They Know About Your World | The Other Side: Barzakh and Beyond Ep. 2
You’re never alone. On this stage called life, the audience is far greater than you can imagine. Angels cheering, devils heckling, unseen creatures witnessing your every move. But the most important observer of all is Allah. While we might crave attention in this world, what truly matters is who’s watching beyond what our eyes can see.
What do the angels say about you? What does the Prophet ﷺ think of you? What news of you reaches the souls who have gone before? It’s time to shift your perspective—because your soul is always on display.
NOTE: All depictions of Barzakh are purely conceptual and only vocals were used in the making of the soundtrack.
References
- The Prophet ﷺ said: “When you hear the crowing of the rooster, ask Allah for His favor for it has seen an angel. And when you hear the braying of a donkey, seek refuge in Allah from Shaytan for it has seen a devil.” [Sahih al-Bukhari #3303, Sahih Muslim #2729]
- Regarding the person who does not answer the questions in the grave correctly, the Prophet ﷺ said: “He will be hit with an iron hammer between his ears, letting out a scream that will be heard by all those around him except for humans and jinn.” [Sahih al-Bukhari #1338].
- The Prophet ﷺ said: “Be shy of Allah like you would from a righteous person from your people.” [Ibn Hanbal, Kitab az-Zuhd]
- Those angels who carry the Throne and those around it glorify the praises of their Lord, have faith in Him, and seek forgiveness for the believers. [Qur’an, 40:7]
- The Prophet ﷺ said: “The heavens creak, and rightfully so, for there is not a space the width of four fingers except that an angel is there, placing his forehead in prostration to Allah.” [Jami’ at-Tirmidhi #2312]
- Allahs says about Shaytan: “Surely he and his troops see you from where you cannot see them.” [Qur’an, 7:27]
- The Prophet ﷺ said: “Verily Satan circulates in the body like blood.” [Sahih Muslim #2174]
- The Prophet ﷺ said: “The devil has an influence over the son of Adam, and the angel has one as well. The devil’s influence is a call toward evil and a denial of the truth, while the angel’s influence is a call toward goodness and affirmation of the truth.” [Jami’ at-Tirmidhi #2988]
- The Prophet ﷺ said, “When a man goes to bed, an angel and a devil rush to him. The angel says: End your day with good! The devil says: End your day with evil! If he remembers Allah and then falls asleep, the angel will spend the night to take care of him.” [An-Nasa’i, As-Sunan al-Kubra]
- “The seven heavens and the earth and everyone in them glorify Him. There is not a single thing that does not celebrate His praise, though you do not understand their praise.” [Qur’an, 17:44]
- Sufyan was asked: "How do Angels know if a person has a bad or a good intention?" He replied: "When a person intends to do a good deed, Angels perceive the smell of musk coming out of him, whereas if his intention is evil, they smell a bad odor.” [Ibn Taymiyyah, Majmu’ al-Fatawa]
- Allah says: “Neither heaven nor earth wept over them…” [Qur’an, 44:29]
- Ibn Abbas said: “It used to be that the earth weeps over a believer for forty days.” [Tafsir At-Tabari; Tafsir Ibn Kathir]
- The Prophet ﷺ when describing the foul stench from the place of the earth of the evil person when he dies put his cloth over his nose to describe how bad it would smell. But the fragrance of the believer would spark the curiosity even of the angels in the heavens saying where is that beautiful smell coming from? [Sahih Muslim #2872]
- Allah said to the fire: “Be cool and safe for Ibrahim.” [Qur’an, 21:69] .
- The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The angels of Ar-Rahman have their wings spread over it (i.e. Sham).” [Jami’ at-Tirmidhi #3594]
- Abu Bakr al-Marrudhi narrated: A man from Tarsus told me: “One night, I was thinking about Ahmad ibn Hanbal and how he withstood the lashes of the whip despite his frailty. I became overwhelmed with emotion and cried. That night, I saw a dream in which someone said to me: ‘What if you had seen the angels in the heavens as he was being struck? They were boasting about him among themselves!’
- I asked, ‘Did the angels truly know about Ahmad’s trial?’
