Allah have mercy on him – recounted from him.

120. Abū ʾl-Ḥusayn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bishrān in Baghdad informed us: Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr al-Razzāz informed us: Aḥmad ibn Zuhayr narrated to us: ʿAffān narrated to us: Abū ʿAwāna narrated to us on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of Abū Hurayra on the authority of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –: “The greatest part of the punishment of the grave is due to urine.” Abū ʿĪsā al-Tirmidhī said: I asked Muḥammad, meaning al-Bukhārī, regarding the hadith of Abū ʿAwāna, and he said: “This is a sound hadith, and this is other than that [other] hadith.”

121. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿAmr informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣaghānī narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Sābiq narrated to us: Isrāʾīl narrated to us on the authority of Abū Yaḥyā, on the authority of Mujāhid, on the authority of ibn ʿAbbās – may Allah be pleased with him –: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “Indeed, the majority of the punishment of the grave is due to urine, so keep yourselves clean from urine.”

122. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿAmr informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Bakr al-Ḥaḍramī narrated to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Wahb narrated to us on the authority of ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith, on the authority of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Ṣāliḥ: that al-Khansāʾ narrated to him, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, on the authority of the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – that he passed by two graves, took a palm leaf or a branch, split it, and placed one half upon one of the graves and the other half upon the other grave. Ibn Wahb said: I believe he was asked about his action, and the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “A man who did not protect himself from urine, and a woman who used to walk among the people with slander; thus the punishment was deferred for them until the Day of Resurrection.”

123. Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿAmr informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad narrated to us: Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shayba informed us: Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd narrated to us: Yazīd ibn Kaysān narrated to us on the authority of Abū Ḥāzim, on the authority of Abū Hurayra – may Allah be pleased with him –: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – passed by a grave, stopped, and said: “Bring me two palm branches.” He placed one at the head and the other at the feet. We said to him, “O Messenger of Allah, will that benefit him?” He said: “Some of the punishment of the grave will continue to be lightened for him as long as there is freshness in them.”

124. Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-ʾUṣūlī narrated to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar informed us: Yūnus ibn Ḥabīb narrated to us: Abū Dāwūd narrated to us: al-ʾAswad ibn Shaybān narrated to us: on the authority of Baḥr ibn Mirār al-Bakrī, on the authority of Abū Bakra: “While I was walking with the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – and a man was with me, and the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – was walking between us, he came upon two graves and the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: 'Indeed, the two occupants of these two graves are being punished now in their graves; which of you will bring me a palm-stalk from these date-palms?' My companion and I raced, and I beat him and broke a palm-stalk from the tree. I brought it to the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –, and he split it into two halves from the top, placing one half upon one of them and the other half upon the other, and said: 'Their punishment will be lightened as long as there remains something of the moisture of these stalks; indeed, they are being punished for gossip and urine.'” And thus Wakīʿ narrated it on the authority of al-ʾAswad, and Muslim narrated it on the authority of Ibrāhīm.

125. Just as Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbdān informed us: Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd al-Ṣaffār informed us: Ibrāhīm ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Shīrāzī narrated to us: Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us: al-Aswad ibn Shaybān narrated to us: on the authority of Baḥr ibn Mirār, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Bakra: Abū Bakra narrated to me: While the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – was between me and another man, he came upon two graves and said: “Indeed, the occupants of these two graves are being punished, so bring me a palm branch.” Abū Bakra said: My companion and I raced, and I beat him, so I brought him a palm branch. He split it into two halves, placing one in this grave and one in that, and said: “Perhaps the punishment will be lightened for them as long as the two remain moist. Indeed, they are being punished for not avoiding the act of backbiting and urine.”

126. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿAmr informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq narrated to us: Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb narrated to us: Ḥammād ibn Salama narrated to us: on the authority of ʿĀṣim ibn Bahdala, on the authority of Ḥabīb ibn Abī Jabīra, on the authority of Yaʿlā ibn Siyāba: that the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – passed by a grave of one being punished for something that was not significant, then he called for a palm branch and placed it upon his grave, saying: “Perhaps it will alleviate for him while it is still moist.” Thus Ḥammād narrated it, and he said: Abān ibn Yazīd, on the authority of ʿĀṣim, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Abī Jabīra, on the authority of Yaʿlā.

127. Abū ʾl-Ḥusayn ibn Bishrān informed us, in Baghdad: ʿUthmān ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Sammāk informed us: al-Ḥusayn ibn Ḥumayd ibn al-Rabīʿ narrated to us: ʿUbayd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Taymī narrated to us: ʿĪsā ibn Ṭahmān narrated to us; [alternatively], Abū ʿAbd Allāh and Abū Saʿīd informed us, and the wording is theirs, they said: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās narrated to us: Abū Umāma al-Kalbī informed us: ʿUbayd ibn al-Ṣabbāḥ narrated to us: ʿĪsā ibn Ṭahmān narrated to us: on the authority of Anas ibn Mālik – may Allah be pleased with him –: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – passed by two graves of the Banū al-Najjār, and they were being punished because of tale-bearing and urine. He took a palm leaf, split it into two, placed one piece upon this grave and one piece upon that grave, and said: “Their punishment will be lightened as long as the two remain moist.”

128. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbdān informed us: Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Maḥmuwayh al-ʿAskarī informed us: ʿUthmān ibn Khurrazādh narrated to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Nufayl narrated to us: Khulayd ibn Daʿlaj narrated to us: on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of Anas – may Allah be pleased with him –: “The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – passed by a man who was being punished in his grave because of tale-bearing.”

129. Abū Ṭāhir al-Faqīh narrated to us: Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Qaṭṭān informed us: Muḥammad ibn Yazīd narrated to us: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – passed by a grave, and his grey mule bolted, so the people seized its bridle. He said: “Leave it alone, for the occupant of the grave is being punished, for he did not keep himself clean from urine.”

130. Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Muʾammal informed us: Abū ʿUthmān ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Baṣrī informed us: Abū Aḥmad Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb narrated to us: Yaʿlā ibn ʿUbayd informed us: al-Aʿmash narrated to us: on the authority of Zayd ibn Wahb, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ḥasana: I was sitting with ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ when the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – came out to us holding a small leather shield. He urinated while sitting, and we spoke among ourselves, saying, “He urinates as a woman urinates.” He then came to us and said: “Do you not know what befell the companion of the Children of Israel? Whenever urine struck them, they would cut it off, and he forbade them from doing so, but they did not desist, and thus he was punished in his grave.”

131. Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn FūraK informed us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar ibn Aḥmad ibn Fāris informed us: Yūnus ibn Ḥabīb narrated to us: Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī narrated to us: Shuʿba narrated to us; [alternatively] Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿAmr informed us: Abū l-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Hāshim ibn al-Qāsim narrated to us: Shuʿba narrated to us: on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, on the authority of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb – may Allah be pleased with him – on the authority of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – who said: "Indeed, the deceased is punished in his grave because of wailing [over him]." Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of ʿAbdān, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Shuʿba.^[25]​

132. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-Faḍl al-Ḥasan ibn Yaʿqūb al-ʿAdl informed us: Yaḥyā ibn Abī Ṭālib narrated to us: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿAṭāʾ narrated to us: Saʿīd, meaning ibn Abī ʿArūba, narrated to us on the authority of Qatāda who mentioned it with its chain of transmission, saying: “The deceased is punished in his grave because of the lamentations wailed over him.” Transmitted in the two Ṣaḥīḥs from the hadith of ibn Abī ʿArūba.^[26]​

133. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb informed us: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam al-Miṣrī informed us: ibn Wahb narrated to us: Mālik ibn Anas informed me on the authority of Thawr ibn Zayd al-Duʾalī, on the authority of Sālim Abū ʾl-Ghayth the Mawlā of ibn Muṭīʿ, on the authority of Abū Hurayra – may Allah be pleased with him – who said: “We went out with the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – to Khaybar, and we did not acquire any gold or silver as booty; we only acquired goods and livestock. Then we turned toward Wādī al-Qurā, and with the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – was a slave of his whom Rifaʿa ibn Zayd, a man from Banī Ḍabīb, had gifted to him. While he was unpacking the saddle of the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –, a stray arrow struck him and he died. The people said to him, 'Paradise is pleasant for him.' But the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: 'No, by Him in Whose Hand is my soul, the garment that he embezzled from the booty on the day of Khaybar, which did not reach the distributors, shall be ignited as a fire over him.' Then a man came to the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – with one or two leather straps, and the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: 'One or two straps of fire.'” Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Uways, on the authority of Mālik; and narrated by Muslim on the authority of Abū ʾl-Ṭāhir, on the authority of ibn Wahb.

134. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan al-Muqriʾ informed us: al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq informed us: Yūsuf ibn Yaʿqūb informed us: Aḥmad ibn ʿĪsā narrated to us: ibn Wahb narrated to us: ibn Jurayj informed me: on the authority of Manbūdḥ, a man from the family of Abū Rāfiʿ, on the authority of al-Faḍl ibn ʿUbayd Allāh, on the authority of Abū Rāfiʿ – may Allah be pleased with him –: Whenever the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – prayed the ʿAṣr prayer, he would go to the Banū ʿAbd al-ʾAshhal and converse with them until the time for Maghrib descended. He said, and he mentioned the hadith, in which the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “But this so-and-so son of so-and-so, I sent him as a collector over the Banū so-and-so, and he embezzled a striped garment, and now he is clothed in the like of it made of fire.”

135. Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf informed us: Abū Saʿīd Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ziyād al-Baṣrī informed us in Makkah: al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ṣabbāḥ al-Zaʿfarānī narrated to us: Isḥāq ibn Yūsuf al-Azraq narrated to us: Zakariyyā ibn Abī Zāʾida narrated to us: on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Ibrāhīm, on the authority of Abū Salama, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, on the authority of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – who said: “The soul of the believer will remain suspended by his debt until it is paid off on his behalf.”^[14]​

136. Abū Muḥammad Junāḥ ibn Nadhīr ibn Junāḥ al-Qāḍī al-Muḥāribī in al-Kūfa informed us: Abū Jaʿfar ibn Duḥaym narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Abī al-Ḥusayn al-Qazzāz narrated to us: al-Faḍl, meaning ibn Dukayn, narrated to us: Sufyān narrated to us on the authority of Saʿd ibn Ibrāhīm, on the authority of ʿUmar ibn Abī Salama, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Abū Hurayra – may Allah be pleased with him – who said: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – he said: “The soul of the believer is suspended as long as he has a debt.”^[19]​

137. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb informed us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣaghānī narrated to us: Yaḥyā ibn Ḥammād and ʿAffān ibn Muslim narrated to us: Abū ʿAwāna narrated to us on the authority of Firās, on the authority of al-Shaʿbī, on the authority of Samura ibn Jundub: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – prayed one day and then said: “Is there anyone here from the children of so-and-so?” He called out three times, but no one answered him. Then he said: “Indeed, the man among you who died has been barred from Paradise because of the debt he owed. If you wish, then ransom him; and if you wish, then surrender him to the punishment of Allah.”

138. Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn FūraK informed us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar informed us: Yūnus ibn Ḥabīb narrated to us: Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī narrated to us: Zāʾida narrated to us on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAqīl, on the authority of Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh: A man died, so we washed him, applied camphor, and shrouded him. Then we brought him to the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – so that he might pray over him. He drew a line and then said: “Does he have any debt?” We replied: “Yes.” He said: “Pray over your companion.” Then Abū Qatāda said: “O Messenger of Allah, his debt is upon me.” The Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “Are both [obligations] upon you: the right of the creditor and the clearance of the deceased?” He replied: “Yes.” He then prayed over him. The next day, he met him and said: “What happened to the two dinārs?” He replied: “O Messenger of Allah, he only died yesterday.” Then he met him the following day and said: “What happened to the two dinārs?” He replied: “O Messenger of Allah, I have paid them.” The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “Now his skin has cooled.”

Allah – Glorious is His Majesty – said: "And whoever does righteousness, it is for their own souls they prepare" [al-Rūm: 44]. Mujāhid said: "In the grave."

139. Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿAmr informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Yaḥyā ibn Abī Ṭālib narrated to us: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb informed us: Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr informed us: on the authority of Abū Salama, on the authority of Abū Hurayra – may Allah be pleased with him – that the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “Indeed, when the deceased is placed in his grave, he certainly hears the thumping of their sandals as they turn away from him. If he is a believer, prayer is at his head, fasting is on his right, zakāt is on his left, and the performance of good deeds—such as charity, maintaining kinship, kindness, and benevolence toward people—is at his feet. Then [the questioner] comes from the direction of his head, and prayer says: 'There is no entrance through me.' Then he comes from his right, and fasting says: 'There is no entrance through me.' Then he comes from his left, and zakāt says: 'There is no entrance through me.' Then he comes from the direction of his feet, and the performance of good deeds—such as charity, maintaining kinship, and kindness toward people—says: 'There is no entrance through me.'” And he mentioned the hadith in its full length.

140. Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Qāḍī informed us: Ḥājib ibn Aḥmad informed us: Muḥammad ibn Ḥammād narrated to us: Yaḥyā ibn Sulaym narrated to us: on the authority of ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, regarding the statement of Allah – Glorified and Exalted is He – {for themselves they make beds} [al-Rūm: 44]: “In the grave.”

141. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū al-Naḍr informed me: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī narrated to us: Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī narrated to us: al-Layth ibn Saʿd narrated to us on the authority of Ayyūb ibn Mūsā, on the authority of Makḥūl, on the authority of Shuraḥbīl ibn al-Simṭ, on the authority of Salmān al-Fārisī – may Allah be pleased with him – who said: I heard the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – say: "Stationing [on the frontier] for a day and a night is like fasting a month and spending it in prayer. If he dies, the reward of the stationing continues for him, he is secured from the Trial [of the grave], and a provision is decreed for him in Paradise."

142. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbdān informed us: Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd al-Ṣaffār informed us: Hishām ibn ʿAlī narrated to us: Abū ʾl-Walīd Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik narrated to us: He mentioned it with his chain of transmission and its meaning, except that he said: “better than fasting a month and spending it in prayer; and if he dies, his reward will continue to be recorded for him, or that which he used to do will continue for him, and he will be safe from the Trial [of the grave].” Narrated by Muslim in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, on the authority of Abū ʾl-Walīd.^[18]​

143. Abū ʿAlī al-Rūdhabārī informed us: Abū Bakr ibn Dāsa informed us: Abū Dāwūd narrated to us: Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr narrated to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Wahb narrated to us: Abū Hāniʾ narrated to us on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Mālik, on the authority of Faḍāla ibn ʿUbayd: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “Every deceased person's deeds are sealed, except for the one who guards the frontier, for his deeds continue to grow for him until the Day of Resurrection, and he is secured from the trial of the grave.”^[16]​

144. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥamshādh al-ʿAdl narrated to us: al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Faḍl al-Usfāṭī narrated to us: Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Uways narrated to us: Mālik informed us: on the authority of Isḥāq ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Anas – may Allah be pleased with him –: “The Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – supplicated against those who killed the companions of Biʾr Maʿūna for thirty mornings against Riʿl, Dhakwān, Liḥyān, and ʿUṣayya, who disobeyed Allah and His Messenger.” Anas – may Allah be pleased with him – said: “Allah revealed a Qurʾānic verse regarding those who were killed, which was then abrogated after [the statement]: 'Inform our people that we have met our Lord, and He is pleased with us and we are pleased with Him.'” Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Uways, and narrated by Muslim on the authority of Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā on the authority of Mālik.^[28]​

145. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā al-Ḥīrī narrated to us: Musaddad narrated to us: on the authority of Qaṭan: ʿUthmān ibn Abī Shayba narrated to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Idrīs narrated to us: on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Umayya, on the authority of Abū z-Zubayr, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of ibn ʿAbbās – may Allah be pleased with him – who said: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: "When your brothers were slain at Uḥud, Allah placed their souls within the bellies of green birds that frequent the rivers of Paradise, eat from its fruits, and take shelter in golden lamps suspended in the shade of the Throne. When they found the excellence of their food, drink, and resting place, they said: 'Who will inform our brothers on our behalf that we are alive in Paradise and are provided for, so that they do not lose heart regarding jihad or shrink from war?' Then Allah – Blessed and Exalted is He – said: 'I shall inform them on your behalf.' Thus Allah – Mighty and Sublime is He – revealed: And never think that those who have been killed in the way of Allah are dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, receiving provision [Āl ʿImrān: 169]" until the end of the verses; and the hadith of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd – may Allah be pleased with him – regarding this has already preceded.^[27]​

146. Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Ḥumayd ibn Dāwūd ibn Isḥāq al-ʿAbsī narrated to us: Yazīd ibn Khālid informed us: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Thābit narrated to me on the authority of his father, on the authority of Makḥūl, on the authority of Kathīr ibn Murra, on the authority of Qays al-Judhāmī: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “Indeed, for the slain person there are six attributes with Allah: his sin is forgiven with the first gush of his blood, he is protected from the punishment of the grave, he is adorned with the garment of honor, he is shown his seat in Paradise, he is secured from the Greatest Terror, and he is married to the wide-eyed houris.”

147. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿAmr informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq narrated to us: ʿUthmān ibn ʿUmar informed us: Shuʿba narrated to us on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Murra, on the authority of Murra, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh – may Allah be pleased with him –: “A man died and was approached from the sides of his grave, and a surah from the Qurʾān began to argue on his behalf until it protected him. He said: I and Masrūq looked, and it was Surah al-Mulk.”

148. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ibn Bishrān informed us: Abū Jaʿfar al-Razzāz informed us: Yaḥyā ibn Jaʿfar narrated to us: Wahb ibn Jarīr narrated to us: my father informed us: I heard al-Aʿmash narrating on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Murra, on the authority of Masrūq, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh: “Sūrat Tabāraka pleaded on behalf of its companion until it admitted him into Paradise.”

149. Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh informed us: Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Balawayh narrated to me, by reading to him: Muḥammad ibn Ghālib informed us: ʿAmr ibn Marzūq narrated to us: Shuʿba informed us: on the authority of ʿĀṣim, on the authority of Zirr, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh, meaning ibn Masʿūd: “Sūrat Tabāraka is the Preventer; it prevents, by the permission of Allah – Glorious is His Majesty –, from the punishment of the grave. A man is approached from the direction of his head, and it says to him: 'You have no way against this man, for he used to supplicate with Sūrat al-Mulk.' And he is approached from the direction of his feet, and his feet say: 'You have no way against this man, for he used to stand with me reciting Sūrat al-Mulk,' so it prevents him, by the permission of Allah, from the punishment of the grave. It is in the Torah as Sūrat al-Mulk; whoever recites it during a night has indeed done much and done well.” And Sufyān al-Thawrī narrated it with the same meaning on the authority of ʿĀṣim ibn Abī al-Najūd.

150. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbdān informed us: Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd al-Ṣaffār narrated to us: Ismāʿīl ibn Isḥāq narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Abī ʾl-Shawārib narrated to us: Yaḥyā ibn ʿAmr ibn Mālik al-Nukrī informed us: I heard my father narrating on the authority of Abū ʾl-Jawzāʾ, on the authority of ibn ʿAbbās – may Allah be pleased with him –: Some of the companions of the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – pitched his tent over a grave, not realizing it was a grave, and there was a person in it reciting Sūrat Tabāraka until he finished it. He then came to the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – and said: “O Messenger of Allah, I pitched my tent over a grave, not realizing it was a grave, and there was a person in it reciting Sūrat al-Mulk until he finished it.” The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “It is the preventer; it is the savior; it saves him from the punishment of the grave.” Yaḥyā ibn ʿAmr ibn Mālik was alone in transmitting this, and he is weak; however, another ḥasan report regarding the merit of reciting this sūra has been transmitted.

151. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʿAl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Ibrāhīm ibn Marzūq narrated to us: Wahb ibn Jarīr narrated to us: Shuʿba narrated to us; [alternatively] Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbdān informed us: Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd informed us: Yūsuf al-Qāḍī narrated to us: ʿAmr narrated to us: Shuʿba narrated to us on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of ʿAbbās al-Jushumī, on the authority of Abū Hurayra: The Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “In the Qurʾān there is a surah of thirty verses that interceded for its companion until he was forgiven: 'Blessed is He in whose hand is the dominion, and He is over all things competent.'” This is the wording of the hadith of ʿAmr ibn Marzūq.

152. Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Fūrak informed us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar informed us: Yūnus ibn Ḥabīb informed us: Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī narrated to us: Shuʿba narrated to us: Jāmiʿ ibn Shaddād informed me on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yasār who said: I was sitting with Sulaymān ibn Ṣurad and Khālid ibn ʿUrfuṭa, and they mentioned a man who had died of a stomach ailment, and they wished to attend his funeral. One of them said to the other, “Have you not heard the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – say: 'Indeed, he whose stomach kills him shall not be punished in his grave'?” He replied, “Yes.”^[22]​

153. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Qāḍī informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Ibrāhīm ibn Bakr al-Marwazī narrated to us: Zakariyyā ibn ʿAdī narrated to us: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAmr narrated to us on the authority of Zayd ibn Abī Unaysa, on the authority of Abū ṣakhra, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yasār al-Juhanī: I sat with Sulaymān ibn Ṣurad and Khālid ibn ʿUrfuṭa, and Sulaymān said, “May Allah preserve your father, why did you not notify us about that righteous man so that we might attend his funeral?” He replied, “We were well-intentioned, but he suffered from an abdominal ailment and we hurried to him.” Then Sulaymān turned to Khālid and said, “Did you not hear the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – say: 'Whoever is killed by his abdomen will not be punished in his grave'?” He replied, “Yes.” And Abū Manṣūr al-Ẓafar ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-ʿAlawī informed us: Abū Jaʿfar ibn Duḥaym informed us: Aḥmad ibn Ḥāzim narrated to us: Abū Ghassān and Abū Nuʿaym narrated to us: Qays narrated to us: Jāmiʿ ibn Shaddād informed us, and he mentioned it in the same sense, except that he said: One of us said to his companion, “Did you not hear the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – say: 'Whoever is killed by his abdomen will not be punished in his grave'?” He replied, “Indeed.”

154. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ, Abū Ṣādiq ibn Abī ʾl-Fawāris, and Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿAmr informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣaghānī narrated to us: Ḥajjāj narrated to us: Ibn Jurayj said: on the authority of Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad, on the authority of Mūsā ibn Wardān, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, on the authority of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – who said: “Whoever dies while ill dies as a martyr, or is protected from the punishment of the grave.” Abū ʿAbd Allāh and Abū Saʿīd added in their transmission: “And there shall be brought to him in the morning and evening sustenance from Paradise.” Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Yaḥyā al-Sulamī was alone in transmitting this.

155. Abū ʾl-Ḥusayn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl al-Qaṭṭān informed us in Baghdad: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar ibn Darastawayh informed us: Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān narrated to us: Abū Ṣāliḥ and Abū Bakr narrated to us: al-Layth ibn Saʿd narrated to us: Khālid ibn Yazīd narrated to me on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Abī Hilāl, on the authority of Rabīʿa ibn Sayf: Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥrim informed him that a son of ʿIyāḍ ibn ʿUqba died on Friday, and his grief over him became intense. A man from al-Ṣidaf said to him, "O Abū Yaḥyā, shall I not give you glad tidings of something I heard from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ? I heard him say: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: 'There is no Muslim who dies on the night of Friday except that he is freed from the trial of the grave.'" And it was narrated from another route on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr.^[11]​

156. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿAmr informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq narrated to us: Sulaymān ibn Ādam narrated to us: Baqiyya narrated to us: Muʿāwiya ibn Saʿīd al-Tujībī narrated to me: I heard Abū Qabīl al-Miṣrī saying: I heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ saying: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: "Whoever dies on the day of Friday or the night of Friday shall be protected from the trial of the grave." And it was narrated as a mawqūf report.

157. Abū ʿAbd Allāh and Abū Saʿīd informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās narrated to us: Muḥammad informed us: ʿUthmān ibn Ṣāliḥ informed us: ibn Wahb narrated to us: ibn Lahīʿa informed me on the authority of Sinān ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ṣidafī that ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ used to say: "Whoever dies on Friday or on the night of Friday is protected from the Trial [of the grave]." and this was narrated as a marfūʿ tradition on the authority of Anas ibn Mālik.

158. Abū Ṭāhir al-Faqīh informed us: Abū Ḥāmid ibn Bilāl informed us: Abū l-ʾAzhar narrated to us: Zayd ibn al-Ḥubāb al-ʿUklī narrated to us on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muʾammal who said: I heard ʿIkrima ibn Khālid al-Makhzūmī say: “Whoever dies on the day of Friday or the night of Friday shall be sealed with the seal of faith and protected from the punishment of the grave.”

159. Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl ibn Naẓīf al-Farrāʾ al-Miṣrī in Makkah – may Allah protect it – informed us: Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī l-Mawt narrated to us by dictation: al-ʿAbbās ibn Muḥammad al-Miṣrī narrated to us: Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ narrated to us: ibn Wahb narrated to us: ʿAmr, and he is ibn al-Ḥārith, narrated to us on the authority of Abū Ḥamza ibn Sulaym al-Ḥimṣī, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Jubayr ibn Nufayr, on the authority of Jubayr ibn Nufayr, on the authority of ʿAwf ibn Mālik al-Ashjaʿī who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – while he was offering a funeral prayer, saying: “O Allah, forgive him, have mercy on him, pardon him, grant him well-being, make his reception honorable, expand his entry, and wash him with water, snow, and hail, and purify him of sins as a white garment is purified of filth; and grant him a home better than his home, a family better than his family, and a spouse better than his spouse, and protect him from the trial of the grave and the punishment of the Fire.” ʿAwf said: I wished that I were that deceased person, because of the supplication of the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – for that deceased person. Narrated by Muslim in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Abū ʾl-Ṭāhir and others, on the authority of ibn Wahb.^[34]​

160. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥākim informed us: Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Sulaymān al-Faqīh in Baghdad narrated to us: it was read to Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbd Allāh while I was listening, Shādhān al-ʾAswad ibn ʿĀmir narrated to us: Shuʿba narrated to us on the authority of Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, on the authority of Abū Hurayra – may Allah be pleased with him – that the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – performed the funeral prayer over a newborn child and then he said: “O Allah, protect him from the punishment of the grave.” He narrated it thus as a marfuʿ report, whereas others narrated it on the authority of Shādhān as a mawqūf report.

161. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ibn Bishrān informed us, in Baghdad: Abū Jaʿfar al-Razzāz informed us: Aḥmad ibn al-Walīd narrated to us: Shādhān narrated to us: Shuʿba informed us: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd narrated to us on the authority of Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, on the authority of Abū Hurayra – may Allah be pleased with him: to a similar effect, as a mawqūf report. Similarly, Shādhān narrated it on the authority of al-Thawrī, on the authority of Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, as a mawqūf report.

162. Abū ʾl-Khayr Jāmiʿ ibn Aḥmad al-Wakīl al-Naysābūrī informed us: Abū Ṭāhir Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Muḥammad Ābādhī narrated to us: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī informed us: Musaddad narrated to us: Ḥammād ibn Zayd narrated to us: on the authority of Thābit al-Bunānī, on the authority of Abū Rāfiʿ, on the authority of Abū Hurayra: that a black man or a black woman used to sweep the mosque, and when he or she died, the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – missed him or her and said: “What happened to that person?” They said: “He or she died.” He said: “Why did you not inform me about him or her?” And it seemed as though they had belittled the matter, so he said: “Direct me to her grave.” He came to her grave, prayed over her, and then said: “These graves are filled with darkness for their inhabitants, and Allah – Mighty and Sublime is He – illuminates them with my prayer over them.” Transmitted in the Ṣaḥīḥ from the hadith of Ḥammād ibn Zayd.^[7]​

163. Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī ʾl-Wazīr informed us: Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī narrated to us: Hishām ibn Ḥassān narrated to me: Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn narrated to us: ʿAbīda al-Salmānī narrated to us: ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib – may Allah be pleased with him – narrated to me, saying: “We were with the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – on the day of al-Khandaq, and he said: 'May Allah fill their homes and their graves with fire, just as they kept us from the middle prayer until the sun had set.'” That is, the ʿAṣr prayer. Narrated by al-Bukhārī on the authority of Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī; and narrated by Muslim through several routes on the authority of Hishām ibn Ḥassān; and transmitted by him from the ḥadīth of Qatāda, on the authority of Abū Ḥassān al-Aʿraj, on the authority of ʿAbīda.^[29]​

164. Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad al-Rūdhabārī informed us: Abū Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar ibn Aḥmad ibn Shawdhab al-Miṣrī informed us in Wāsiṭ: Shuʿba narrated to us on the authority of Ayyūb: Wahb ibn Jarīr narrated to us, on the authority of Shuʿba, on the authority of al-Ḥakam, on the authority of Yaḥyā ibn al-Jazzār, on the authority of ʿAlī – may Allah be pleased with him – that the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – was sitting at one of the openings of the trench on the Day of the Confederates and said: “They kept us from the middle prayer until the sun set; may Allah fill their graves and their houses with fire, or their bellies.”^[30]​

165. Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Fūrak informed us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar narrated to us: Yūnus ibn Ḥabīb narrated to us: Abū Dāwud narrated to us: Shuʿba narrated to us: and he mentioned it with his chain of transmission similarly, except that he said: “May Allah fill their graves and their houses with fire, or their graves and their bellies with fire.” Transmitted by Muslim from the ḥadīth of Wakīʿ and Muʿādh, on the authority of Shuʿba. ^[32]​

166. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Dāwūd al-ʿAlawī narrated to us by dictation: Abū Ḥāmid ibn al-Sharqī informed us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Farrāʾ narrated to us: Ḥafṣ ibn ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us: Ibrāhīm ibn Ṭahmān narrated to me on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Abū ʾl-Ḍuḥā; [alternatively] Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Kaʿbī narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Ayyūb informed us: Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shayba informed us: Abū Muʿāwiya narrated to us on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Muslim ibn Ṣubayḥ, on the authority of Shutayr ibn Shakal, on the authority of ʿAlī – may Allah be pleased with him – who said: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said on the Day of the Confederates: “They kept us from the middle prayer, the ʿAṣr prayer; may Allah fill their houses and their graves with fire.” Then he prayed it between the two evening prayers, between al-Maghrib and al-ʿIshāʾ; this is the wording of the hadith of Abū Muʿāwiya.^[33]​

167. And in the narration of ibn Ṭahmān, he said: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – was preoccupied on the Day of the Confederates from the ʿAṣr prayer until they prayed between Maghrib and ʿIshāʾ, and he said: “They kept us from the middle prayer, the ʿAṣr prayer; may Allah fill their graves and their houses with fire.” Narrated by Muslim in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shayba and others.

168. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbdān informed us: Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd al-Ṣaffār informed us: ʿAbbās ibn al-Faḍl narrated to us: Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūnus narrated to us: Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh informed us: on the authority of ʿĀṣim, on the authority of Dharr, who said: We said to ʿUbayda, “Ask ʿAlī – may Allah be pleased with him – about the middle prayer.” So he asked him, and he said: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said on the Day of the Confederates: “They kept us from the middle prayer, the ʿAṣr prayer; may Allah fill their houses and their graves with fire.”

169. al-Qāḍī Abū Muḥammad Junāḥ ibn Nadhīr ibn Junāḥ al-Muḥāribī informed us in al-Kūfa: Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Duḥaym informed us: Aḥmad ibn Ḥāzim ibn Abī Gharaza narrated to us: al-Faḍl ibn Dukayn and ʿAwn ibn Sallām informed us: Muḥammad ibn Ṭalḥa narrated to us on the authority of Zubayd al-Yāmī, on the authority of Murra, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, who said: I heard the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – say on the day of al-Khandaq: “They kept us from the middle prayer, the ʿAṣr prayer; may Allah fill their bellies and their graves with fire.” Narrated by Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of ʿAwn ibn Sallām.

170. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbdān informed us: Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd al-Ṣaffār informed us: Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl ibn Jābir al-Saqaṭī informed us: ʿAbd al-Jabbār ibn ʿĀṣim narrated to us: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAmr al-Raqqī narrated to us: on the authority of Zayd ibn Abī Unaysa, on the authority of ʿAdī ibn Thābit, on the authority of Zirr, on the authority of Ḥuḏayfa: I heard the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – say on the day of al-Khandaq: “They kept us from the ʿAṣr prayer, and he did not pray it that day until the sun had set; may Allah fill their houses and their graves with fire.”

171. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Ḥasan al-Ghaḍāʾirī informed us, in Baghdad: ʿUthmān ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Sammāk narrated to us: Ḥāmid ibn Sahl al-Thaghrī narrated to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar narrated to us: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAmr narrated to us and he mentioned it with his chain of transmission: The polytheists preoccupied the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – from the ʿAṣr prayer on the day of al-Khandaq, so he did not pray it until the sun had set, and he said: “They kept us from the ʿAṣr prayer; may Allah fill their graves and their houses with fire.”

172. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-Ṭayyib Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Shaʿīrī informed us: Maḥmash ibn ʿIṣām narrated to us: Ḥafṣ ibn ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us: Ibrāhīm ibn Ṭahmān narrated to me on the authority of Muslim, on the authority of Mujāhid, on the authority of ibn ʿAbbās – may Allah be pleased with him – who said: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – fought the polytheists until the prayer escaped them, and the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “They distracted us from the middle prayer, the ʿAṣr prayer; may Allah fill their graves and their bellies with fire.”

173. Abū Ṣāliḥ ibn Abī Ṭāhir informed us: my grandfather Yahyā ibn Manṣūr al-Qāḍī narrated to us: Aḥmad ibn Salama narrated to us: Hannād ibn al-Sariyy narrated to us: Abū ʾl-Aḥwaṣ narrated to us: on the authority of Ashʿath ibn Abī al-Shaʿthāʾ, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Masrūq: A Jewish woman entered upon ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her – and said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – mentioning something regarding the punishment of the grave.” ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her – said, “No, and what is the punishment of the grave?” The woman replied, “Ask him.” Then the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – arrived, and ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her – asked him about the punishment of the grave, and the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said, “The punishment of the grave is a reality.” Thereafter, he never performed a prayer but that I heard him seek refuge from the punishment of the grave. Narrated by Muslim in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Hannād ibn al-Sariyy.^[31]​

174. Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb informed us: Aḥmad ibn Salama, Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad, and Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad narrated to us: Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us: Jarīr informed us on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Abū Wāʾil, on the authority of Masrūq, on the authority of ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her –: “Two old women from the elderly Jewish women of Madīna entered, and they said: 'Indeed, the inhabitants of the graves are being punished in their graves.' Then the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – entered upon me, and I said: 'O Messenger of Allah, two old women entered upon me and claimed that the inhabitants of the graves are being punished in their graves.' He said: 'They have spoken the truth; indeed, they are punished in their graves with a punishment that the animals can hear.' Thereafter, I never saw him in a prayer except that he sought refuge from the punishment of the grave.” Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of ʿUthmān ibn Abī Shayba, on the authority of Jarīr; and narrated by Muslim on the authority of Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm and others.

175. Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn FūraK informed us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar informed us: Yūnus ibn Ḥabīb narrated to us: Abū Dāwūd narrated to us: Shuʿba narrated to us on the authority of Ashʿath, meaning ibn Abī al-Shaʿthāʾ: I heard my father narrating on the authority of Masrūq: A Jewish woman came to ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her – to ask her a question, and she said to ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her –: “May Allah protect you from the punishment of the grave.” Then the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – arrived, and ʿĀʾisha asked him about it, and the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “The punishment of the grave is a reality.” ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her – said: “Thereafter, I never heard him perform a prayer except that he sought refuge in it from the punishment of the grave.”

176. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Bakr ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥamdān al-Ṣayrafi in Marw informed me: Abū ʾl-Muwajjih narrated to us: ʿAbdān narrated to us: my father informed us on the authority of Shuʿba, on the authority of al-Ashʿath, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Masrūq, on the authority of ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her – that a Jewish woman visited her and mentioned the punishment of the grave. She said to her, “May Allah protect you from the punishment of the grave.” ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her – then asked the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – about the punishment of the grave, and he said: “Yes, the punishment of the grave is a reality.” ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her – said: “After that, I never saw the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – perform a prayer without seeking refuge from the punishment of the grave.” Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of ʿAbdān.

177. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUmar ibn Ḥafṣ al-Muqriʾ bi-Baghdād informed us: Aḥmad ibn Salmān al-Nijād informed us: Isḥāq ibn al-Ḥasan narrated to us: on the authority of al-Qaʿnabī: Mālik narrated to us on the authority of Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, on the authority of ʿAmra bint ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, on the authority of ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her – that a Jewish woman came to ask her a question and said to her, “May Allah protect you from the punishment of the grave.” ʿĀʾisha asked the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – “Are people punished in their graves?” The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “Seeking refuge from that.” Then, one morning, the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – mounted a riding animal and the sun eclipsed—and he mentioned the hadith regarding the prayer of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – she said: Then he departed, and the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said what Allah willed him to say, then he commanded them to seek refuge from the punishment of the grave. Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of al-Qaʿnabī.

178. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-ʿAbdī narrated to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Maslama narrated to us: Sulaymān ibn Bilāl narrated to us on the authority of Yaḥyā, on the authority of ʿAmra: that a Jewish woman came to ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her – to ask her something, and she said, “May Allah protect you from the punishment of the grave.” ʿAmra said: ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her – said, “I said, 'O Messenger of Allah, are people punished in their graves?'” ʿAmra said: ʿĀʾisha said that the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “Seeking refuge in Allah.” Then one morning the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – mounted a ride and the sun eclipsed; she mentioned the hadith regarding the eclipse prayer, and she said that he said: “Indeed, I have seen you being tried in your graves like the trial of the Dajjāl.” ʿAmra said: I heard ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her – saying, “After that, I used to hear the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – seeking refuge from the punishment of the Fire and the punishment of the grave.” Narrated by Muslim in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Maslama al-Qaʿnabī.

179. Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh informed us: Abū Muḥammad Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Muzakkī informed me in what I read to him in Bukhārā: ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā informed us: Abū ʾl-Yamān narrated to us: Shuʿayb informed me: on the authority of al-Zuhrī: ʿUrwa ibn al-Zubayr informed me that ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her –, the wife of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –, informed him that the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – used to supplicate during the prayer: “O Allah, I seek refuge in You from the punishment of the grave, I seek refuge in You from the trial of the False Messiah, and I seek refuge in You from sin and debt.” She said: Someone said to him, “How often you seek refuge from debt, O Messenger of Allah!” He replied: “Indeed, when a man is burdened by debt, he speaks and lies, and he promises and breaks his promise.” Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Abū ʾl-Yamān; and narrated by Muslim on the authority of Abū Bakr ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣaghānī, on the authority of Abū ʾl-Yamān; and a group narrated it regarding seeking refuge from the punishment of the grave on the authority of al-Zuhrī, on the authority of ʿUrwa, on the authority of ʿĀʾisha.

180. Abū l-Ḥuṣayn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bishrān in Baghdad informed us: Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad al-Ṣaffār informed us: Aḥmad ibn Manṣūr al-Ramādī narrated to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq narrated to us: Maʿmar informed us: on the authority of Hishām ibn ʿUrwa, on the authority of his father, on the authority of ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her – that the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – used to say: “O Allah, I seek refuge in You from the trial of the Fire and the punishment of the Fire, and I seek refuge in You from the trial of the grave and the punishment of the grave, and I seek refuge in You from the evil of the trial of poverty and from the evil of the trial of wealth, and I seek refuge in You from the trial of the False Messiah. O Allah, purify my heart from my sin just as You purify the white garment from filth, and distance me from my sin just as You have distanced the east from the west. O Allah, I seek refuge in You from laziness, senility, debt, and sin.” Transmitted in the two Ṣaḥīḥs through many routes on the authority of Hishām ibn ʿUrwa.

181. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb informed us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq narrated to us: Yaʿlā ibn ʿUbayd narrated to us: Qudāma ibn ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us: on the authority of ʿAmra: ʿĀʾisha narrated to me: “I never saw the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – perform a prayer except that he would say after it: 'O Allah, Lord of Jibrīl, Mīkāʾīl, and Isrāfīl, protect me from the heat of the Fire and the punishment of the grave.'”

182. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Dāwūd al-ʿAlawī – may Allah have mercy on him – narrated to us, by dictation and reading: Abū Ḥāmid ibn al-Sharqī informed us: Aḥmad ibn Ḥafṣ ibn ʿAbd Allah narrated to us: my father narrated to me: Ibrāhīm ibn Ṭahmān narrated to me: on the authority of Sufyān al-Thawrī, on the authority of Abū Ḥassān Fulayt al-ʿĀmirī, on the authority of Jasrah, on the authority of ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her –: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “O Allah, Lord of Jibrīl, Mīkāʾīl, and Isrāfīl, I seek refuge in You from the punishment of the Fire and the punishment of the grave.”

183. Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣaghānī narrated to us: Hāshim ibn al-Qāsim narrated to us: Shuʿba narrated to us: on the authority of ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿUmayr, on the authority of Muṣʿab ibn Saʿd, on the authority of his father: that he used to enjoin five things, saying: “Indeed, the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – used to enjoin them: 'O Allah, I seek refuge in You from miserliness, I seek refuge in You from cowardice, I seek refuge in You from being returned to the most wretched age, I seek refuge in You from the trial of the world, and I seek refuge in You from the punishment of the grave.'” Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Ādam ibn Abī Iyās, on the authority of Shuʿba.

184. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū Bakr ibn Isḥāq informed us: Abū Muslim informed us: Sahl ibn Bakkār narrated to us: Abū ʿAwāna narrated to us: on the authority of ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿUmayr: I heard ʿAmr ibn Maymūn al-Awdī say: Saʿd used to teach his sons these words just as a teacher teaches young boys, saying: “The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – used to seek refuge with them after the prayer: 'O Allah, I seek refuge in You from cowardice, I seek refuge in You from being returned to the most decrepit age, I seek refuge in You from the trials of the world, and I seek refuge in You from the punishment of the grave.'” I related this to Muʿṣab, and he confirmed it. Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Mūsā ibn Ismāʿīl, on the authority of Abū ʿAwāna.

185. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Isḥāq al-Bazzāz informed us in al-Karkh, Baghdad, from the original of his book: Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Fākihī informed us in Makkah: Yaḥyā ibn Abī Maysarah narrated to us: Khallād ibn Yaḥyā ibn Ṣafwān al-Kūfī narrated to us in Makkah: Yūnus ibn Abī Isḥāq narrated to us on the authority of Abū Isḥāq, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Maymūn al-Awdi, on the authority of the Commander of the Faithful ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb – may Allah be pleased with him –: I heard the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – atop the pulpit seeking refuge from five things: “O Allah, I seek refuge in You from cowardice and stinginess, and I seek refuge in You from the evil of old age, and I seek refuge in You from the trial of the heart, and I seek refuge in You from the punishment of the grave.” And thus it was narrated by Isrāʾīl on the authority of Abū Isḥāq.

186. Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū Bakr ibn Abī Isḥāq narrated to us, by dictation: al ʿAbbās ibn al-Faḍl al-Usfāṭī informed us: Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shayba narrated to us: Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī al-Juʿfī narrated to us on the authority of Zāʾida, on the authority of al-Ḥasan ibn ʿUbayd Allāh, on the authority of Ibrāhīm ibn Suwayd, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh, meaning ibn Masʿūd: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – whenever evening came, he would say: “We have entered the evening and the sovereignty has entered the evening belonging to Allah, and all praise is due to Allah. There is no deity but Allah alone, without partner. O Allah, I ask You for the good of this night and the good of that which is in it, and I seek refuge in You from its evil and the evil of that which is in it. O Allah, I seek refuge in You from laziness, senility, the evils of old age, the tribulation of the world, and the punishment of the grave.” Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿUbayd Allāh said: Zubayd added to it for me: on the authority of Ibrāhīm ibn Suwayd, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh, attributing it to the Prophet, that he said: “There is no deity but Allah alone, without partner; to Him belongs the sovereignty and to Him belongs all praise, and He is powerful over all things.” Narrated by Muslim in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shayba.

187. Abū Muḥammad Junāḥ ibn Nadhīr ibn Junāḥ al-Muḥāribī informed us in al-Kūfa: Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Duḥaym informed us: Aḥmad ibn Ḥāzim narrated to us: Jaʿfar ibn ʿAwn informed us; [alternatively] Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us, and the wording is his: al-Ḥasan ibn Yaʿqūb al-ʿAdl informed us: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb narrated to us: Jaʿfar ibn ʿAwn informed us: Misʿar informed us: ʿAlqama ibn Marthad narrated to me on the authority of al-Mughīra al-Yashkurī, on the authority of al-Maʿrūr ibn Suwayd, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd: Umm Ḥabība bint Abī Sufyān said, “O Allah, grant me enjoyment of my husband, the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –, and of my father Abī Sufyān, and of my brother Muʿāwiya.” The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said to her: “Indeed, you have supplicated to Allah for known lifespans, apportioned provisions, and attainable outcomes; nothing of them is hastened before its time, nor is anything of them delayed after its time. If you had supplicated to Allah – Mighty and Sublime is He – to grant you well-being and asked Allah to protect you from punishment in the Fire or punishment in the grave, it would have been better, or it would have been more virtuous.” And thus Sufyān al-Thawrī narrated it on the authority of ʿAlqama ibn Marthad, and Muslim transmitted it in his Ṣaḥīḥ from the ḥadīth of Misʿar and Sufyān.

188. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū Naḍr Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Faqīh informed me: Muḥammad ibn Ayyūb narrated to us: Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us; [alternatively]: Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Abī Ṭāhir al-Daqqāq in Baghdād informed us: Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Ayyūb al-Bazzāz informed us: Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Baṣrī narrated to us: Muslim narrated to us: Hishām narrated to us on the authority of Yaḥyā, on the authority of Abū Salama, on the authority of Abū Hurayra – may Allah be pleased with him – that the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – used to supplicate: “O Allah, I seek refuge in You from the punishment of the grave, the punishment of the Fire, the trials of life and death, and from the evil of the False Messiah.” Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm, and narrated by ibn al-Ḥajjāj on the authority of Abū Mūsā, on the authority of ibn Abī ʿUday, on the authority of Hishām al-Dastuwāʾī.

189. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū Bakr ibn Isḥāq al-Faqīh informed us: Bishr ibn Mūsā informed us: al-Ḥumaydī narrated to us: Sufyān narrated to us; [alternatively] Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Muqriʾ informed us: al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq informed us: Yūsuf ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Ibrāhīm ibn Bashshār narrated to us: Sufyān narrated to us: ʿAmr narrated to us: on the authority of Ṭāwus, on the authority of Abū Hurayra – may Allah be pleased with him – and on the authority of Abū z-Zinād, on the authority of al-Aʿraj, on the authority of Abū Hurayra – may Allah be pleased with him – reaching the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –: “Seek refuge with Allah from the trial of Allah's punishment, seek refuge with Allah from the trial of the punishment of the grave, seek refuge with Allah from the trial of life and death, seek refuge with Allah from the trial of the False Messiah.” This is the wording of the hadith of Ibrāhīm ibn Bashshār. Narrated by Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj on the authority of Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbād, on the authority of Sufyān; and he said in the hadith of ʿAmr: He said: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said; and in the hadith of another on the authority of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –.

190. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Abū ʿAbd Allāh Isḥāq ibn Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Sūsī informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Walīd ibn Yazīd informed us: my father and ʿUqba ibn ʿAlqama informed us: al-Awzāʿī narrated to us: Ḥassān ibn ʿAṭiyya narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Abī Shayba narrated to me: I heard Abū Hurayra – may Allah be pleased with him – saying: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “When any of you finishes the tashahhud, let him seek refuge with Allah from four things: from the punishment of Hell, the punishment of the grave, the trial of life and death, and from the evil of the Masīḥ al-Dajjāl.” Narrated by Muslim in his Ṣaḥīḥ through several routes on the authority of al-Awzāʿī.

191. Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh informed us: Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Ḥusayn ibn Ḥasan and Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl narrated to us: Hārūn ibn Saʿīd narrated to us: ibn Wahb narrated to us: Yūnus ibn Yazīd informed me on the authority of ibn Shihāb, on the authority of Ḥumayd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, on the authority of Abū Hurayra: I heard the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – “seeking refuge from the punishment of the grave.” Narrated by Muslim in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Hārūn ibn Saʿīd and others.

192. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Ibrāhīm ibn Marzūq narrated to us: ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn ʿAbd al-Wārith narrated to us: Shuʿba narrated to us: Budayl ibn Maysara narrated to us: on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaqīq, on the authority of Abū Hurayra – may Allah be pleased with him – that the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – “used to seek refuge in Allah from the punishment of the grave, the punishment of Jahannam, and the trial of the Dajjāl.” Transmitted by Muslim in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā, on the authority of Ghundar, on the authority of Shuʿba; and it was also narrated by Abū Ṣāliḥ and Muḥammad ibn Ziyād on the authority of Abū Hurayra, on the authority of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – regarding seeking refuge from the punishment of the grave.

193. As for the hadith of Abū Ṣāliḥ: Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq narrated to us: Yūsuf ibn Mūsā al-Qaṭṭān informed us: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Maghrāʾ al-Dawsī informed us: al-Aʿmash narrated to us on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of Abū Hurayra – may Allah be pleased with him –: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “Seek refuge with Allah from Hell, seek refuge with Allah from the punishment of the grave, seek refuge with Allah from the False Messiah, and seek refuge with Allah from the trials of life and death.”

194. As for the hadith of Muḥammad ibn Ziyād: Abū l-Khayr Jāmiʿ ibn Aḥmad al-Wakīl informed us: Abū Ṭāhir Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Muḥammad Abādhī informed us: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī narrated to us: Mūsā ibn Ismāʿīl narrated to us: Ḥammād—who is ibn Salama—narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Ziyād narrated to us on the authority of Abū Hurayra – may Allah be pleased with him –, on the authority of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –: “He used to seek refuge with Allah from the evil of life and death, the punishment of the grave, and from the evil of the Masīḥ al-Dajjāl.”

195. Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Bālūwayh al-Muzakkī informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās al-Maʿqilī informed us: Yaḥyā ibn Abī Ṭālib narrated to us: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿAṭāʾ narrated to us: Sulaymān al-Taymī narrated to me on the authority of Anas – may Allah be pleased with him – that the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “Seek refuge with Allah from the punishment of the grave.”

196. Abū ʿAlī al-Rūdhabārī informed us: Abū Bakr ibn Dāsah informed us: Abū Dāwud narrated to us: Musaddad narrated to us: al-Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān narrated to us: I heard my father: I heard Anas ibn Mālik – may Allah be pleased with him – saying: “O Allah, I seek refuge in You from incapacity, laziness, cowardice, miserliness, and senility; I seek refuge in You from the punishment of the grave, and I seek refuge in You from the trials of life and death.” Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Musaddad, and narrated by Muslim on the authority of Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā, on the authority of al-Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān, and he also transmitted it from the hadith of Shuʿayb ibn al-Ḥabḥāb, on the authority of Anas ibn Mālik.

197. Abū ʿAbd Allāh, he is al-Ḥāfiẓ, informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣaghānī narrated to us: Rawḥ narrated to us: Hishām narrated to us: Qatāda narrated to us on the authority of Anas: that the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – used to say in his supplication: “O Allah, I seek refuge in You from incapacity, laziness, cowardice, avarice, senility, and the punishment of the grave, and I seek refuge in You from the trials of life and death.”

198. Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Rūdhabārī al-Faqīh informed us: Abū Ḥātim Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā ibn Muḥammad al-Wasqandī narrated to us in al-Rayy: Abū Ḥātim Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Rāzī informed us: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī narrated to us: Ḥumayd narrated to me: Anas ibn Mālik – may Allah be pleased with him – was asked about the punishment of the grave and about the Dajjāl, and he said: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – used to say: “O Allah, I seek refuge in You from laziness, senility, cowardice, miserliness, the trial of the Dajjāl, and the punishment of the grave.”

199. Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū Bakr ibn Aḥmad ibn Bālawayh informed me: Mūsā ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbbād narrated to us: Muʿallā ibn Asad narrated to us: Wuhayb narrated to us: on the authority of Mūsā ibn ʿUqba: Umm Khālid bint Khālid ibn Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ narrated to me: that she heard the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – “seeking refuge from the punishment of the grave.” Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Muʿallā ibn Asad.

200. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbdān informed us: Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd al-Ṣaffār informed us: Ismāʿīl al-Qāḍī narrated to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Maslama narrated to us: on the authority of Mālik, on the authority of Abū z-Zubayr al-Makkī, on the authority of Ṭāwūs al-Yamānī, on the authority of ibn ʿAbbās – may Allah be pleased with them both – that the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – used to teach them this supplication just as he would teach them a sūra from the Qurʾān, saying: “O Allah, I seek refuge in You from the punishment of Hell, I seek refuge in You from the punishment of the grave, I seek refuge in You from the trial of the False Messiah, and I seek refuge in You from the trials of life and death.” Narrated by Muslim in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Qutayba, on the authority of Mālik; and this was also narrated on the authority of ibn Ṭāwūs, on the authority of his father, on the authority of ibn ʿAbbās – may Allah be pleased with them both – regarding the supplication with the same meaning.

