The Bliss of the Interspace between the Two Worlds


Allah, the Most Exalted, Says in the Quran (what means):


"[To the righteous it will be said], “O reassured soul. Return to your Lord, well-pleased and pleasing [to Him]. And enter among My [righteous] servants. And enter My Paradise.” [Quran 89-30]


'The Grave'...the Grave is a word that inspires fear. We are pained when it is mentioned. We are not aware of the delight it can contain. Indeed, the bliss of the grave is better than any delight that this world can offer. The Messenger, Muhammad  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allah exalt his mention ) said, "When the believer is near to death, angels of mercy come to him. When his soul is taken, they place it in a piece of white silk and bear it to the gate of Heaven. They say, 'We have never smelled a sweeter fragrance than this!' His soul is asked, 'How is so-and-so? How is so- and-so?' It will be said, 'Let him rest. He has just come from the suffering of the world!"' [An-Nasaa'i]


The Grave, or the Interspace, is the third stage of human existence. The first is the domain of the mother's womb with all the constriction and the three darknesses it contains. The second is the domain of this world in which we grow up, which we are familiar with and from which we acquire good and evil and the means to happiness or misery. The third is the domain of the Interspace which is wider and vaster than the domain in which we now live - the domain of this world. The fourth and final stage is the Everlasting Domain which comprises the Garden and the Fire. There is no domain after it for it is the Domain of Eternity.


What we are at present concerned with is the third stage, the domain of the Interspace between the worlds. It is the first of the stages of the Next World. In it the souls are divided into two groups: one group is punished and imprisoned, distracted by its punishment from everything else - such as visiting or meeting each other. The other group is in bliss, and it is this second group that we are concerned with here.


The liberated souls of those who are in bliss visit each other and discuss what happened in the world they have left and the people of that world. Every soul keeps company with, those of his friends who acted in a similar way to him.


Allah Almighty Says (what means):


"And whoever obeys Allah and the Messenger — those will be with the ones upon’ whom Allah has bestowed favor of the prophets, the steadfast affirmers of truth, the martyrs and the righteous. And excellent are those as companions." [Quran 4:69]


The souls who are in bliss enjoy this state from the moment of death. When the believer is dying, the angels come to him and speak to him and he speaks to them without the people present being aware of this. The soul yearns to meet its Lord and leaves the body with ease. Then the angels bear it to the heavens and a sweet fragrance diffuses from it which is perceived by all the angels and the pure, liberated souls in the heavens. They ask each other about this sweet fragrance.


His relatives and dearest friends who were with him in the world hasten to him. They advance before him to the next world, crowding round him and asking him for news of the world and those who are in it. Then the angels take the soul up from heaven to heaven and every angel in every heaven he passes through prays for blessings on him. He is delighted by the sweetest and most beautiful good tidings. Then the soul comes to a standstill before the Almighty King, may His Majesty be exalted! He says to the soul, 'Welcome to this good soul and to the body which it left.'


When the Lord, the Mighty and Majestic, makes something welcome, then everything welcomes it and every constriction departs from it. Then He, the Almighty, Says, 'Show him his place in the Garden and display before him the honour and blessing I have prepared for him.' Then the angels take him back down to the earth so that he can see his body being washed and they carry on a conversation although the living cannot hear it.


The angels pray for the soul of the believer in the heavens just as people pray over his body on the earth. Finally, the body is buried and the soul returns and enters between the body and the shroud. This return does not imply the same connection that the soul had to the body in this world. It is not even the same connection which it had in the sleeping state or the connection which it has when it is in its resting place. This return is a special return for the questioning as we have already clarified.


Then, the two angels, Munkar and Nakeer, come down and question him. After that a door onto the Fire is opened for him and he is told, "Look! This would have been your place in the Fire if you had rebelled against Allah and Allah had exchanged your place in the Garden for it." Then that door is locked and another door onto the Garden is opened and he sees his place there. This door will remain open until the Day of Rising (Resurrection). Some of the sweetness and fragrance of the Garden reaches him and his grave is made spacious. He sleeps in peace just as if he were in one of the meadows of the Garden.


