The Real Exam After Death (Afterlife)

It is quoted in Man La Yahzaruhul Faqih, that when a dead body is brought for burial, it should not be buried immediately. For there is no doubt that the terror of the grave horrifies the dead person, and he seeks refuge from Allah’s wrath. The dead body should be laid to rest for sometime far from the grave, so that it prepares itself, and gets accustomed to it. Again one should stop and then take it to the grave.

Yunus narrates that one day he asked Imam Moosa al-Kazim (a.s.) that, “Whenever I think about the door of a house, the house becomes narrow in my sight, why is it so”? Imam (a.s.) replied, “It is so because whenever you take a dead body for burial, you should lay it to rest for sometime near the grave, so that the dead person may ready itself to enter there in, and collect strength to answer the questions of ‘Munkir’ and Nakeer’”.

Bara bin Azib, one of the companions (Ashab) of the Holy Prophet(s) says that one day I was in the presence of the Prophet, when we saw a group of people gathered. The Holy Prophet (s) asked them as to why they had gathered? They replied that they had gathered to dig a grave. As soon as the Prophet heard the name of the grave, he hurried towards it and sat on one side of the grave. I sat on the other side facing him so as to get a clear view of what he did. I saw that the Prophet (s) started weeping bitterly so much so that his face became wet, then he looked at us and said, “O my brothers! Prepare yourselves for this house.”

It is related that Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq (a.s.) used to get up daily in the middle of the night and call out in a loud voice so that everyone in the house could hear, and would say:

اللَّهُمَّ أَعِنِّي عَلَى هَوْلِ الْمُطَّلَعِ

O Allah; (please) help me against the horror of the new inspection,

وَوَسِّعْ عَلَيَّ ضِيقَ الْمَضْجَعِ

expand for me the tight sleeping-place,

وَارْزُقْنِي خَيْرَ مَا قَبْلَ الْمَوْتِ

and endue me with the pre-death goodness

وَارْزُقْنِي خَيْرَ مَا بَعْدَ الْمَوْتِ

and the post-death goodness.

One of his (a.s.)’s supplication (du’a) is also stated:

اَللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ لِي فِي الْمَوْتِ

O Allah; (please) bless me in death.

اَللَّهُمَّ أَعِنِّي عَلَى سَكَرَاتِ الْمَوْتِ

O Allah; (please) help me against the agonies of death.

اَللَّهُمَّ أَعِنِّي عَلَى غَمِّ الْقَبْرِ

O Allah; (please) help me against the grief of the grave.

اَللَّهُمَّ أَعِنِّي عَلَى ضِيقِ الْقَبْرِ

O Allah; (please) help me against the tension of the grave.

اَللَّهُمَّ أَعِنِّي عَلَى وَحْشَةِ الْقَبْرِ

O Allah; (please) help me against the loneliness of the grave.

اَللَّهُمَّ زَوِّجْنِي مِنَ الْحُورِ الْعِينِ

O Allah; (please) give me in marriage the wide-eyed women of Paradise.