Al-Barzakh and the Life in the Grave

Question and Answer Details Name of Questioner Khan   - India Title Al-Barzakh and the Life in the Grave Question As-Salamu `alaykum. What is "Al-Barzakh"? I have heard that God has created special place for dead people. Do their souls live there? What about the Prophets? Do their souls also live there? My second question is: Does the dead person know what goes on in this life and what happens to his relatives? Thank you. Date 24/Aug/2003 Name of Counsellor IOL Shari`ah Researchers Topic The Unseen, Muslim Belief Answer Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.  In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.  All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.  Dear brother in Islam, we would like to thank you for showing keenness on knowing the teachings of Islam, and we appreciate the great confidence you have in us. May Allah enlighten our hearts with the light of Islam! With regard to your first question, Sheikh Hamed Al-Ali, instructor of Islamic Heritage at the Faculty of Education, Kuwait and Imam of Dahiat As-Sabahiyya Mosque, answers: “Literally Al-Barzakh means interval or a barrier between two things. Allah Almighty says: “Between them is a Barzakh (Barrier) which they do not transgress.” (Ar-Rahman: 20) Technically, it stands for an intermediary stage between this life and another life in the Hereafter; it’s an interval between death and the Day of Resurrection. Allah says: “Before them is a Partition till the Day they are raised up.” (Al-Mu’minun: 100) This does not mean that there would be special places for every soul, but the souls of dead people are in different places according to the level of their Iman: some of them will be on the highest paradise with the souls of Prophets and martyrs; some believers will be in a particular place in Paradise before the Day of Judgment; some will have their graves like gardens of Paradise and some will have it like pits of the Hell-Fire. All of these cases and states of people will be in the period of Al-Barzakh, each one according to the status of his Iman. As for your second question, Sheikh Faysal Mawlawi, deputy chairman of the European Council for Fatwa and Research, answers: “The dead person does not know anything of the life of living people because he or she lives in a completely different world. However, it is reported that the dead person feels the footsteps of those who walk over him or her. It is narrated that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) looked at the people of the well, in which the bodies of the disbelievers killed in the Battle of Badr were thrown and said, “Have you found true what your Lord promised you?” `Umar asked, “You are addressing dead people.” The Prophet replied, “They hear better than you do, but they cannot reply.” (Reported by Al-Bukhari) These narrations refer to the period that closely follows the death of a person, but after that, the deceased moves completely to a new different world where he or she will not be aware of anything of what happens at this life. This may be confirmed by the verse: “Thou canst not reach those who are in the graves.” (Fatir: 22)” Keep in touch. If you have any other question, don't hesitate to write us.  http://www.islamonline.net/