Bilal Assad – Can we communicate with the dead
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AI: Transcript ©
A question has come my way. It's asking,
what do we say when we go and
visit our friends or family
who have passed away in the cemetery?
And they heard that
there are things that could be an innovation,
bidah, in the Arabic Islamic term.
And they quoted such as reciting al Fatiha.
And the follow-up question to that would be,
do they hear us when we speak to
them? So here is my answer and I
ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to assist me.
My brothers and sisters, when somebody loses a
loved one,
our hearts and minds get occupied with grief
and it is very difficult for us to
get through it. And we always ask Allah
to assist us with perseverance,
patience
as much as we can.
So
from the mercy of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
he gave us some leeways and guidance about
how
to
deal with this type of grief and what
we can do for our loved ones who
have passed away,
so that you don't feel that it all
has ended and there's nothing else you can
do.
Among the things that we can do is
visit them
in the cemetery
and a few other things which I'm going
to mention Insha'Allah.
So visiting our loved ones in the cemetery,
we go back to what the
guidance of the Prophet
did and the authentic narrations that we have
about how he did it. For he is
the role model as Allah says in the
Quran,
There has come to you a great example
in the Messenger of Allah,
Limanqanairjallahuwaliumal
akhir Whoever hopes to meet Allah
and to be successful in the hereafter.
The prophet, peace be upon him, used to
visit Al Baqiyyah among other places,
where the companions,
were buried.
Al Baqiyyah is near Madinah and next to
is in Madinah and near the prophet, peace
be upon him, house.
So when he used to go there the
companions said that he used to first of
all greet the people
of the cemetery, the,
people who passed away and he would say
Assalamu Alaikum
Aholad Diyari min al mumineena
wal Muslimin.
Sometimes he would say peace be upon you
the home of believing
men and women among the believers and Muslims.
Sometimes he would say Salaamu Alaikum
and then he would make Dua for them.
He would always make Dua for them and
sometimes he would say may Allah forgive them,
have mercy upon them, raise their ranks. He
said this Dua when,
a
grandchild of his passed away. He made this
du'a for his companions when he passed away.
And other such similar du'as. May Allah pardon
them. Oh Allah,
raise their ranks. Oh Allah, admit them to
paradise. And sometimes he would talk as if
he was talking to them. So he would
say,
You have
beaten us to the hereafter, you have gone
ahead and we will soon follow
by the will of Allah. What he means
by follow meaning to the
gardens and to the mercy and the blessings
of Allah. That's what he means, doesn't mean
that we wish for death.
So these are the types of words the
prophet, peace be upon him, used to say.
You can grab a book called fortress of
the Muslim or any other dua book about
what the sunnah,
words and expressions the Prophet, peace be upon
him, used to say when he visited the
cemetery.
Another thing to do at the cemetery is
to avoid sitting on the graves or walking
on the graves, so we go in there
with silence as much as we can and
reflecting.
That is the way the prophet, peace be
upon him, taught us and thinking about our
hereafter. In fact, he used to say, I
forbid you from visiting the graves at one
point. Behold, now go and visit it, for
it reminds you of the hereafter.
So when the prophet peace be upon him
used to visit them, there's no narration,
at least an authentic narration which I personally
know of, or have learnt about or ever
found in my studies all my life or
from my scholars or even doing research,
I couldn't
find evidence
that the prophet
or his companions
used to recite Surat Al Fatiha,
specifically or any other surah in the Quran
when they visited,
the cemetery.
Allah knows best,
but
to call it an innovation or a Bidah
is probably
something that I will not
dare to say. I I don't know.
But anything in a religion that a person
makes up and starts to say that this
is
part of what Islam,
taught us we should do,
when they know that,
there is no
reality to it and a person starts to
say, yes, this is part of Islam and
not knowing,
then it is a risk of falling into
something called,
innovation making up something of the religion.
Regardless of that, if a person does recite
Al Fatiha for, the dead people in the
cemetery
with the intention of passing on the rewards,
and the blessings of the rewards of reciting,
surahs from the Quran.
