Jami` at-Tirmidhi 1071

Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.

Abu Salamah, Yahya ibn Khalaf, narrated to us: Bishr ibn al-Mufaddal narrated to us, from Abd al-Rahman ibn Ishaq, from Sa'id ibn Abi Sa'id al-Maqburi, from Abu Hurairah, who said: The Messenger of Allah said: When the deceased is buried—or he said, when one of you is buried—two dark, blue-black angels come to him. One of them is called al-Munkar and the other al-Nakir. They say, What did you used to say about this man? He says what he used to say: He is Allah's servant and Messenger. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger. They say, We knew that you would say this. Then his grave is widened for him seventy cubits by seventy, and it is illuminated for him. Then he is told, Sleep. He says, Let me return to my family and tell them. They say, Sleep as a newlywed sleeps, whom none awakens except the dearest of his family, until Allah raises him from that resting place. But if he was a hypocrite, he says, I heard people saying something, so I said the same; I do not know. They say, We knew that you would say that. Then the earth is told, Close in upon him, and it closes in upon him. His ribs press against one another within it, and he remains tormented there until Allah raises him from that resting place.

In this chapter, reports are also transmitted from Ali, Zayd ibn Thabit, Ibn Abbas, al-Bara ibn Azib, Abu Ayyub, Anas, Jabir, Aishah, and Abu Sa'id; all of them narrated from the Prophet concerning the punishment of the grave. Abu Isa said: The hadith of Abu Hurairah is hasan gharīb.