Advice for the Muslim

Then he leaned against the grave. He swore by Allah that he was
awake when he heard a voice from the grave which said, ‘Do not
hurt me! You worship. But you do not hear. You do not know. We
know but cannot move. In my view, there is nothing more valuable
than those two rak’as you performed.’ The person in the grave had
understood that Ibn Sâsab performed salât and leaned against the
grave.” After writing the above event, Ibn al-Qayyim quotes many
other khabars reported from as-Sahâbat al-kirâm proving that the
dead heard. The lâ-madhhabî regard Ibn al-Qaiyyim as a mujtahid
and praise him highly but do not believe the above-mentioned
writings of his and still claim that those who believe so are
polytheists. This behaviour of theirs shows not that they respect
the ’ulamâ’ of Islam but that they praise them whenever it suits
them and that they like none of the ’ulamâ’.
Hadrat ’Â’isha (radî-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’anhâ) said that the
disbelievers who were put into the hollow after the Battle of Badr
did not hear. This is the reason why some people supposed that
the dead, even if they were believers, did not hear in their graves.
Some ignorant people said that martyrs, even Rasûlullâh (sall-
Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam), would not hear. Those who did
not believe that the dead heard were mistaken, because, ’Â’isha
(radî-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’anhâ) said that only those disbelievers in that
hollow did not hear. They thought that this hearing was in the
sense as used in the twenty-second âyat al-karîma of Sûrat al-
Fâtir, which says, “You cannot make the dead hear. You cannot
make those in graves hear!” However, it was not in this sense; as
the great ’ulamâ’ explained, the word ‘hear’ in the âyat al-karîma
is used in the sense of ‘accepting by hearing’ or ‘believing.’ In
such âyats, Allâhu ta’âlâ likens the living disbelievers who have
ears, eyes and brains to the dead in graves. This analogy is not in
respect of hearing or understanding, but of apathy and
stubbornness, that is, unwillingness and disbelieving. Willingness
to believe is of no use to the disbeliever when he, in his last
illness, begins to see his place in the next world. “Your call to
belief to those who are decreed to be evildoers in eternity is of no
use to them,” Allâhu ta’âlâ declared. Inviting such people to
belief is of no use for them just as the belief of the people in graves
who believe after they see the things which they should have
believed without seeing. Such belief of the dead is not accepted.
‘Hearing’ in the âyat al-karîma is used in the sense of ‘accepting.’
For example, when one says, “This woman is such that she does
not hear any word,” he means that she does not pay attention
– 141 –