There is a scholar by the name of
Ibn Al Qayyim
who says in his book, I think it's
called Hadil Arwah o Arruh,
where he says that,
there is a view where a person can
recite the Quran and ask Allah
to, share the rewards with, the people who
have passed away. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala knows
best.
But if you recite Al Fatiha in specific,
I want you
to reflect on what you're actually saying, and
then you can make the decision of whether
this sounds right or
not right to recite when you visit the
dead. So you're you're praising Allah and you're
then asking Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to guide
you. You're saying, Uhadina Surat al Mustaqim. Oh
Allah guide us to the straight path. The
path of those whom you have bestowed your
pleasure
upon, not the path of those
who have earned your anger or those who
have been led astray.
If you notice that the the the whole
Fatiha is a dua
but it's not a dua for anyone other
than yourself
and the living. So you're saying, Oh Allah
guide us the straight path and we all
know without a doubt and common sense that
once a person has passed away all of
the obligations of commands and prohibitions religion and
prayer and worship are cut off.
So to say, guide us the straight path,
not the path of those who've been led
astray, we all know it's the guidance of
Islam, the guidance of correct worship in this
life. So effectively you're making du'aat for yourself
at the grave. Oh Allah, guide us.
So
using and saying what the prophet peace be
upon him taught us, is far more reliable
and better than reciting a verse from the
Quran.
You're making a Dua'at for the deaf person,
and in fact,
the Prophet was approached by a man who
said, You Rasool Allah,
my parents passed away, do I still owe
them any dutifulness and goodness after their death?
And he said, yes, 5 things
And among them he said to make dua
for them
and to ask Allah to forgive them.
In another narration of Prophet SAW,
he used to say, oh Allah forgive
the believing men and women, the living ones
and the dead ones.
Everything when it comes to
the dead people, the people who passed away,
you will find that in the entire sunnah
of the Prophet
was always supplication and prayers
for them.
Even when we pray the Salatul Janaza,
we get up and we do recite Al
Fatiha first, and that is why probably,
some of the groups of scholars said look
it's permissible,
but,
we can't really say that for sure because
it is a prayer to Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. So it's natural that we say Allahu
Akbar and recite Al Fatiha. But what we
do in that special Jannah as a prayer,
that funeral prayer is that we make dua
for the deceased. So again, you see the
dua for the deceased
once again.
And that is the best way to follow
that type of a sunnah, or that,
to follow that sunnah as our way of
life in relation
to the people who have passed.
The follow-up question to this is,
can the dead people hear us?
The scholars said a few things about this
and they differed in their views.
Now obviously from
a physical point of view from a
realistic point of view
the physical body once it dies
it cannot hear anything at all. Obviously, you're
dead after that time
and all your senses are cut off.
So the scholars didn't differ on whether the
physical body can hear you but because we
as Muslims,
we believe in the soul of the body
and that it exits the body and stays
alive,
they're talking about
the nature of the soul,
whether it can hear us
after that person has died, and here is
the answer.
The prophet, peace be upon him,
was burying a companion
and then he said to his companions,
make dua for your brother and ask Allah
to make him firm.
And then he said the dead can hear
or he can hear Qara'ani alikum
the tapping or the footsteps of your shoes
as you walk away.
So some of the scholars took this as
evidence to say that the dead people therefore
can hear us,
but actually the majority and the correct view
is that, and this is the statement of
Ebenethemia,
is that
they can
hear us temporarily
just for that short time and then it
fades away,
but what is the nature of this hearing?
Bear with me to illustrate to you what
the scholars
said to us,
when you go to sleep
you go into a state of unconsciousness,
but have you ever been in a situation
where you're kind of in between asleep
and almost awake,
but from the person who's observing you they
can see that you're completely asleep. However, from
your perspective
from where you are,
you can almost
make out noises and sounds from the people
around you while you're still dreaming.
Have you ever been in that situation? And
that's when you're just about to wake up
but you're actually asleep.
Or sometimes you might be in in
in not much of a deep sleep and
then you you might wake up and say
I heard noises but you don't really remember
and you can't even make out the language
or anything like that. In fact, it was
just something that passed though so,
almost
close to unconscious.
Or if you've ever almost about to take
a siesta and about to fall asleep and
then you're kind of asleep and you can
still hear noises of the people, but you
can't make it out.
