Can the Dead Really Hear Us?
Visiting Graves and Mourning Practices: Separating Islamic Teachings from Cultural Innovations
Summary
Sheikh Ali Mashhour continues his explanation of Zadul-Ma'ad by discussing the Islamic etiquettes of visiting graves and practices related to death and mourning. The lecture addresses common misconceptions about whether the deceased can hear visitors, clarifying that authentic Islamic sources indicate the dead cannot hear the living except in specific, isolated incidents mentioned in the Quran and Sunnah. The sheikh explains various innovations that have entered Muslim practice, including visiting graves on specific days like Eid or Jummah, reciting Quran on behalf of the deceased, the practice of 40-day mourning periods, and grave worship—many of which stem from cultural influences rather than Islamic sources. The lecture emphasizes the proper Islamic manner of consoling the bereaved and the correct emotional response to death, which should involve acceptance of Allah's decree and dignified behavior.
Note: This transcript was generated using YouTube's automatic captioning, with AI-assisted cleanup for readability. It may contain inaccuracies due to background noise, audio quality, or limitations of the transcription software — particularly during Arabic recitation. Listener discretion is advised; please refer to the original video for precise wording.
Last week we were discussing visiting the graves and the way that a person should visit the graves we were discussing the sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam with.
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Foreign we mentioned some of the etiquettes of visiting the grave and how a person should visit the graveyards we mentioned that when a person visits the grave he should not walk over the graves he should not stand on a grave he should not sit on a grave and some of the said of some of the companions and it's also been narrated in a narration of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam that they would take their shoes off when they would go into the cemetery and walk between the graves now this is something which is preferable it's not something which is absolutely mandatory and sometimes the way that the graveyard is set up or the amount of people or the situation at hand may cause a person to have to walk over a grave or to stand on a grave in this case it would not be haram but to optionally walk over a grave or to optionally stand or sit on a grave this is something which is inappropriate and impermissible likewise the issue of timing when a person goes to visit the graves there is a an innovation that is very widespread where people will go to visit the graves on eid day or they will go to visit the graves on jummah right and this is not something that the companions or the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam used to ever do there's no particular time or place when a person should visit the great no particular time or occasion when a person should go to visit the graves they visit the grave when they have time whether it's during a holiday whether it's during jumaau whether it's during on a monday or tuesday or just a regular day on your way home from work any time a person decides to go visit the graves but to go visit the grave on on a day specifically or on juma's specifically every time or only to go during that time this is something that the scholars of islam have mentioned is a type of innovation and this stems really from a belief that the people in the grave can hear the people who come to visit them and this is incorrect.
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So we have narrations that mention that the person in his grave hears the person that comes to visit him we have narrations that mention that when a person goes to visit someone in a grave that the person in that grave is comforted by the visitation of the person and the correct opinion is that the person who is in the grave is unable to communicate or hear those who go to visit them and this is something which is clear in the quran allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam in numerous verses and you are unable to make the dead hear he said sallallahu alaihi and he also said to him subhanahu ta'ala and you are unable to make those in their graves here and he's also mentioned subhanahu ta'ala that the people in the graves who are called upon by their worshipers they cannot hear them and if they could hear them they would not be able to answer their calls anyways these narrations that mention that a person in his grave can hear they are two types there are narrations which are explicit they explicitly state this but they are not authentic they are not authentic narrations and then there are other narrations which are authentic but they are not explicit what does that mean so let's take for example a narration that most of us know that is authentic the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam that when a person is placed in his grave allah subhanahu restores his hearing and he is able to hear those who who buried him leave the graveyard and walk away we've heard this an erasion many of us know this narration this doesn't mean that the person in his grave hears all the time it just means that this particular occasion at this moment they are able to hear we can't take this and extrapolate from it that the person in his grave hears all the time we can't do that another narration which is similar to this one is in the battle of buddha when the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam addressed the disbelievers who were killed and thrown in the well at the battle of badr and he called out to them and said did you all find what your lord had promised to be a true or not and are why are you speaking to bodies that have become you know that have begun to decompose and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said to omar lady nfc s i swear by allah you are not able to hear me any better than they are right except that they are unable to respond now does this mean that all dead people hear in the way that these people heard no that is not true even they mentioned regarding this narration that allah wa ta'ala a one-time thing allowed these men to hear the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam under those circumstances to increase their anguish and to greaten his victory sallallahu alaihi wasallam over them this is not something that happens to everyone not all dead people can hear if this were the case then the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would have spoken to many graves and many dead people much more than we have in narrations right he would have gone to the graveyard and actually spoken we would have lots of narrations where he goes to the graveyard and speaks to different people of his companions but we don't have that all we have are isolated incidents and we cannot take these isolated incidents and extrapolate them to come with an overall theme and the reason for that is that we cannot make ps on something that is part of the unseen.
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People go to visit the graveyard during aid they go to visit the graveyard during jumaan they go to visit the graveyard during these times why do they do this often times it is because of a belief that the people in the grave can actually hear them and there are no authentic narrations that articulate that a person in the grave can hear them and this belief is actually very dangerous this belief is actually very dangerous.
