For Those Left Behind
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Ep. 7: Do They Hear me When I Visit? | For Those Left Behind
Do the dead hear us speak about them? What about when we visit them? Do they hear us greeting them? Does du'a at the side of the grave differ from du'a from a distance for them?
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:15 Prophet Muhammad ﷺ visitation of cemetary
Before the Prophet ﷺ's final illness, he ﷺ chose to make 2 last trips. They were to visit the Shuhada, or martyrs, of Uhud, and to visit the people of the Baqi, in order to seek forgiveness for them and make du'a for them.
01:45 Can the deceased hear us when we visit the grave?
02:18 What do we say when we visit the grave?
Say, "Peace be upon you, Oh inhabitants of the graves, from the believers and Muslims. God wiling we will soon join you. We ask Allah for forgiveness for us and for you."
03:59 Why should we visit the graveyard?
The dead do not need us to visit them. Our du'a at the graveyard is not better than our du'a at home. Instead the Prophet ﷺ told us to visit the graves of our loved ones because it reminds us of death.
We visit the graves to:
- Say salaam to our loved ones
- Make du'a for them, knowing that our du'a and good deeds will reach them wherever they may be
- Remind ourselves of death
05:57 Can the dead hear me on Earth?
The dead don't hear everything on earth. They do not roam like the living and hear everything that's going on. They hear
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. There is literally nothing that we can beat the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam with in terms of ihsan. We started off the series with talking about how the right of the Muslim on the Muslim is that you pray janazah on them, that you visit them. And you think about loyalty and courtesy and just the way the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was so dedicated to those that were dedicated to him. And just like he did with that Abyssinian woman, one of my favorite narrations about the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is actually in the final chapter of his life where the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam chooses before his final illness to make two last trips. And I'm not including the masjid in that because we know that in the end of the life of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam he would try to go to the masjid as much as he could until his health would no longer allow him to. But his last two trips, alayhis salatu was salam, were to go to Uhud and to visit the shuhada of Uhud and to seek forgiveness for them and make du'a for them. And then his final trip in the hadith of Abu Muehibah radiAllahu ta'ala Anwar, a very famous narration, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, I was commanded to seek forgiveness for Ahlul Baqir, for the people of the Baqir. So he goes out to the graveyard in the Baqir and he seeks forgiveness for his companions in the Baqir. Such a beautiful testimony to his character, alayhis salatu was salam, and setting the example for us. So he makes those last two trips to them to seek forgiveness for them, giving us that insight into how often we should visit our loved ones and how often we should make du'a for them. Now a lot of times the question comes up, can they hear me when I go? Do they feel me when I go? And I want us to talk about this for a bit inshallah. Now obviously with the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he has
angels that roam the earth that deliver our salam to him, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. No matter where we are, whether we're in Medina or in Texas or Morocco or wherever, you say Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, it will reach the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. That is obviously something that is for the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. For us, when we go to the graveyards, what do we say? Think about the du'a that we make, and it has various iterations. As-salamu alaykum ahl al-diyar, minal mu'mineena wal-muslimeen. You say peace be on to you, oh inhabitants of the grave, from the believers and from the Muslims. So you're giving a general salam to everyone in the graveyard. Wa inna insha'allahu bikum lahiqoon, and we are soon to follow. Antum usabiqun, you are the forerunners, wa inna insha'allahu bikum lahiqoon. And again, there are various iterations of this hadith. So you are the forerunners, you have preceded us, and we are soon to follow. Nas'alullaha lana walakum al-afiya. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for forgiveness for us and for you. So you're really talking directly to them in that sense, right? You're addressing this salam to them as you go into the graveyard. We know of course, when we go to visit the grave of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, we say as-salamu alayka ya rasulullah. We send salam to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, and then salam to Abu Bakr, and then salam to Umar, may Allah be pleased with them. And you find by the way with Ibn Umar radiallahu ta'ala anhuma, it's a beautiful narration that when Ibn Umar radiallahu anhuma would go to greet the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and Abu Bakr and Umar, it's different for him. Why? Because Umar radiallahu anhu is his father. So what would he say? He would say as-salamu alayka ya rasulullah, and then he would move over and he would say as-salamu alayka ya Abu Bakr, and then he would move over and say as-salamu alayka ya abatee, peace be onto you my dear father. SubhanAllah. So this is a beautiful thing obviously that belongs to the children of Abu Bakr and Umar
when they would move past the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam and Abu Bakr and Umar. So the question becomes once again, what is the value of going? What is the value of saying salam? Can they hear the salam? Can they feel our presence? The practice of visiting the graveyard was actually late in legislation. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam actually said that inni nahaytukum an ziyaratul qubur. I used to forbid you from visiting the graves, but then the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said visits because it reminds you of death. Why do I think this is so important in this discussion? Because it's not like they need us to visit them. Meaning what? You know with the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, our salam, our salam reaches him wherever. And of course that's something only for the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. But with everybody, your du'as or at least those again on whose behalf people of iman, on whose behalf good deeds are continued, your du'as still count for them wherever you are. Your du'a at the graveyard is not better than your du'a at home. Your good deeds that you do on their behalf, that can be anywhere, right? And they're far more in need of that than anything else. And that's to give us perspective that the only reason the prohibition of visiting the graves was lifted was for our benefits, not those that are the occupants of the graves, but those that visit the graves to remind themselves of death. However, remember when Amr ibn al-As radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu was passing away and he told his children to wait a bit. So, asta'na sabikum, I can be comforted by your presence until the messengers of my Lord come to me. There are narrations that seem to match with what Amr ibn al-As radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu was saying that when a believer goes to visit their brother or sister in the graveyard, asta'na sabihim, that they feel their presence and they respond to their salam. But again, even if those narrations are debatable among some of the scholars, the point is that we go to say salam regardless to them. We go to make dua. We go to remind ourselves of death,
knowing that dua and good deeds will reach them wherever they may be. So, what can we establish in regards to the hearing of the dead? We know that they don't hear everything on earth. And so, they're not like the living in that they can roam and be in your room and wherever they may be and hear everything that's still going on in this dunya. But how much can they hear in their place, in their graves right now? What we can establish is actually from the sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam first and foremost in regards to the janaza itself. That the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam mentioned that the person hears the last footsteps leaving the janaza. There's also the hadith in the aftermath of the battle of Badr that after the disbelievers died, the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said, ya fulan ibn fulan, he started to call out to them one by one, those that were the enemies of Islam. And he said, oh fulan, oh so and so, the son of so and so, oh so and so, the son of so and so, oh so and so, the son of so and so. hal wajattum ma wa'adakum rabbukum haqqa fa inni wajattum ma wa'adani allahu haqqa That have you found what Allah has promised you to be true? Because we have certainly found what Allah has promised us to be true. And when the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said that, they asked the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, ya Rasulullah, can they hear what you're saying? And the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said that you cannot hear any better than what they are hearing. So Allah certainly caused them to hear what the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was saying to them. So what's the conclusion of all of this? The conclusion is they will hear what Allah wants them to hear. Allah will cause them to hear what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala causes them to hear. Your deeds can still reach them, your du'as can still reach them, and certainly there is a plethora of evidence, primary and secondary, that establishes this idea of going to the graveyard when we say salam to them. We don't ask them to do things for us, we don't ask them to make du'a for us, none of that. But that there is some comfort and some connection with the salam to them, and there's certainly an increased comfort with the du'as and the good deeds that you
send on their behalf.
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