201. Abū ʿAlī al-Rūdhabārī informed us: Abū Bakr ibn Dāsa informed us: Abū Dāwūd narrated to us: Wahb ibn Baqiyya narrated to us: ʿUmar ibn Yūnus al-Yamāmī narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṭāwūs narrated to me on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ṭāwūs, on the authority of ibn ʿAbbās, on the authority of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – that he used to say after the tashahhud: “O Allah, I seek refuge in You from the punishment of Hell, I seek refuge in You from the punishment of the grave, I seek refuge in You from the trial of the one-eyed Dajjāl, and I seek refuge in You from the trial of life and death.”

202. And it was narrated from another route on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās – may Allah be pleased with them both –

Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Muqriʾ in Baghdad informed us: Aḥmad ibn Sulaymān narrated to us: it was read to Muḥammad ibn al-Haytham while I was listening, Muḥammad ibn al-Ṣalt informed us: Abū Kudayna narrated to us: on the authority of Qābūs ibn Abī Ẓabyān, on the authority of his father, on the authority of ibn ʿAbbās – may Allah be pleased with him –: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – used to say: “O Allah, I seek refuge in You from disbelief, from indebtedness, from the punishment of the grave, and from the trial of the heart.”

203. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʿl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb and al-Ḥasan ibn Yaʿqūb al-ʿAdl narrated to us: Yaḥyā ibn Abī Ṭālib narrated to us: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿAṭāʾ narrated to us: Saʿīd al-Jurayrī informed us; [alternatively] Abū ʿAbd Allāh informed us: Abū ʿAmr informed me: al-Ḥasan ibn Sufyān narrated to us: Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah narrated to us: Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUlayyah narrated to us on the authority of al-Jurayrī, on the authority of Abū Naḍrah, on the authority of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī – may Allah be pleased with him –: Zayd ibn Thābit narrated to us: While the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – was in a garden belonging to Banū al-Najjār on a mule of his, and we were with him, the mule veered and almost threw him, and there were six, five, or four graves. He said: “Who knows the occupants of these graves?” A man replied: “I do.” He asked: “When did these people die?” He replied: “They died as polytheists.” He said: “Indeed, this community will be tested in its graves; were it not that you would cease to bury one another, I would have supplicated to Allah to make you hear the punishment of the grave that He made me hear.” Then he turned his face toward us and said: “Seek refuge with Allah from the punishment of the grave.” We said: “We seek refuge with Allah from the punishment of the grave.” He said: “Seek refuge with Allah from the trials, those that are apparent and those that are hidden.” We said: “We seek refuge with Allah from the trials, those that are apparent and those that are hidden.” He said: “Seek refuge with Allah from the trial of the Dajjāl.” We said: “We seek refuge with Allah from the trial of the Dajjāl.” This is the wording of the hadith of Abū ʿAmr ibn Ḥamdān; narrated by Muslim on the authority of Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah.

204. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbdān informed us: Abū ʾl-Qāsim Sulaymān ibn Aḥmad al-Ṭabarānī narrated to us: ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz narrated to us: Abū Ḥuḏayfa narrated to us: Sufyān narrated to us on the authority of Abū ʾl-Zubayr, on the authority of Jābir: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – entered an orchard belonging to Banū al-Najjār and heard them being punished in their graves, so he exited in terror, saying: “I seek refuge in Allah from the punishment of the grave.”

205. Abū Bakr ibn Fūraki informed us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar informed us: Yūnus ibn Ḥabīb narrated to us: Abū Dāwūd narrated to us; [alternatively] Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʿAl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb informed us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq narrated to us: Rawḥ ibn ʿUbāda narrated to us: Shuʿba narrated to us: Ḥabīb ibn al-Zubayr informed us: I heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī ʾl-Hudhayl al-ʿAnazī narrating on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abzā, that ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khabbāb narrated to him that Ubayy ibn Kaʿb said: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – mentioned the Dajjāl, and he mentioned the hadith, and he said therein: “Seek refuge with Allah from the punishment of the grave.” This is the wording of the hadith of Rawḥ ibn ʿUbāda.

206. ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bishrān al-ʿAdl informed us, in Baghdād: Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Bakhtarī al-Razzāz informed us: Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd Allāh narrated to us: Rawḥ ibn ʿUbāda narrated to us: ʿUthmān al-Shaḥḥām narrated to us: Muslim ibn Abī Bakra narrated to me: that he passed by his father while he was supplicating, saying: “O Allah, I seek refuge in You from disbelief, poverty, and the punishment of the grave.” So I took them from him, and I used to supplicate with them after the prayer. He then passed by me while I was supplicating with them and said: “O my son, how did you learn these words?” I said: “O my father, I heard you supplicating with them after the prayer, so I took them from you.” He said: “Adhere to them, O my son, for the Prophet of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – used to supplicate with them after the prayer.” And it was narrated in this regard on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Bakra, on the authority of his father.

207. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq narrated to us: Muḥāḍir ibn Muwarriʿ narrated to us: ʿĀṣim, meaning al-Aḥwal, narrated to us: on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥārith, on the authority of Zayd ibn Arqam: We said, “Teach us or narrate to us.” He said, “I shall not teach you except that which the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – used to teach us: 'O Allah, I seek refuge in You from incapacity, laziness, avarice, cowardice, senility, and the punishment of the grave.'”

208. Abū ʿAbd Allāh informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Ṣāliḥ narrated to us: al-Layth narrated to me: ibn al-Hād narrated to me on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb, on the authority of his father, on the authority of his grandfather: I heard the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – say: “O Allah, I seek refuge in You from laziness, debt, and sin; I seek refuge in You from the fitna of the Masīḥ al-Dajjāl; and I seek refuge in You from the punishment of the grave.”

209. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbdān informed us: Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd al-Ṣaffār informed us: Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Milḥān narrated to us: Yaḥyā, meaning ibn Bukayr, narrated to us: al-Layth narrated to us: on the authority of ibn al-Hād: and he mentioned it similarly, except that he did not mention his saying: “and I seek refuge in You from the punishment of the Fire.”

210. Abū ʾl-Ḥusayn ibn Bishrān informed us: Ḥamza ibn Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAbbās informed us: Muḥammad ibn Ghālib narrated to us: Mūsā ibn Masʿūd narrated to us: ʿIkrimah ibn ʿAmmār narrated to us: on the authority of Ṭāriq ibn al-Qāsim ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, on the authority of Maymūna, the freed slave of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –: he said to her, “O Maymūna, seek refuge with Allah from the punishment of the grave.” She said, “O Messenger of Allah, is it truly real?” He said, “Yes, and indeed, among the most severe of the punishment of the grave are backbiting and urine.”

211. ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbdān informed us: Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd al-Ṣaffār informed us: Muḥammad ibn Ghālib ibn Ḥarb and Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us, and the wording is that of Tamtām: ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar narrated to me: Hishām ibn Yūsuf narrated to us on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Baḥīr, on the authority of Hāniʾ, the Mawlā of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, on the authority of ʿUthmān – may Allah be pleased with him – who said: Whenever the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – finished burying the deceased, he said: “Seek forgiveness for your deceased and ask for steadfastness for him, for he is now being questioned.”^[5]​

212. ʿAlī informed us: Aḥmad informed us: Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Marwazī narrated to us: my father narrated to us: Hishām narrated to us: and he mentioned it with his chain of transmission, except that he said: "When he had finished burying the deceased, he would stand over him and say, 'Seek forgiveness for your brother and ask for steadfastness for him, for he is now being questioned.'”^[6]​

Allah – Glorified is His Praise – said concerning one whom He blessed with forgiveness: "It was said, 'Enter Paradise.' He said, 'I wish my people knew that my Lord had forgiven me and made me of the honored ones'" [Yāsīn: 27]. Mujāhid said: "That was when he saw the reward." Another said: "I wish my people knew that my Lord had forgiven me" [Yāsīn: 26], meaning through my faith in my Lord and my belief in Him, so that they too might believe and enter Paradise as I have entered Paradise.

213. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbdān informed us: Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd al-Ṣaffār informed us: Tamtām, who is Muḥammad ibn Ghālib, narrated to us: Abū ʿUmar narrated to us on the authority of Hammām, on the authority of Isḥāq ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Anas: That the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – dispatched his maternal uncle, Ḥarām ibn ʿUthmān, the brother of Umm Sulaym, with seventy men to the Banū ʿĀmir. When they arrived, his uncle said to them: “I shall go ahead of you; if they grant me safety until I convey [the message] to them from the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –, [I shall return], otherwise you will be needed soon.” So he went forward, and while he was speaking to them on the authority of the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –, they gestured toward one of them and stabbed him, piercing through him. He said: “Allāhu Akbar, by the Lord of the Kaʿba, I have succeeded!” Then they fell upon the rest of his companions and killed them, except for a lame man among them who climbed the mountain. Anas narrated to us: “That Jibrīl came to the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – and informed him that they had met their Lord, and He was pleased with them and made them pleased. Anas said: 'Among the verses of the Qurʾān that were recited was: {Convey to our people that we have met our Lord, and He was pleased with us and made us pleased}.' He said: 'Then it was subsequently abrogated.' The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – then supplicated against them for forty mornings, against Riʿl, Dhakwān, and ʿUṣayya, those who disobeyed Allah and His Messenger.” Transmitted by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Abū ʿUmar, and he transmitted it from the ḥadīth of Qatāda on the authority of Anas; and transmitted by Muslim from the ḥadīth of Isḥāq and Thābit on the authority of Anas.

214. Abū ʾl-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faḍl al-Qaṭṭān informed us, in Baghdād: Abū Sahl ibn Ziyād al-Qaṭṭān informed us: Muḥammad ibn ʿUthmān al-ʿAbsī narrated to us: Minjāb ibn al-Ḥārith narrated to us: Abū ʿĀmir al-Asadī informed us: on the authority of Sufyān al-Thawrī, on the authority of Sālim al-Afṭas, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of ibn ʿAbbās – may Allah be pleased with him –: “When those who were struck were struck, and they saw the provision Allah had prepared for them, they said: 'If only our brothers knew.'” So Allah – Glorified and Exalted is He – revealed: “And never think of those who were killed in the way of Allah as dead. Rather, they are alive” [Āl ʿImrān: 169], the verse. He said: Muḥammad ibn ʿUthmān narrated to us: Minjāb ibn al-Ḥārith narrated to us: Ḥātim narrated to us: on the authority of Usāma ibn Zayd, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Umayya, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of ibn ʿAbbās.

215. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Abū Bakr ibn al-Ḥasan al-Qāḍī informed us: Abū ʿAl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: al-ʿAbbās ibn Muḥammad al-Dūrī informed us: Yūsuf al-Ṣaffār, the client of the Banū Umayya, narrated to us: Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh informed us: on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Abū Sufyān, on the authority of Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “When the believer enters his grave, two angels come to him and reprimand him, and he stands in awe of the interrogators. They ask him, 'Who is your Lord, what is your religion, and who is your Prophet?' He replies, 'Allah is my Lord, Islam is my religion, and Muḥammad – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – is my Prophet.' They say to him, 'You have spoken the truth; thus you were.' Then it is said, 'Spread for him a carpet from Paradise, and clothe him from Paradise.' He says, 'Leave me so that I may inform my family,' but they say to him, 'Remain still.'”

216. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ and Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿAmr informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣaghānī informed us: Abū ʾl-Aswad narrated to us: ibn Lahīʿa informed us: on the authority of Abū ʾl-Zubayr: I asked Jābir about the grave, and Jābir said: I heard the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – say: “Indeed, this community will be tested in its graves. When the believer enters his grave and his companions depart from him, there comes to him an angel of severe countenance, who says to him: 'What did you used to say regarding this man?' The believer replies: 'I used to say that he is the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – and His servant.' The angel then says to him: 'Look at your seat in the Fire that you used to see; it has been replaced by your seat in Paradise that you now see.' He sees them both, and the believer says: 'Leave me so that I may give glad tidings to my family.' He is told: 'Remain still.' As for the hypocrite, when his family departs from him, he is asked: 'What did you used to say regarding this man?' He replies: 'I do not know; I said what the people said.' He is told: 'You shall not know; this was your seat in Paradise, and it has been replaced by your seat in the Fire.'”

Jābir said: I heard the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – say: “Every servant will be resurrected according to the state in which he died; the believer upon his faith and the hypocrite upon his hypocrisy.”

al-Ustādh Abū ʾl-Qāsim al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥabīb al-Mufassir – may Allah's have mercy on him – mentioned in his commentary on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās that he said: "They only say this because Allah removed the punishment from them between the two blasts, so they forgot their punishment and imagined that they had been asleep; then, when they emerge from their graves, they say: O woe to us! Who has awakened us from our slumber? [Yā Sīn: 52] meaning from our sleep; the angels say to them: This is what the Most Merciful promised, and the messengers spoke the truth [Yā Sīn: 52]." And on the authority of Qatāda, he said: "The punishment was lightened for them for forty years."

217. Al-Ustādh Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Imām – may Allah have mercy on him – informed us: ʿAbd al-Khāliq ibn al-Ḥasan al-Saqaṭī informed us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Thābit narrated to us: my father narrated to me on the authority of al-Hudhayl, on the authority of Muqātil ibn Sulaymān, on the authority of those among the Successors who narrated his exegesis from him, regarding His statement, “O woe to us! Who has awakened us from our slumber?” [Yā Sīn: 52]: “That is because the souls of the disbelievers were presented to their stations of Fire at the two ends of the day. When the interval between the two blasts occurred, the punishment was lifted from them, and those souls slept between the two blasts. When they were resurrected at the second blast and witnessed on the Day of Resurrection that which they had denied in the worldly life regarding the Resurrection and the Reckoning, they cried out in woe, saying, 'O woe to us! Who has awakened us from our slumber?' [Yā Sīn: 52]. In the recitation of Ibn Masʿūd: 'from our overnight stay.' The angels who guarded them said to them, 'This is what the Most Merciful promised' [Yā Sīn: 52], through the tongues of the messengers, that He would resurrect you after death, but you denied it, 'and the messengers spoke the truth' [Yā Sīn: 52], in that the Resurrection is a truth.” And regarding His statement, “And the Trumpet will be blown” [al-Zumar: 68], it is the horn, “so will fall dead” [al-Zumar: 68], meaning they will die, “whoever is in the heavens and whoever is on the earth” [Yūnus: 66] of the living creatures, due to the intensity of fear and terror. Then He made an exception, “except whom Allah wills” [al-Naml: 87], thus excepting Jibrīl, Mīkāʾīl, Isrāfīl, and the Angel of Death. Then He commands the Angel of Death to take the soul of Mīkāʾīl, then the soul of Jibrīl, then the soul of Isrāfīl, then He commands the Angel of Death, and he dies. Then the creation remains after the first blast in the Barzakh for forty years. Then the second blast occurs, and Allah gives life to Isrāfīl and commands him to blow the second time; that is His statement, “Then it will be blown into it a second time, and behold, they will be standing, looking” [al-Zumar: 68], upon their feet, looking at the Resurrection which they had denied in the worldly life. Some of the people of meanings mentioned that when the disbelievers witness Hell and the types of its punishment, that by which they were tortured in the graves becomes as sleep in comparison to it, so they say, 'Who has awakened us from our slumber?' [Yā Sīn: 52].“ The Shaykh – may Allah have mercy on him – said: I say: In the revelation, regarding His statement, ”The Fire, they are exposed to it morning and evening, and the Day the Hour is established, 'Cast the people of Pharaoh into the severest punishment'" [Ghāfir: 46], and then in the authentic reports, there is that which indicates the correctness of what the people of exegesis said in the interpretation of this verse, including that whose description has already passed.

218. Among them is that which Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū Bakr ibn Isḥāq narrated to us by dictation: Mūsā ibn Isḥāq narrated to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Shayba narrated to us: Abū Muʿāwiya narrated to us: al-Aʿmash informed us: on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of Abū Hurayra – may Allah be pleased with him –: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: “Between the two blasts is forty.” They asked, “O Abū Hurayra, forty days?” He replied, “I refuse.” They asked, “Forty months?” He replied, “I refuse.” He said: “Then Allah will send down water from the sky, and they will grow as the herb grows.” He said: “There is nothing of the human being that does not decay except for one bone, which is the coccyx, and from it the creation will be reassembled on the Day of Resurrection.”

219. Abū ʿAbd Allāh informed us: Abū ʾl-Walīd informed me: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad narrated to us: Abū Kurayb narrated to us: Abū Muʿāwiya informed us: and he mentioned it with its chain and meaning, adding that they said: “Forty years?” He said: “I refuse.” Narrated by al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Ḥafṣ, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Aʿmash; and narrated by Muslim on the authority of Abū Kurayb. It is as if Abū Hurayra – may Allah be pleased with him – did not memorize from the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – what was intended by the forty, while the people of tafsīr say: “It is forty years.”

220. Abū ʿAmr Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Adīb informed us: Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ismāʿīlī informed us: Abū Yaʿlā informed me: Abū Khaythama narrated to us: Ḥujayn ibn al-Muthannā informed us: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Salama narrated to us: on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Faḍl al-Hāshimī, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Aʿraj, on the authority of Abū Hurayra: “While a Jew was offering a commodity, he was offered for it something he disliked or was not satisfied with—ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz expressed doubt—and he said: 'No, by Him who chose Mūsā – upon him be peace – over mankind!' A man from the Anṣār heard him and slapped his face, saying: 'You say ”by Him who chose Mūsā over mankind“ while the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – is among us!' The Jew went to the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – and said: 'O Abū ʾl-Qāsim, I have a covenant of protection and a treaty; what is the matter with so-and-so that he slapped my face?' The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – said: 'Why did you slap his face?' He replied: 'O Messenger of Allah, he said ”by Him who chose Mūsā over mankind“ while you are among us!' The Messenger of Allah became angry until the anger was visible on his face, then he said: 'Do not prefer among the prophets of Allah, for the Trumpet will be blown and everyone in the heavens and everyone on earth will fall unconscious, except whom Allah wills. Then it will be blown again, and I shall be the first to be resurrected, or among the first to be resurrected. There, Mūsā will be holding onto the Throne; I do not know if he is being accounted for the unconsciousness at the Mount, or if he was resurrected before me. And I do not say that anyone is superior to Yūnus ibn Mattā.'” Narrated by Muslim in his Ṣaḥīḥ on the authority of Abū Khaythama ibn Ḥarb, and transmitted by al-Bukhārī on the authority of ibn Bukayr, on the authority of al-Layth, on the authority of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz.

221. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ narrated to us by dictation: al-Ḥasan ibn Yaʿqūb al-ʿAdl informed us: Yaḥyā ibn Abī Ṭālib narrated to us: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿAṭāʾ narrated to us: Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind informed us on the authority of ʿĀmir, on the authority of ibn ʿAbbās who said: I entered upon ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb – may Allah be pleased with him – when he was stabbed and I said: “Rejoice in Paradise, O Commander of the Faithful; you submitted when people disbelieved, you strove alongside the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – when people deserted him, the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – passed away while he was pleased with you, not two people differed regarding your caliphate, and you were killed as a martyr.” He said: “Repeat it to me,” so I repeated it to him, and he said: “By Allah, besides whom there is no other deity, if I possessed all the yellow and white [gold and silver] upon the earth, I would have ransomed myself with it from the terror of the First Gaze.”

222. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbdān informed us: Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd al-Ṣaffār informed us: Muḥammad ibn Ghālib ibn Ḥarb and Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us, and the wording is that of Tamtām: ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar narrated to me: Hishām ibn Yūsuf narrated to us on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Baḥīr, on the authority of Hāniʾ, the mawlā of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān – may Allah be pleased with him –: Whenever ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān – may Allah be pleased with him – came upon a grave, he would weep until his beard became wet. It would be said to him, “Paradise and Hellfire are mentioned and you do not weep, yet you weep at this?” He replied, “I heard the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – say: 'Indeed, the grave is the first of the stations of the Hereafter; whoever is saved from it, what follows it is easier, and whoever is not saved from it, what follows it is more severe.'” He said: ʿUthmān – may Allah be pleased with him – then said, “I have never seen a sight but that the grave is more terrible than it.”

223. Abū Naṣr ʿUmar ibn al-ʿAzīz ibn ʿUmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda from his original book: Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-ʿAbdī narrated to us: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal narrated to us: ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Madīnī narrated to us: and he mentioned it with his chain of transmission similarly, except that he said at the end: “By Allah, I have never seen a sight but that the grave is more horrific than it.” He did not mention it on the authority of ʿUthmān; and Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn narrated it on the authority of Hishām, and he mentioned it in the statement of the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –.

225. Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh and Muḥammad ibn Mūsā ibn al-Faḍl informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣaghānī informed us: Ḥasan al-Ashyab narrated to us: Ḥammād narrated to us on the authority of ʿĀṣim ibn Bahdalah, on the authority of Zirr ibn Ḥubaysh, on the authority of ibn Masʿūd – may Allah be pleased with him –: “Indeed, one of you is seated up in his grave, and it is said to him: 'Who are you?' If he is a believer, he says: 'I am a servant of Allah, while living and dead; I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah and I bear witness that Muḥammad is His servant and messenger.' Then his grave is expanded for him as Allah wills, and he sees his place in Paradise, and a garment from Paradise is descended for him to wear. As for the disbeliever, it is said to him: 'Who are you?' He says: 'I do not know.' It is said to him: 'May you never know,' three times. Then his grave is constricted around him until his ribs overlap or touch one another, and snakes are sent upon him from the sides of his grave to bite and eat him. When he becomes distressed and screams, he is struck with a mallet of fire made of iron.”

226. Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh and Muḥammad ibn Mūsā informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: Muḥammad narrated to us: Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shayba informed us: Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī narrated to us on the authority of Zāʾida, on the authority of ʿĀṣim: he mentioned it with its chain and meaning, except that he said in the first: “his grave will be widened as Allah wills, and a door to Paradise will be opened for him, and the breeze thereof will reach him until he is resurrected,” and he added in the second: “and a door to the Fire will be opened for him.”

227. Abū ʿAbd Allāh and Abū Saʿīd informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās narrated to us: Muḥammad narrated to us: Ḥasan al-Ashyab narrated to us: Ḥammād ibn Salama narrated to us on the authority of Saʿīd al-Jurayrī, on the authority of Qasāma ibn Zuhayr, on the authority of Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī – may Allah be pleased with him –: “Make my grave deep for me.” He said: Thus he mentioned the entirety of ʿĀṣim's hadith.

228. Abū ʿAbd Allāh and Abū Saʿīd informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās narrated to us: Muḥammad informed us: Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shayba narrated to us: Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī narrated to us on the authority of Zāʾida, on the authority of ʿĀṣim, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Abū Mūsā: “The soul of the believer departs, and it is more fragrant in scent than musk. He said: The angels who take it then ascend with it, and the angels below the heaven meet them, saying: 'Who is this with you?' They reply: 'So-and-so,' mentioning him by his best deed. They then say: 'May Allah give you life and give life to the one who is with you.' He said: The gates of heaven are then opened for him, and his face radiates. He said: The Lord – Glorified and Exalted is He – comes, and his face is a proof like the sun. He said: As for the other, his soul departs, and it is more fetid than a carcass. The angels who take it then ascend with it, and angels below the heaven meet them, saying: 'Who is this with you?' They reply: 'So-and-so,' mentioning him by his worst deed. He said: They then say: 'Return him, return him,' for Allah has not wronged him in anything.” Then Abū Mūsā – may Allah be pleased with him – recited: “They shall not enter Paradise until the camel passes through the eye of a needle.”

229. Abū ʿAbd Allāh and Abū Saʿīd informed us: Abū l-ʿAbbās narrated to us: Muḥammad narrated to us: Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shayba informed us: Ghundar narrated to us on the authority of Shuʿba, on the authority of Yaʿlā ibn ʿAṭāʾ: ʿUmayr ibn Salama narrated to me: A man came to Abū l-Dardāʾ – may Allah have mercy on him – while he was ill, and said, “O Abū l-Dardāʾ, you have reached the brink of departing from this world, so command me with a matter through which Allah may benefit me and by which I may remember you.” He replied, “You are among a healthy community, so establish the prayer, pay the zakāt of your wealth if you possess any, fast Ramaḍān, and avoid immoralities; then rejoice.” The man returned to Abū l-Dardāʾ – may Allah have mercy on him –, and Abū l-Dardāʾ said, “Sit and then comprehend what I say to you. Where are you in relation to a day when you shall have nothing of the earth except a width of two cubits and a length of four cubits? Your family, who once disliked your parting, your companions, and your brothers bring you there and secure the structure over you, then they heap soil upon you, then they leave you. Then two angels come to you, black, blue-eyed, and curly-haired, whose names are Munkar and Nakīr; they seat you and ask you, 'Who are you? Or upon what were you? Or what do you say regarding this man?' If you say, 'By Allah, I do not know; I heard the people say a thing and so I said what the people said,' then by Allah, you have been rejected and have fallen. But if you say, 'Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allah, upon whom He sent down His Book, so I believed in him and in that which he brought,' then by Allah, you have been saved and guided. And you shall not be able to achieve that except through steadfastness from Allah the Exalted, despite the severity and intimidation you shall witness.”

230. ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bishrān informed us in Baghdad: Abū Jaʿfar al-Razzāz informed us: Aḥmad ibn al-Walīd narrated to us: Shādhān narrated to us: Sufyān ibn Saʿīd informed us: on the authority of Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, on the authority of Abū Hurayra: that he – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – performed the funeral prayer over a stillborn child and then said: “O Allah, I seek refuge for him from the punishment of the grave.”

231. Abū ʿAbd Allāh and Abū Saʿīd informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās narrated to us: Muḥammad informed us: Muʿāwiya ibn ʿAmr informed us: Jarīr ibn Ḥāzim narrated to us: I heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Mulayka say: I heard ʿĀʾisha – may Allah be pleased with her – say: “Indeed, the disbeliever is subjected in his grave to a bald beast, which eats his flesh from his head to his feet, then the flesh is restored and it eats from his feet to his head; this is a deception for you.”

232. Abū ʿAbd Allāh and Abū Saʿīd informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās narrated to us: Muḥammad narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Aslamī narrated to us: Muṣʿab ibn Thābit narrated to us on the authority of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUrwa ibn al-Zubayr, on the authority of Umm Khārija, the client of Asmāʾ bint Abī Bakr – may Allah be pleased with her – that she attended a woman who was dying, and she began saying to her: “You shall be questioned about your Lord and about the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –” and she continued to strengthen her resolve.

233. Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Ibn Kāmil al-Qāḍī informed us: Muḥammad ibn Saʿd ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAṭiyya al-ʿAwfī informed us: my father narrated to us: my uncle narrated to me: my father narrated to me on the authority of his father ʿAṭiyya, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās – may Allah be pleased with him – regarding His statement, “Allah keeps firm those who believe, with the firm word, in the life of the world and in the Hereafter, and Allah lets the oppressors go astray” [Ibrāhīm: 27], he said: “Indeed, when death approaches the believer, the angels attend him, greeting him and giving him glad tidings of Paradise. When he dies, they walk with his funeral procession, then they pray over him along with the people. When he is buried, he is seated in his grave, and it is said to him: 'Who is your Lord?' He says: 'My Lord is Allah.' And it is said to him: 'Who is your Messenger?' He says: 'Muḥammad – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –.' Then it is said to him: 'What is your testimony?' He says: 'I bear witness that there is no deity except Allah and that Muḥammad is His servant and Messenger.' Thus, his grave is expanded as far as his sight can reach. As for the disbeliever, the angels descend and stretch out their hands—and this stretching is striking—striking their faces and their backs at the time of death. When he enters his grave, he is seated, and it is said to him: 'Who is your Lord?' But he does not return anything to them, for Allah has made him forget the mention of that. And when it is said to him: 'Who is your Messenger who was sent to you?' he cannot find guidance to it nor does he return anything to them. Allah says: 'Thus does Allah let the disbelievers go astray'” [Ghāfir: 74].

234. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī, and Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿAmr informed us: Abū ʿAl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us: al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī, meaning ibn ʿAffān al-ʿĀmirī, narrated to us: ʿAbāʾa ibn Kulayb al-Laythī narrated to us on the authority of Juwayriya ibn Asmāʾ, on the authority of Nāfiʿ, on the authority of ibn ʿUmar: “While I was returning from the expedition of al-Abwāʾ, I passed by some graves when a man emerged from a grave, blazing with fire, with a chain around his neck which he was dragging, and he was saying, 'O ʿAbd Allāh, give me drink—may Allah give you drink!' By Allah, I do not know whether he called me by my name or as a man calls another man, 'O ʿAbd Allāh.' Then a black man emerged in his wake with a bundle of thorns in his hand, saying, 'O ʿAbd Allāh, do not give him drink, for he is a disbeliever.' He caught up with him, seized the end of the chain, struck him with that bundle, and then both of them plunged into the grave while I was watching them, until it closed over them.” A story was narrated regarding this on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, the steward of the family of al-Zubayr, on the authority of Sālim ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, on the authority of his father; and in the authentic reports there is sufficiency.

235. Abū ʿAbd Allāh and Abū Saʿīd informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣaghānī informed us: Yūnus ibn Muḥammad informed us: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Mukhtār narrated to us: on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh al-Dānāj: I witnessed Anas ibn Mālik – may Allah be pleased with him –, and a man said to him, “O Abū Ḥamza, some people deny the punishment of the grave,” to which he replied, “Do not keep company with such people,” and he mentioned the hadith.

236. Abū ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUmar ibn Ḥafṣ al-Mufassir – may Allah have mercy on him – informed us in Baghdād: Aḥmad ibn Salmān al-Nijād informed us: It was read to Yaḥyā ibn Jaʿfar while I was listening: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿAṭāʾ informed us: Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūba informed us: on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ruzayq, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, meaning ibn Abī al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī: The Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – was riding a grey mule of his, and it veered away with him, so he said: “It veered, but it did not veer away from something insignificant; it veered away from a man who is being punished in his grave because of tale-bearing, and another who is being punished because of backbiting.”

237. And with his chain of transmission: Saʿīd informed us: on the authority of Abū Maʿshar, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, meaning al-Nakhaʿī: that two men were being punished in their graves, and their neighbors complained of this to the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – who said: “Take two fresh palm-leaf baskets and place them in their graves; the punishment will be alleviated for them as long as the baskets do not dry out.” He said: He was asked why they were punished, and he said: “Because of tale-bearing and urine.”

238. And with his chain of transmission: Saʿīd informed us on the authority of Qatāda: “The punishment of the grave consists of three thirds: one third from backbiting, one third from tale-bearing, and one third from urine.”

239. Abū Ḥāzim ʿUmar ibn Aḥmad al-ʿAbbādī al-Ḥāfiẓ narrated to us as a raised report: Abū Ḥāmid Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥasanwayh al-Faqīh in Herāt informed us: Abū Nuʿaym ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Quraysh al-Harawī narrated to us: Mālik ibn Wābiṣ al-Ṭālqānī narrated to us: Abū Muṭīʿ narrated to us: Muqātil ibn Ḥayyān narrated to us on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, on the authority of Abū Hurayra – may Allah be pleased with him –, on the authority of the Prophet – may Allah bless him and grant him peace –: “Indeed, the punishment of the grave is due to three things: backbiting, slander, and urine; so beware of these.” The authentic version is the narration of ibn Abī ʿArūba, on the authority of Qatāda, from his statement, and we have been narrated its meaning in the established hadiths previously.

240. Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Abū ʾl-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb informed us: al-ʿAbbās ibn Muḥammad narrated to us: Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us: Abū ʿAqīl narrated to us on the authority of Yazīd ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Shikhkhīr: “While a man was walking through a land, he came upon a grave and heard its occupant saying, 'Ah, ah!' He stood over the grave and said, 'Your deeds have laughed at you, and you have been disgraced.'”