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Therefore it is conclusive and it is the correct opinion that the people in the grave cannot hear they are unable to hear they are unable to interact with this world and there's something important where do most of these things come from where people believe in hauntings people believe in haunted houses haunted places haunted cemeteries right it's because they believe that the dead can still you know subhanallah the dead have nothing better to do than to hang out in houses and scare people and run around as if yani they are not tied up in a much more important issue and that is either paying or reaping the rewards of their sins or good deeds this is something very important for the muslim to understand this is not something that is a belief of the muslim allah moving on to how the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would console the people who passed away he said what kanam.
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Now we are speaking about how the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would do what is called is a taser which is to console somebody right to convey a person's best regards to someone who has been bereaved right obviously we have wakes that we attend okay this is all part of the azap process he says it is of the heady the way of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam that he was all would always console and convey his condolences to the to the family of the departed of the deceased and it was not of his sunna that he would gather for that or that he would recite any part of the quran during such gatherings he would neither recite the quran at the graveyard nor anywhere else outside of the graveyard and all of these actions that people do he says is an innovation which is newly invented and something which is disliked this is the words of ibn al-qaeda so what he's speaking about is a specific type of wake where people get together they'll get together on the third night or the seventh night or the 40th night right and they will recite the quran or sometimes in other countries egypt and some of these places they'll pay someone and he makes all of his money that way by reading the quran on behalf of someone who died so someone dies and they will go to the sheikh and they'll pay him money and the sheikh will recite the mushaf on behalf of the deceased and then they'll have an anniversary every year on that time they will gather all together and he will recite the quran for them etc all of this is innovation none of this happened in the time of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam ever it never happened right it never happened that the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam would recite the quran on behalf of the dead ever neither nor any other part of the quran let alone the entirety of the quran this is something which is an innovation and a newly invented matter we don't find this in the prophet sallallahu alaihi we don't find this in the sunnah of the companions likewise.
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Is.
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Foreign.
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Likewise we have this issue of 40 days 40 days comes up in a lot of cultures right in the asian cultures in places pakistan india places philistine places like some of the slavic countries that 40 days is the time of mourning so if somebody dies we mourn for 40 days what that entails differs based on the country and philistine which is a country i lived in that i can speak about we would not use the television for 40 days we you know men would not shave for 40 days women would not go out for 40 days etc this number 40 days of mourning this is something which has nothing to do with islam at all it's not taken from the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam or his companions it's not mentioned in the quran it's not mentioned in the sunnah and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam this was not observed even for his death.
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This was not observed not even for his death sallallahu alaihi wasallam and when we trace back these 40 days we find that this is actually been taken from the hindu tradition the hindu tradition they have mourning for 40 days the hindus do a lot of weird stuff and some of the things that they do is that they mourned for 40 days they have anniversaries for death they the woman if it's a woman her husband dies this is considered a bad omen she is her head is shaved and she or she is placed in the house of her late husband and burned alive in that house they do all kinds of weird funky wonky stuff and some of the time these things are these things are brought into islam by muslims being affected by that land or region so if you want to if you want to trace back innovation okay you can always trace innovation where it comes from one of these innovations is this 40 days where does it come from well for example we have people that live as a muslim minority amongst the majority of hindus let's say right and all of their neighbors and everything that they grew up around and everything that they know is that 40 days is the thing so muslims start to do this too right and then when those muslims travel outside of that place they spread that belief to other places when they go to heads when they move to other countries etc right and over years over you know decades or hundreds of years centuries it starts to ingrain itself deeper into muslim countries and muslim communities to the point where it seems it's part of islam but it has nothing to do with islam now if we look at for example the worship of graves if we look at the worship of graves the worship of graves branches back and at the heart of it is the belief that the person in the grave can hear you so people start to go to the grave and make dua to the person in the grave right and they start to make offerings to the person in the grave because the idea is the person in the grave is closer to a love than me so if i'm nice to the person in the grave he'll put in a good word with me he'll put in a good word for me with allah subhanahu wa ta'ala exactly what catholicism is based on catholics that's exactly what they believe they worship mary they worship mary more than they worship jesus that they believe is the son of god more than they worship god right why is that because mary she you know she has good she's she has a good relationship with her son you know so if i'm nice to the mother right then the son will put in a good word for me and then he'll put in a good word for me with his father right that's the idea this is this is this is exactly what the mushrikeen believes and so some of these beliefs are extremely dangerous and it's important that we understand the danger of these beliefs likewise we mention the issue of reciting the quran on behalf of the deceased this is not something that is part of the sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi so let's break down this issue a little bit your melody.
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Yes.
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He mentions that it was of his ways that when he would visit the deceased when he would be in a funeral when someone would pass away that he would be very calm and tranquil and he would be filled with acceptance of the decree of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and he would praise allah and he would do is allah belong we belong into allah we are returning and he is associated himself from anyone who rips his clothing during a during a hardship or crisis or a person who raises his voice in calling out to the dead or someone who raises his voice and screams during crises or a person who shaves his head during crisis now all of this is reported by imam muslim rahimahullah we see this in movies a lot right somebody dies or somebody gets upset and he starts beating up the whole house and breaking everything and then you know he sits down and he thinks about it and he gets it out of his system.
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Is.
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I.
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Foreign.