So the scholars they told us it's something
like that.
And, you know, in the Quran,
sleeping is also referred to as death when
the soul reaches,
exits.
And in the Hadith of Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam, he also said that
the sleeping is minor death.
So you can see there is some similarity
and that's the kind of example they gave.
So when a person has died, in the
first instance they said,
we believe as Muslims and from the authentic
hadith of the prophet, peace be upon him,
that 2 angels come to the person in
their grave and they ask them questions, what
is your religion? Who is your Lord? And
at that instant, another authentic hadith which is
inside,
Muslim,
that Allah orders for the soul to return
back to its grave. So it's there in
a world which we cannot see. In the
Quran, there's a world called,
behind something called Barsakh. Barsakh which really means
a barrier that separates
something from another.
And so there's a barrier that separates this
world from the world of the souls the
hereafter. We have no connection to it and
they have no connection to us. Again, it's
similar to the example of when you go
to sleep and you dream and your soul
travels.
So,
we're not talking about subconscious mind and the
dreams that that yours that your subconscious mind
speaks of, a reality of the soul, but
that's another topic.
So they said that it's kind of similar
to that to bring it close to our
logical mind, that the soul is somehow close
to the body and therefore
noises or sounds can be heard but it
can't make it out and it's in very
very distant.
Another evidence they use is when the prophet
SAWAYSAWAYAM after the battle of Badr,
the prophet peace be upon him went up
to them and among them were, you know
Abu Jahal and Othba and all those,
leaders of of of of the disbelievers who
did atrocious things to Muslims. The prophet peace
be upon him yelled out to them and
he said to them,
oh so and so, oh so and so,
oh so and so, have you found what
Allah has promised you? For Allah we have
found what Allah has promised us
and Omer Abu Khattab was standing next to
me says You Rasool Allah you're talking to
the dead people when their bodies have deep
composed and gone and he said to him
you cannot hear me any better than
them. Meaning that they're hearing me just like
you're hearing me. But the response to that,
some scholars they said well since he was
addressing them as the dead can hear.
But again, the response to that from the
majority of scholars is that
again, that was something special for the prophet
peace be upon him or it also could
be understood that when a person first dies,
the soul are still near the body in
some way and there is some kind of
hearing. But again, this is a miracle for
the prophet, peace be upon him, which Allah
made it allowed for his voice to reach
them in that world called the world of
the souls or the Barzakh.
So brothers and sisters, in conclusion, the correct
opinion is that,
first of all, from the logical common sense
that the body itself once it dies, it
cuts off from all senses. We see it
in reality. We can experiment it. We practice
it. We know it. And we can also
compare it to going to sleep. When you're
in a coma, we are under the effect
of an anesthesia, when you have an operation
for example at the hospital, when you go
into deep sleep, we definitely do not hear
anything around us. And if that's the case
while we are still alive, then it's more
true that when a person dies, obviously, the
body
feels nothing, hears nothing, sees nothing of this
world. It just decomposes and becomes part of
the earth. As for the soul,
we can say that one of the views
is maybe partially.
They have this slight faraway sense only when
they're first buried.
So brothers and sisters, some people they go
to the grave and they talk to the
dead people, and they think that they can
hear them,
and
unfortunately,
I wish they did and I wish that
was true,
but,
the
more correct view is that the evidences don't
support it. So my brothers and sisters, you
still are allowed to call to them if
you like, but with the intention
of saying,
let's say if if it's part of your
healing and part of your grief,
and you say my my son or my
father or my mother, I loved you so
much. Because the prophet
used to also say that, and some companions
used to say that.
But not in the sense that you believe
that they can do something or they can
hear you or respond.
In a sense of you
expressing your grief.
Just a matter of language. It's how we
speak. Right? Oh, Muhammad, you are so beloved
to me. But without going too far and
wailing and saying things that are forbidden
such as why did you leave me? Why
did Allah take you? And and all those
words should not be said in fact, we
should say to Allah belong, we all belong
unto him we shall all return. Make dua
for them and ask Allah
to forgive them, give charity on their behalf
if you can and whatever they taught you
of goodness practice it and teach others.