- The voice replied, ‘There was not a single angel in the heavens except that they leaned forward to witness him as he was being beaten.’” [Al-Maqdisi, Al-Mihna ‘ala Imam Ahl as-Sunnah]
- Sadaqa Bin Sulaymaan al-Ja'faree has said: I did something detestable which I came to regret after the death of my father. I committed a sin, then I saw my father in a dream where he said to me: My son, I could not have been happier when we considered your deeds to be those of the righteous. However, I was highly ashamed of you on one occasion, so do not disgrace me again in front of the other believers who are also dead. His neighbors said every day after that we would hear Sadaqa making du’a from his home every night:
- "O Rectifier of the righteous, O Guide of the misguided, and O Merciful to the sinners. Grant me a beautiful return to you from which I never return back to what caused me shame. [Ibn Abi ad-Dunya, Al-Manamat]
- Anas (ra) narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Your deeds are presented to your close relatives who have passed away–if your deeds are good, they celebrate, and if they’re not good they say: O Allah do not cause them to die until you have guided them just as you had guided us.” [Musnad Ahmad]
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. He shoots, he scores, and the crowd goes wild. Have you ever seen thousands of people packed into a stadium for a big game? Think about how the crowd watches intently, cheering and booing in response to every move of the players on the field or on the court. And when something remarkable happens, like that last-minute buzzer-beating shot, they erupt in elation chanting your name. It's every kid's dream, right? Whether you're shooting imaginary game-winning shots in an empty gym, or wishing you were rich and famous, or growing up addicted to social media, watching your post rack up likes and comments for validation, it's always, somehow, about attention. We're wired to crave it. Think about this common theme in therapy. I want to be seen, I want to be heard, I want to be felt. But by who? And how? What if I told you that you already have an audience that no stadium, no movie screen, no social media following could ever rival? Everything is watching you. Above you, around you, below you, beyond you. Your soul commands an audience of millions and billions of creatures. And your whole world is actually just a stage. Perhaps you can't perceive the commentary because you can't see your audience.
And that's because you're human and you're still in dunya. Our perception as human beings is actually very limited compared to the creation around us. Think about an eagle that can see 8 times better than us, meaning they could see a rabbit from 3 kilometers away. You have bees that can see in ultraviolet light, which means they can see patterns on flowers that we don't even know exist. You have cats that can see in light levels 6 times lower than what humans can even detect. And then you have sharks that can smell a single drop of blood in 25 gallons of water. What if we could see, smell, and hear like those creatures? And think about when the Prophet ﷺ says, when you listen to the crowing of the rooster, ask Allah for his favor as that rooster just saw an angel. And when you listen to the braying of the donkey, seek refuge in Allah from the shaitan for that donkey has just seen a shaitan. He also said that all of these creatures hear the punishment of the grave except for us. Allah spares us out of mercy. I want you to think about how hard it is to function now when we hear the cries of the dying through our screens. Imagine if we could hear the cries of the actual dead from the cemeteries. Think about if we could hear our own family and friends who have passed away maybe shouting from their graves. We would be completely paralyzed. And that mercy of Allah isn't even just for the barzakh. Like would we really be able to sit in a social setting if Allah increased our vision to be able to see the particles floating in the air every time someone sneezes. Or the dust mites all around us crawling like insects. So Allah gives us the perfect senses to get to know him and at perfect resolutions. And that's why the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, أُوصِيكَ أَن تَسْتَحِي مِنَ اللَّهِ تَعَالَى كَمَا تَسْتَحِي مِنَ الرَّجُلِ الصَّالِحِ مِن قَوْمِكَ Be shy of Allah like you would from a righteous person from your people.
You can see people and you know how differently you would act if a righteous person was with you 24-7 watching you with a camera or especially in physical presence. But Allah who is greater than any righteous man sees you all the time. And so as you think about the audience of your stage, don't forget the greatest of your unseen audience, Allah. Everyone else in the crowd should be connected back to Allah in order for them to matter to you. Now what's on display in this great spectacle is not your body or your athletic abilities. It's your soul and what it inclines towards. In the crowd, there are angels that are watching you and cheering you on alongside devils that are heckling you. You might even have a fan among the angels, but their cheers are not just shouting and clapping but they chant du'as of forgiveness for you instead. وَيَسْتَغْفِرُونَ لِمَنْ فِي الْأَرْضِ But there are also the creatures of the jinn, amongst them the shayateen. Some of them have loud conversations right next to you that you can't hear at all. And Allah says, إِنَّهُ يَرَاكُمْ هُوَ وَقَبِيلُهُ مِنْ حَيْثُ لَا تَرَوْنَهُمْ Surely He and His troops see you from where you cannot see them. And those devils aren't just heckling you from the outside. They flow through you based on how much access you allow them. It's a relentless battle for you. And you have to learn to tune out the noise every day. See the more you seek Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the volume of the shaytan goes down and you can hear the angels prompting you instead. SubhanAllah, imagine being muhaddath, one who is as if he is spoken to by the angels like Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala. Whereas most people are mutawasswas, which means they're constantly subjected to the whispers of shaytan. Because just like your social media algorithm changes in accordance with your desires, so does your soul algorithm. So if you're seeking Allah, you'll start seeing and hearing accordingly and vice versa.
