How Can Angels Enter Graves? Understanding Islam's Unseen Realities

Everything living do they then not believe Allah here says To those who disbelieve not see that the heavens and the earth We're together and we separated them. What does this mean? Did any of us see this separation that took place between the heavens and the earth? Obviously, this was before our creation. It's not something we can observe now. It's in the past. Second of all, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions the heavens in plural, in the plural sense and the only thing that we can observe is singular. One one heaven. That is the lowest heaven of the dunya. We can't see all the seven heavens. You can only see one. Allah mentions in the Quran that he had beautified and adorned the heaven of the Duniya with stars. With celestial bodies. We understand this to mean that everything that we see in the heavens above us are, it's just part of the lowest level of the heaven. Lowest heaven, one heaven. There are still six above it. How are they? Allah, we don't know. We can't see them. So, the question arises. When Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says to the disbelievers not see that the heavens and the earth were one thing and we separated the two. How can we see this? We don't even see this. The answer is sight here what's meant by it is knowledge Allah interchanges the two throughout the Quran. Knowledge and vision site. You see something and knowing something are interchangeable in the Arabic language, certain places. This is one of those instances. Why is that? Because that which is known absolutely and positively. is referred to as being seen. Right? is referred to as being seen Now, for instance, somebody, we even have this in English. I mean, it's not really necessarily unique to Arabic but let's see if we can come up with an example of this in English. For instance, If somebody, if someone heard something. On the radio, let's say. Wouldn't it be correct for us to say, didn't you see how he was speaking? That's normal, right? We could say that and it's correct. It's a correct sentence. Didn't you see how he was, you know, I didn't see how he was speaking. I heard how he was speaking but we understand that to be the same thing or if they said something and you read it, as a text, as a text message. Don't you see how they're speaking? This is not hearing or seeing now. Now, I'm reading. I know what they said but we use sight and knowledge interchangeably, right? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said so in translating this how would we translate this? The proper way to translate because sight articulates knowledge but not all knowledge articulates sight, right? And so what does this mean? Everyone who saw knows but not everyone who knows saw something. Now, the question here is how would we translate this? Site here entails two things, two meanings, knowledge and and the act of seeing something. But when we translate things, we can't translate all the meanings. It's just not possible. It's not possible to translate all the meanings because now we're no longer translating. We're explaining now. Now, we have turned it from a translation into an exegesis. It's not to translate all the meanings there are meanings that are less apparent. There are meanings that are more apparent. There are meanings that are. implied. They are it's impossible to translate all the meanings. And it's impossible to translate word for word. I know some have attempted this but this is something that the scholars of Islam have prohibited the literal translation of the Quran. This is prohibited in Islam. Because it conveys the wrong set of meanings and what's intended by something that is said or words is their meanings. Not necessarily their structure. Also, the scholars have mentioned that it is, even if it were permissible to translate word for word, it would be impossible. It's not possible due to the different ways that verbs are used and the different ways that sentences are structured in Arabic and English. It's not possible to translate Arabic into English word for word or any other language for that matter. understanding this by translation If we are to translate, we have to choose the most relative meanings. How do we choose? We can't include all the meanings. You just can't. So, we have to choose some of those meanings and translate them. Which meanings are the ones that get the choice are are going to be chosen in our translation. They are going to be the meanings that are most pertinent, the meanings that are most obvious, and the meanings that are clear by the context. the contex t is going to put everything into perspective Theref ore, in translating something this, we wouldn't translate it as You those who disbelieve not see that the heavens and the earth? Because this will articulate a meaning that is undesirable and would necessitate translation would necessitate explanation and so forth. Rather, do those who disbelieve not see or not know that the heavens and the earth were once one and we parted them. We separated them. and we made of water everything that is living. Life is two types as the scholars mentioned, there are things which are alive by way of a soul. Then there are things which are alive by way of growth and reproduction. These things don't necessarily have a soul trees and vegetation and bacteria and you know, things this. These are things that are living because we see that they change and they metamorphosize but they don't necessarily have a soul. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions that everything that is living he has made from water. We know that This includes the human beings, includes all of the living things that we can see or discover. But we know that the gin are created from fire. Are they are created from? The edge of fire. So how is it that They can be created from fire, wouldn't they fall into the generality of this verse? The answer is First of all, just because the gin were created from an essence, an essential material that is derived from fire, doesn't mean that they are still fire. That is not correct. Just we are created from dust, from dirt, from clay. We're not clay. We're not dirt. have changed from that original thing into something completely different now. and so, this is a question that some people ask sometimes. It's kind of a bothersome question People will ask things such as How will the can be punished in the hellfire if they are created from fire. This is such a silly question. And these are questions that honestly the antagonist of Islam ask when they try to make fun of Islam. This is the kind of questions that they ask. As if this never occurred to any of the companions. This never occurred to any of the the prophet noone has never occurred to any of them and now it occur to you because you know and you think and they didn't think a very silly notion How is this possible? Well, first of all, this is going to be an issue. This is going to be problematic for the creation. This is not problematic for the creator. That's the first thing. Second of all, Just because they have been created from fire, doesn't mean that they still are fire. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us that the will enter paradise and paradise has water in it. It has rivers. It has coolness in it. All of these things which are the antithesis of fire. Yet, they will enjoy it as human beings will enjoy it. and so, these types of questions become sometimes other questions and other forms the prophet tells us that when a person is placed in his grave, two angels will come to him and sit him up in his grave and will ask him three questions. So, they'll ask, well, how can you sit up in your grave? That's really what you learned from the narration. That's the only thing that you learned of all the things that this narration is about That's what we took away from it. We took away how do you sit up when you're in your grave? And it's it's interesting because the prophet never found to ask that question. The companions never found to ask that question. And the scholars of Islam throughout the throughout the centuries have never found to ask that question. Because it an unquestion. That is not a question that you would ask. It's a silly question. It's based on the premise that this life and the next life are the same thing. I hope people ask other questions well, let's say a very terrible person dies today and a person who's not so terrible dies before, who's less terrible and this one that is less terrible has been in the ground being punished in his grave for thousands of years and this one who is more terrible is not going to be punished in his grave as long. Riddle me that, right? As if time is something that you can calculate in the grave. You calculate time just you calculate time here with the quartz stone and and These are questions that person who has respect honestly, first of all, the nature of these questions is troubling in themselves. I understand that not everyone who asks these questions has ill intentions. Sometimes, people are just curious. Yet, the basis of these questions If we were to compare these questions with the questions of the antagonist of Islam, they would be very similar. They asked the same kind of questions. Those who make fun of Islam make fun of the prophets and messengers throughout human history. This is the kind of questions that they ask. They ask these questions. Right? The prophet tells them that he went to Al Aqsa and came back in one night. Oh how could you do that? None of the companions asked that. Not one. None of said, how did you do that? Because they understood that that's not the point of the statement. He said he did it. He did it. I don't need to know how it happened. It happened. Now, what am I supposed to take away from this? That's what a Muslim says. Ones who ask this question were the non Muslims. The antagonist, the ones who were trying to make fun of him. They said, oh, how did you do that? Huh? It's a monstrous. How'd you do that? Prove it to us. Show us how you did it. What kind of animal did you ride? Who came to you? What did he say? What did you say? Where did you go? This is the kind of thing that they ask. In an antagonistic spirit. The prophet says, when a person is placed in his grave, the two angels will come and they will sit him up and ask, hang on a second. Wait, you said sit him up? How are they going to sit him up? He's in his grave. Is that something a Muslim would ask the prophet Companions heard this. They didn't take that away. A Muslim will listen to this statement and say, well, it's going to happen. I don't know how but it will and how doesn't really matter. It is going to happen. So, what I'm what is my takeaway from this statement? Why am I being told this? Well, I'm being told this to you to be better to derive these lessons. This is what the way a Muslim thinks. A non Muslim thinks with this kind of hermeneutic of of suspicion Hey, hang on. How is he going to sit up in his grave? Oh, oh yeah, oh yeah? Where are they going to come from? There's no way that they could get in there, huh? Right? It's not open. It's all closed up. Are they going to open the graveyard? How are they going to do? This is the questioning of someone who is looking for a problem with what is being said. Someone who is suspicious of what is being said at the least, antagonizing, at worst. Islam is built upon belief in the unseen. Nature, the unseen by its very nature is that it is unfathomable. It is super rational. We don't know how to. We don't know how it is because we have nothing similar to it and that which is seen. We have no parallel. This is how we understand things. We have, for instance, the nature of time. What is time? Well, when time happens, certain things happen. Right? We refer to this as a third dimension. When time elapses, things decay, things tend towards chaos, etcetera. This is how we understand time. But when we look at infinity That mean, infinity means that time essentially doesn't exist. That's what that means. Do we know what that means? We don't really know what that means. I mean, we understand what the meaning, the concept is in theory but we've never seen it before. And even if we are experiencing it, we still won't really fully grasp the magnitude of eternity. Because we still haven't seen it. This is, this is new to us, right? and this is how the unseen works. We have things in paradise can only be imagined in a very fantastical sense Can I can I write a book about the physics of paradise? Of course not. You have rivers that flow above ground without any riverbeds. And you have silver that you can see through but it is transparent but it is silver at the same time. Those things are opposites. How can that happen? There's no sun but there is light and there's also shade. What does that mean? Why is their shade if there's no sun and if there's no sun, how is their shade? I mean, light has to be coming from some direction etcetera, etcetera. These are not questions that a person asks. Just because paradise is described to us, doesn't know, doesn't mean that we know how it is. We don't. Even with all these vivid descriptions, we still don't know what they mean. Oh, the prophet said, that Allah has prepared for his righteous servants, a place the likes of which no eye has ever seen, no ear has ever heard, and has never been imagined. So, no matter how much we sit and imagine paradise even by the description of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, we still haven't imagined it. Why? Because we have nothing to base our imagination on. Yeah, we have names but that's the only thing that's similar in paradise, just the name. Common name Everything else is completely different.

[Arabic recitation]