This spaciousness, light and greenery in which the believer remains from the time of his death until the Day of Rising is not the same as we know in our world. If a living person were to open a grave, he would not find any expanse, light or greenness there. He would not find an open door through which he could see the Garden. He does not see bliss or torment.


It is only the dead person who is aware of these things and sees them. Allah, through His wisdom, has the power to veil this from the living.


An illustration of the bliss of the Interspace between the two worlds is found in the words of the Messenger of Allah  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allah exalt his mention ) regarding martyrdom. He said,


"The martyr receives six good things from Allah: He forgives him as soon as his blood is spilled and shows him his place in the Garden, He protects him from the punishment of the grave, He gives him security from the Greatest Terror, He places on his head a crown of dignity, a single ruby of which is more valuable than this world and all that it contains, He marries him to seventy-two dark-eyed houris, and He intercedes for seventy of his relatives." [Ahmad]


He  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allah exalt his mention ) also said:


"When any of your brothers is struck down (in battle), Allah puts their souls in the crops of green birds which go to the rivers of the Garden, eat its fruits and shelter in golden lamps in the shade of the Throne. When they have experienced the sweetness of their food and drink and their excellent reception, they say, "If only our brothers knew what Allah has done for us they would never abandon jihad nor talk about profane war instead." Allah, the Mighty and Majestic Says, 'I will relay this to them from you."'


Then Allah the Great revealed to His Messenger  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allah exalt his mention ) the verse (which means):


"And never think of those who have been killed in the cause of Allah as dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, receiving provision." [Quran 3:169]


The Punishment of the Interspace


Almighty Allah Says (what means):


"And if you could but see when the wrongdoers are in the overwhelming pangs of death while the angels extend their hands, [saying], 'Discharge your souls! Today you will be awarded the punishment of [extreme] humiliation…'" [Quran 6: 93]


The Grave is an unknown territory. Outwardly it is quiet, but inwardly it contains secrets and terrors which an ordinary man cannot perceive. They can only be perceived by someone who has been given a high degree of belief and inner sight.


Al-Hasan Al-Basri  may  Allah  have  mercy  upon  him passed a graveyard and said, 'What a host of people are here! How silent they are! How many there are among them who are suffering!'


Many statements have come down to us showing us the reality of the punishment of the Grave, or what we might also call the punishment of the Interspace between the two worlds. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said,


One of the early Muslims said:


"We passed by a certain watering-place on the way to Basra. We heard the braying of a donkey and asked the people there what the braying was. They replied that it was one of the men who used to be with them whose mother had asked him for something and he had told her to bray like a donkey. Since his death, this braying had been heard every night from his grave.'


'Amr Ibn Dinaar  may  Allah  have  mercy  upon  him said: "The sister of one of the men of Madeenah died and he buried her. When he came back from the burial, he remembered that he had left something in the grave. He asked one of his companions to help him. His companion related that they had dug up the grave and found what they were looking for. Then the man said, "Let us dig further and find out what has happened to my sister." He lifted up one of the stones covering the burial cavity and found the grave filled with fire. He replaced it and filled in the grave again. Then he returned to his mother and asked, "What was my sister really like?" She replied, "Why do you ask about her when she is dead?" He said, "Tell me." She said, "She used to delay the prayer and she also used to go to our neighbours' doors, put her ear to them and then tell other people what they said!"'


There are also the Hadeeth (narration) of the Messenger  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allah exalt his mention ) about the Night Journey which contained descriptions of the many types of punishment he saw in the Interspace between the two worlds.


Part of that long Hadeeth is...


"Some people were cracking open their heads with a stone. Every time they did this, their heads were restored to what they were like in the first place. This went on and on without stopping. I said, "O Jibreel (Gabriel), who are they?" Jibreel replied, "They are people who turned away from the prayer."' [Al-Bukhari]


One of the dreams the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allah exalt his mention ) saw (the dreams of the Prophets are true and a part of revelation which gets right to the heart of the matter) was related as follows. He said,


'Last night, I saw two men who came to me and took me by the hand and brought me to the Holy Land. I could see one man sitting and another man standing holding an iron hook which he stuck into the side of the sitting man's mouth so that it came out at the back of his neck. Then he did the same to the other side. After his mouth went back to normal, he did the same thing all over again. I asked what this was and they told me to go on.