And then you'll come to realize it's not just angels and devils. The entire world from the elephants and ants on land to the fish in the sea are chanting your forgiveness when you're seeking Allah's pleasure. But as Allah says, لَا تَفْقَهُونَ تَسْبِحَهُمْ You don't perceive how they glorify Allah or perhaps how they seek forgiveness for you. On the other hand, you also can't really tell how everything from the angels to the insects can become naturally averse to you because of a sin you've committed or intend to commit. That doesn't mean that every animal that doesn't like you hates you on the basis of your sins. All of this just means that just like how in the barzakh everyone can see your soul beyond your body, there are already unseen elements in this world interacting with your soul as the primary version of you. So for example, your soul has a smell that it emits to other creatures. Sufyan was asked, how do the angels know if a person has a bad or a good intention? And he replied saying that when a person intends to do good, the angels perceive the smell of musk coming out of him. Whereas if he intends to do evil, they smell this wretched odor coming out of him. Even the earth itself, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, فَمَا بَكَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ السَّمَاءُ وَالْأَرْضُ that there are those who have no heaven or earth to cry for them. Ibn Abbas radiAllahu anhuma said that for the believer, the heavens and the earth weep because of the good influences they would leave behind. He said, تَتْكِلْ أَرْضُ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِ أَرْبَعِينَ صَبَاحًا The earth would weep over a believer for 40 days. On the other hand, the Prophet ﷺ, when describing the foul stench from the place of the earth of the evil person when he dies, literally took a cloth and put it over his nose to describe how bad that soul would smell. But the fragrance of the believer would spark the curiosity even of the angels in the heavens. They would say, where is that beautiful smell coming from?
And yes, they too all witnessed the oppression on earth. Was it not that when Ibrahim ﷺ was thrown in the fire that the angels waited desperately for the command to put the fire out? And that even the frogs tried to carry water in their mouths to extinguish that fire? But Allah had a plan telling the fire itself to be cool and peaceful for Ibrahim. Did the Messenger of Allah ﷺ not say that the angels have their wings spread over Asham, which is the area of the world most noted for oppression right now? And to the angels, we are not just numbers. You know, subhanAllah, I think of this narration of Imam Ahmed ﷺ when he was being tortured. There was a man who said, I thought about Imam Ahmed, his patience as he was being whipped and how he showed all the strength in spite of his physical weakness. Then I wept. And then that night I saw in my sleep as if a voice was calling out to me saying, if only you could see the angels in the skies boasting about him while he was being beaten. I said, and did the angels know of Ahmed's beatings? The voice responded, there wasn't a single angel in the heavens except that it has witnessed over him while he was being beaten. How many angels witnessed the burning of the young hafidh of Qur'an named Shaaban in Gaza? They know what we're going through. Everyone around us does. But do you know who also gets our news? Our loved ones in the barzakh. Sadaqa ibn Sulayman al-Ja'afari said that, I once did something detestable which I came to regret after the death of my father. I committed a sin and then I saw my dead father in a dream where he said to me, my son, I could not have been happier when we considered your deeds to be those of the righteous. However, I was highly ashamed of you on one occasion. So do not disgrace me again in front of the other believers who are also dead.
His neighbors said that every day after that we would hear Sadaqa making du'a from his home every single night in his qiyam, O rectifier of the righteous, O guide of the misguided and O merciful to the sinners, grant me a beautiful return to you from which I never returned back to what caused me shame. In one narration by Anas radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu, the Prophet ﷺ said, your deeds are presented to your close relatives who have passed away. If your deeds are good, they celebrate and if they're not good, they say Allahumma la tumithum hatta tahdiya hum kama hadaytana, O Allah, do not cause them to die until you have guided them just as you had guided us. This is the wish of the righteous before us and our news reaches them without the propaganda of the devils. And I wonder, I wonder how the news of the free Palestine and al-Aqsa will be received by all of the shuhada before inshaAllah. I wonder how happy Khadijah radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu was to hear about Fatih Mecca and I also wonder how the Prophet ﷺ feels about our efforts or lack thereof today. It's narrated that Abad ibn Abad once visited Ibrahim ibn Salih rahimahullah while he was the Amir of Palestine and Ibrahim said to him, advise me. So Abad said to him, your deeds are presented to the dead and amongst them the Prophet ﷺ. On that alone Ibrahim wept until his beard was soaked with his tears. I wonder what it was like when Ibrahim died and maybe he met the Prophet ﷺ himself. See entering the barzakh is like going backstage after it's all over or meeting the spectators and hearing what they were saying about you all along. But you don't want to wait till then to figure it out. Ask yourself now, who are you to all of those who are watching you? What does the Prophet ﷺ think about you right now? What does he think about the state of our ummah? Is it the angels who boast about you or the devils who boast about what they've done
to you? And what do the dead say about you? What have your loved ones who have preceded you into the barzakh heard about your deeds? Do they have a different opinion about you than all of those around you now? What's your reputation in a realm you have yet to enter? What's your reputation in a realm you have yet to enter?
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