Question
Do we as Muslims have to believe in the life of the grave? If we do, why isn’t it mentioned clearly in the Qur’ân?
Answer
The life of the “grave” is more accurately known as the life of the barzakh, essentially the state of existence that a person experiences between death and resurrection. It is not literally understood to have to be inside the “grave”.
Allah says: “Before them is a partition (barzakh) until the Day they are raised up.” [Sûrah al-Mu’minûn: 100]
Therefore, there are three stages of our existence. No one has any problem believing in the first of these stages – since we are presently experiencing it. The first stage is the life of this world.
Likewise, no person of faith has any doubts about the final stage – the life of the Hereafter.
What remains to discuss is our belief in the intermediate stage – the barzakh.
No doubt had ever been narrated from the first generations of Muslims about this matter, nad thet acknowledge that it is established by both the Qur’ân and Sunnah, even if the evidence for it in the Qur’ân is not direct and unambiguous.
Belief in the barzakh has been a matter of faith Ahl al-Sunnah ever since. Indeed, only the Kharijites, the peripatetic philosophers, a few extremely heretical sects, and a minority of scholars from among the Mu`tazilah ever denied the barzakh or the rewards and punishments that the person experiences during that stage of existence.
None of the Pious Predecessors ever expressed doubts about it. On the contrary, there are many narrations from them exhorting the people to for prepare for that stage of life, explaining how a person could be saved from being tortured in his grave.
Most scholars cite a verse from Sûrah Ghâfir as evidence for the punishments of the grave.
Allah says: “In front of the Fire will they be brought, morning and evening, and (the sentence will be) on the day when the hour comes to pass: ‘Cast ye the people of Pharaoh into the severest penalty’.” [Sûrah Ghâfir: 46]
As for the hadîth where the Prophet Muhammad discusses the barzakh, they are so many that, taken together, they reach the level of a report of the general masses (mutatwâtir). Some of these hadîth discuss the rewards that the righteous will experience during that time. Others discuss the punishments that sinners will be subjected to.
These hadîth prove the existence of the state of the barzakh between this life and the Resurrection.
This is ample hadîth evidence that the person in his grave will be either in a state of felicity or in suffering.
Matters of faith can be established by hadîth, as long as those hadîth are authentic. When a number of such hadîth related by many Companions on many different occasions, this only increases our certainty about the barzakh.
And Allah knows best.
Allah says: “Before them is a partition (barzakh) until the Day they are raised up.” [Sûrah al-Mu’minûn: 100]
Therefore, there are three stages of our existence. No one has any problem believing in the first of these stages – since we are presently experiencing it. The first stage is the life of this world.
Likewise, no person of faith has any doubts about the final stage – the life of the Hereafter.
What remains to discuss is our belief in the intermediate stage – the barzakh.
No doubt had ever been narrated from the first generations of Muslims about this matter, nad thet acknowledge that it is established by both the Qur’ân and Sunnah, even if the evidence for it in the Qur’ân is not direct and unambiguous.
Belief in the barzakh has been a matter of faith Ahl al-Sunnah ever since. Indeed, only the Kharijites, the peripatetic philosophers, a few extremely heretical sects, and a minority of scholars from among the Mu`tazilah ever denied the barzakh or the rewards and punishments that the person experiences during that stage of existence.
None of the Pious Predecessors ever expressed doubts about it. On the contrary, there are many narrations from them exhorting the people to for prepare for that stage of life, explaining how a person could be saved from being tortured in his grave.
Most scholars cite a verse from Sûrah Ghâfir as evidence for the punishments of the grave.
Allah says: “In front of the Fire will they be brought, morning and evening, and (the sentence will be) on the day when the hour comes to pass: ‘Cast ye the people of Pharaoh into the severest penalty’.” [Sûrah Ghâfir: 46]
As for the hadîth where the Prophet Muhammad discusses the barzakh, they are so many that, taken together, they reach the level of a report of the general masses (mutatwâtir). Some of these hadîth discuss the rewards that the righteous will experience during that time. Others discuss the punishments that sinners will be subjected to.
These hadîth prove the existence of the state of the barzakh between this life and the Resurrection.
This is ample hadîth evidence that the person in his grave will be either in a state of felicity or in suffering.
Matters of faith can be established by hadîth, as long as those hadîth are authentic. When a number of such hadîth related by many Companions on many different occasions, this only increases our certainty about the barzakh.
And Allah knows best.
-islamtoday.net
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