So although we've come to the conclusion that
it is likely that the people who have
died don't actually hear us when we're awake
and we speak to them,
the question now is, well, what about in
our sleep? And what about
the souls in the world which we now
understand is called the world of the Barzakh,
which means the world behind the barrier, the
world of the souls. Do the souls meet?
Do they talk?
And do they ask about us?
So in relation to the souls talking to
each other there is an authentic Hadith in,
An Nasai,
and the Hadith is actually if you want
to look it up An Nasai,
hadith number 1833
and, this is the Arabic version you can
also look it up in the English version
and Shaka al Albani has included it in
his,
book of authentic hadiths, Semsirat al Sahih.
And he talks about the souls of the
believers where the prophet peace be upon him
said that when a person dies the believing
soul goes up into the heavens and there's
a lot of things that happens a long
story
and then as the soul is being returned
back to the grave for the questioning for
that brief moment,
on its way
the prophet peace be upon him said, and
then the believing souls who have passed away
are brought
to meet this new soul that has just
passed away and left this world.
And they all run to him or her,
he knows some of them some of them
they don't know, and they begin to ask
him or her about
the people they knew in this life, their
relatives, their family, their friends, what has such
and so and so done, what has such
and such a person done? And they're so
excited like the prophet Peter Phony says, like
a person who's just come from overseas whom
you love and you go over to ask
them about, you know, their journey and so
on and people that you knew overseas.
And
someone says among the crowd, it's possibly an
angel or someone who says,
let him rest or leave him or leave
him alone leave him alone for now for
he's just come out of the claustrophobia
of the world.
There's a reminder to the hadith but that
section is just to illustrate that yes, the
souls
of the people who passed away do meet
each other.
And there are souls of the people
who have gone to another site, the site
of
where they can't be with the righteous souls
and this is also in the Quran
where Allah does tell us
that those who were righteous in this life
and they die they pass away then they
will be with the prophets and the martyrs
and the righteous ones and so on and
this means that they will be from the
Barzakh onwards with them.
What about the question
of whether
we can
communicate with them in our dreams?
Unfortunately, we don't have a definite answer to
that
because the verses in the Quran and all
the Hadith of the Prophet peace be upon
him,
they indicated,
but they're not a confirmation.
One of the verses that
indicated
is the one that is mentioned
in Surat al Zumr
in verse number 42
where Allah says it is Allah
who
takes
or puts the souls or takes the souls
out of the body in a state of
unconsciousness
when they die
and he also does that takes the soul
of the person
in a state of unconsciousness when they go
to sleep, so death and sleep the soul
is taken.
In its sleep
and then he withholds
the soul of the one who is supposed
to be dead and not return and returns
the soul of the other one who is
meant to live on. So when you're asleep
and you wake up your soul is returned
and the person who is already dead their
souls are withheld.
This is an indication according to the Mufasa
the commentator Al Khortobi,
sorry not Al Khortobi, yeah, Al Khortobi who
said that this is an indication
that the souls of the people who go
to sleep and the souls of people who
have died
possibly meet, and most likely they do meet.
In fact,
the great
scholar, Ibn Qayyim has a book called Arruh,
and he champions this argument strongly in his
book
saying,
the reality is evidence
and what we have seen is evidence
that when you go to sleep your soul
does meet the souls of people who have
passed away and he quotes certain evidences from
the time of the prophet peace be upon
him, narrations
and stories from the predecessors who existed after
the time of the prophet peace be upon
him, How they met their father and their
loved ones and their brothers or their wife
or their husband in their dream and so
on. One of the stories appears in Sahih
Muslim actually
about Atufayl ibn Amr and he is one
of the companions of the prophet peace be
upon him. It's a long story about,
a time when al Tufayl, him and another
companion without mentioning his name in the Hadith,
migrated with the prophet, peace be upon him,
from Makkah to Madinah. So we know the
migrants, the Muhajirin
are the top of the,
level of all the Sahabas, you know, the
Muhajirin and the Ansar.
So he was one of the Muhajirin, one
of the noble ones, one of the most
righteous ones.
And he had done something,
with his hands,
something that wasn't
very pleasing
and he passed away.
