Friday, May 27, 2022

The Story of a young man who spoke from his grave -"O Umar! My Lord has given me two gardens, inside garden."

Post Originally Published:6/11/2012




The Story of a young man who spoke from his grave


Imam Ibn Askair al-Shafi`I [d.571A.H] narrates with the following chain of narration: [Tarikh Damishq, Vol 45, p.450] Abul Hasan Ali bin al Muslim from Abdul Aziz bin bin Ahmed from Abu Muhammed bin Abi Nasr from his father   abu Ali from Abdul Wahab al Maydani from Abu Nasr bin al Jabban who said that he heard from Abu Suleiman bin Zabar from Abul Hasan Umar bin Jam’a bin amr al kufi from Imarn  bin Musa al Tartusi from  Abu Saleh from Yahya bin Ayyub  al-Khazai that : During the caliphate of Sayyedina Umar ibn Khattab ( radi Allah ‘anhu) there was a young man who  used to spend his time worshiping  and praying  in masjid . Umar ( radi Allah ‘anhu) was  very happy  with him. The man used to perform isha (night) prayers and used to come back to his old father.  On this way, there was a house of a woman who liked this young man. The woman used to stand on his way. One day the woman ensnared the young man and he followed her. When they both reached at the door of the woman’s house, the young man started remembering Allah . The following verses came out from his tongue:  [Al Araf, 201; 7:201]


إِنَّ الَّذِينَ اتَّقَوْا إِذَا مَسَّهُمْ طَائِفٌ مِّنَ الشَّيْطَانِ تَذَكَّرُوا فَإِذَا هُم مُّبْصِرُونَ

The young man became unconscious and fell down. The woman called her maid; they both lifted the young man and dropped him at his door. The family members of the young man lifted him and took him inside the house. At late night the man became conscious. When his father inquired him about the incidence, the young man narrated the entire incidence. 

The father asked him:  O my son! Which verses ( ayat) did you recite?  The man repeated the verse and again became unconscious and fell down. The family members tried to revoke his consciousness, but he was dead.

They washed his dead body and buried him.  

In the morning when the news reached Umar ( radi Allah ‘anhu)  he came  to his father for condolence and asked as to why was he not informed ? 

The father told him that as it was night, they did not inform.  

Umar (radi Allah ‘anhu) said: “Take me to his grave”.  Umar (radi Allah ‘anhu) and his companions reached at the grave of that young man.

Umar (radi Allah ‘amhu ) said: “ O young man!  ولمن خاف مقام ربه جنتان 
(Whosoever feared to stand in front of his Lord then there are two gardens for him,55:46) 

The man replied  two times from his grave:

  
O Umar! My Lord has given me two gardens, inside garden.

O Umar! My Lord has given me two gardens, inside garden.

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This narration has been recorded by the following hadith masters:

Hafiz Ibn Kathir [d.774 AH] ( Tafsir, under  Sura Al Araf, ayat 201)

Imam Suyuti [d.911 AH] (Sharh al Sudur bi Sharh hal al Mawta wa al Qubur)

Imam Ali ibn Husamud-Din al-Muttaqi al-Hindi [d.975 AH] ( Kanzul Ummal,4634)

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Important Note for our Wahabbi/Salafi brothers

The Founder of Wahabbi cult, Ibn Abdal Wahhab Najdi al Tamimi has also mentioned this complete narration [ as recorded by Imam Ibn Asakir] in his book “Ahkam Tamanni al Mawt”. 

As per Wahabbi belief all the Muslims in the Arabian Peninsula had become “mushrik” and were worshippinggraves” .

Ibn Abdal Wahab Najdi eradicated this ‘shirk ‘by killing innocent Muslims. 

4 Imam al-Bayhaqi [d.458 AH] has narrated this incidence with another chain of narration  and with a shorter description which is as follows:[ Shu'bul  Iman, no 736]

Abul Hussain  Ali bin Muhammed  bin Bushran  from Abu Ali Barz’ai from Abdullah bin Muhammed bin Ubaid  from Muhammed bin Yahya  bin Abi Hatim azdi from Abu Jafar Razi  from Abu Jafar al Sayah from Rabi bin Sabih  from Hasan [al Basari]

In the narration of Imam al-Bayhaqi it says: Umar (radi Allah ‘anhu) stood near the dead man and said “Two Gardens are for you, Two Gardens are for you” [End of al Bayhaqi’s narration]

5 Imam Suyuti  [ The version of al-Bayhaqi, al Dur al Manthur, Surah Al Rahman, ayat 46]

6 Imam  al –Alusi [The version of al-Bayhaqi ,Ruh al-Ma'ani, Surah Al Rahman ayat 46]

7 Imam Ali ibn Husamud-Din al-Muttaqi al-Hindi [The version of al-Bayhaqi , Kanzul Ummal,4635


Notes

These are two different chains of narrations.

The chain of Imam Bayhaqi is weak. But the other chain [as mentioned by Imam Ibn Asakir] is not objectionable. Even if both the chains were weak, they would strengthen each other.

Hafiz Ibn Kathir has quoted Imam Ibn Asakir.

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Imam Tabarani, and Abu Na‘im in his Dala’il al-Nubuwwa, relate from Nu‘man b. Bashir: Zayd b. Kharija suddenly dropped down dead in the marketplace. 

We took his body to his house. 

That evening between sunset and the night prayer, while the women were weeping all around him, he exclaimed: 

Silence! Silence!’ 

Then, saying: ‘Muhammad is Allah's Messenger! Peace be upon you, O Messenger of Allah!’, he spoke most eloquently for a while. We looked: he was dead, without life.”

[Ibn Kathir, al-Bidaya wa’n-Nihaya viii, 291 (through various lines); al-Haythami, Majma’ az-Zawa’id v, 179-80 (through two lines of transmission.]

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