Praise be to Allaah,the Lord of the worlds. May the peace and blessings of Allaah be upon Muhammad, His last Messenger his household, his companions and all those who follow him till the Last day.
The ability to talk audibly and converse intelligently distinguish mankind from the rest of creature. We exalt when a baby utters the first audible words and we indulge in conversations all through our daily activities. If you are in doubt of mans capacity to converse freely and fully, ask the telecoms companies!
Conversations In The Grave!
So we converse all through life (using sign languages; in some cases); but do conversations end with the end of our earthly life? Apparently NOT! Revelation tells us that man will continue conversations even after death - from shortly after death, through the stay in the grave, right up to the Judgement Plane and even in the respective eternal abodes of Paradise [may Allaah grant us the good end] and Hell [may Allaah save us from its torment].
This edition is devoted to Conversations In The Hereafter and you should read it very carefully. Amazingly, it is the conversations in the grave that set the tone for the rest of the conversations in the Hereafter. So how would you converse in the grave?
In al-Baraa ibn Aazibs long hadeeth, the Rasul (sallaallahu alayhi wa sallaam) narrated inter alia: "So his soul is returned to his body and there come to him two angels who make him sit up and they say to him, Who is your Lord? He says, Allaah. They say, What is your religion? He says, My religion is Islam.They say, Who is this man who was sent among you? He says, He is the Messenger of Allaah (sallaallahu alayhi wa sallaam). They say: What did you do? He says, I read the Book of Allaah and I believed in it.Then a voice calls out from heaven, My slave has spoken the truth, so prepare for him a bed from Paradise and clothe him from Paradise, and open for him a gate to Paradise., Then there comes to him some of its fragrance, and his grave is made wide, as far as he can see. Then there comes to him a man with a handsome face and handsome clothes, and a good fragrance, who says, Receive the glad tidings that will bring you joy this day. He says, Who are you? Your face is a face which brings glad tidings. He says. I am your righteous deeds.
He says, O Lord, hasten the Hour so that I may return to my family and my wealth.... " Hold On To The Two Worthy Handles And the Prophet (sallaallahu alayhi wa sallaam) continued and said: "Then his soul is returned to his body, and there come to him two angels who make him sit up and they say to him, Who is your Lord? He says, Oh, oh. I dont know! They say, What is your religion? He says, Oh, oh. I dont know!
Then a voice calls out from heaven. Prepare for him a bed from Hell and clothe him from Hell, and open for him a gate to Hell! Then there comes to him some of its heat and hot winds. and his grave is constricted and compresses him until his ribs interlock. Then there comes to him a man with an ugly face and ugly clothes. and a foul stench. who .says. Receive the bad news, this is the day that you were promised.He says, Who are you? Your face is a face which forebodes evil.He says, I am your evil deeds.He says, O Lord, do not let the Hour come, do not let the Hour come." (Ahmad; Saheeh)
Some of the people said, "O Messenger of Allaah, there is no one who would have an angel standing by him holding a hammer but he would be dumb founded." The Messenger of Allaah (sallaallahu alayhi-wa sallaam) said: "Allaah will keep firm those who believe, with the word that stands firm." (Q 14[lbraaheem]:27) (Ahmad; Saheeh)
That is it then; it all boils down to two things: your belief in Allaah will make you firm to have meaningful conversations and your Ittibaa(faithful following) of Allaahs Messenger (sallaallahu alayhiwa sallaam) will grant you the ease of the hereafter. Two worthy handles: hold firmly to them!
This article was culled from the publications of Deen Communication Limited