Al Atufayl ibnuamr he says that I went
to sleep and I dreamt and saw this
man, I saw this friend of mine in
my dreams
and I asked him how did Allah treat
you? And he was in a very good
place and a beautiful,
look and he said I found Allah's pleasure
and forgiveness
because the Prophet peace be upon him had
asked Allah to forgive him and and and
the dua of the believers, but he was
hiding his hands
and he said why are you hiding your
hands? He said these are the hands
that
I something about them that was not right.
When Atufayl woke up he went to the
prophet peace be upon him and told him
about his hands and and the Prophet peace
be upon him he said, oh Allah forgive
him and forgive his hands.
And so Atufail saw him again and his
hands were fine.
So,
this hadith is mentioned as I said in
Muslim and is an indication that yes,
people when they go to sleep,
it is highly likely that they do see,
people's souls, but I just want to make
a very important point.
Some people take these matters matters a bit
too far.
They start creating new laws,
new,
epiphanies
or prophecies
of some sort
in life based on dreams,
and this is contradictory to the Quran and
the Sunnah.
In fact you can fall into major sin
by claiming
new laws for example to the religion or
claiming prophecies,
adding
to what Allah and his messenger have said.
What I mean by prophecy is prophecy of
religion. For example some people might see a
dream,
saying you are the chosen one and so
a person's on a mission
to go as if they are a new
prophet or a new Messiah or something like
that. I've heard of people who see dreams
where the Shaytan themselves come to them and
they show them images and things and they
wake up and they think that,
they are Jesus himself.
I know of people like that. There are
people who see dreams and then based on
what they saw they think that some angel
came to them some of the future and
then they,
based upon that that they are the Mahdi
for example, the the awaited man that the
prophet told us about or that they are
the the Jesus or something like that.
Brothers and sisters these are these are all
false. You cannot see a dream and from
a dream a new law is made or
a new prophecy is made or an anointed
person is is, is appointed.
Dreams that are left right now that the
prophet, peace be upon him, told us about
that come from Wahi from Allah are not
about new things in the religion or new
prophecies, but they are either warnings or indications
for yourself that are already in the Quran
and Sunnah of day to day lives. For
example, if a person hasn't been praying, a
person has been doing wrong things, a person's
been lying a lot, a person's been harming
people or theft or something like that. Allah
may give you a warning in your dream
that you know
time is running out and you should repent
to Allah. Or let's say for example,
a person is doing well and they might
see a dream that shows them something nice
and good that shows you that you are
actually going on the right track.
Some people say I saw that the world
was ending and so on. Sometimes because of
a movie they watched or maybe because they've
been reading about the hereafter, but the point
is sometimes it can be from Allah but
it's not something new in life, like it's
not some new prophecy. The prophecies and the
future and the signs of the last hour
are already stated in the Quran and stated
by the prophet peace be upon him. There's
no more room for them to be seen
in dreams. If you claim that, then it's
as if you are saying that Allah has
not completed his mission, his his message and
that the prophet peace be upon him has
not completed his mission as it was stated
in the Quran,
Today, Aliyomah Akmatullah kum deenakum, today I've completed
your religion for you. Atwanto Aleikum Nyamaty, my
pleasure has bestowed upon you completely. Wala Adi
tualakumu islam Adiina and I am pleased with
Islam as your religion as Allah says in
the Quran. So there's nothing new, it's just
little warnings for each individuals. So don't take
it too far and start to I remember
once praying,
in in the Haram in Makkah and it
was Umrah time. We had some students with
us and as we're praying Zuhr,
some man jumped to the microphone and he
screamed out, I am Imam al Mahdi. And
you know the soldiers took him away. I
remember when I was in Lebanon several people
said I am Imam al Mahdi and there
have been 100 of people saying I am
Aissa, I am the Mahdi,
I am the Dajjal, I am I am
I am. These are not
dreams from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So please
avoid these types of
interpretations
and these types of
misinformation.
May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us, protect
us and have mercy upon our loved ones
and yours and make us from the people
of paradise. May Allah forgive us, Wassalamu alaikum
Warahmatullahi Barakatuh.