We went on until we came to a man lying on his back. Another man was standing at his head with a stone or a rock with which he smashed it. When he hit the head, the stone rolled away and he went to recover it. He did not get back to the man until his head had mended and returned to normal, and then he smashed it again. I asked what this was and they told me to go on.


We came to a hole like a furnace which was narrow at the top and wide at the bottom. There was a fire burning under it and there were naked men and women in it. The flames leapt up to them from underneath. When the fire came near, they rose up until they almost came out. When it abated, they went back into it again. I asked what this was and they told me to go on.


We went on until we came to a river of blood with a man standing in it. On the bank of the river, there was a man with stones in front of him. The man in the river came forward and when he was about to get out, the man threw a stone at him and he went back to where he had been before. Every time he went to come out, the man threw a stone at him and he went back to where he had been before, I asked what this was and they told me to go on.


We went on until we came to a green garden with an enormous tree in it, under which there was an old man and some children. Near the tree there was a man kindling a fire in front of him. They took me up the tree and into a house more beautiful than any I had ever seen. There were old men and youths in it. Then they took me up and brought me into another house which was even more beautiful. I said to my companions, 'You have been with me for the whole night, so now tell me about what I have seen.'


They replied, 'Certainly! The man you saw whose mouth was being pierced was the originator of a lie, which spread from him to all parts of the earth. He will suffer like that until the Day of Rising. The one whose head was being smashed was a man who had learned the Quran but had spent his nights asleep and did not act according to it during the daytime. He will suffer like that until the Day of Rising. The people in the hole were fornicators. The man you saw in the river devoured usury. The old man at the foot of the tree was Ibraaheem (Abraham, may Allah exalt his mention) and the children around him were mankind's children. The one kindling the fire was Maalik, the Guardian of the Fire. The first house was that of the ordinary believers and this house is the house of the martyrs. I am Jibreel and this is Mikaa'eel.'


He lifted his head and I did likewise. I saw a castle like a cloud and they told me that it was my dwelling. I asked them to let me enter my dwelling. They replied that my life was not yet completed, but that when my life had come to an end, I would enter my dwelling."' [Al-Bukhari]


The Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allah exalt his mention ) said regarding seeking refuge from the punishment of the Interspace or the Grave,


"When any of you finishes the final tashahhud (second sitting in prayer), he should seek refuge with Allah from four things: from the punishment of the Fire, the punishment of the Grave, the trials of the living and the dead, and the trials of the Dajjaal (Anti-Christ)." [Ibn Maajah]


All of this shows that the punishment of the Grave is true beyond any doubt. Allah, the Most Exalted, Says about the two punishments - the punishment of the Interspace and the punishment of the Day of Rising (what means):


'... The Fire; they are exposed to it morning and evening. And the Day the Hour appears [it will be said], ‘Make the people of Pharaoh enter the severest punishment.'" [Quran 40: 46]


And (what means):


"And whoever turns away from My remembrance — indeed, he will have a depressed [i.e. difficult] life and We will gather [i.e. raise] him on the Day of Resurrection blind.” [Quran 40: 124]

What can the Living Do to Rescue the Dead Person from Punishment?


Prophet Muhammad  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allah exalt his mention ) said,'When a man dies, his actions cease except for three things: a charity which goes on, knowledge which continues to benefit people or a righteous son who makes supplication for him.' [Ahmad]


There are many things which the living can do to rescue the dead. They include supplication for them, asking forgiveness for them, acts of generosity, Hajj (Pilgrimage to Makkah), fasting and other sorts of worship. These can be attributed to the dead person with Allah's permission.


Even more important than all these is to settle the dead person's debts, whether that debt is financial or spiritual - debts to other living persons or debts of worship owed to Allah, the Almighty.


When someone who is alive intercedes for a dead person who is being punished, his punishment is halted, even if only for a time. When he intercedes for the person enjoying bliss, that person is raised a degree.


Allah, the Most Exalted, Says (what means): "And [there is a share for] those who came after them, saying, 'Our Lord, forgive us and our brothers who preceded us in faith and put not in our hearts [any] resentment toward those who have believed.'" [Quran 59:10] Allah - glory be to Him - praised them for asking for forgiveness for the believers before them. He indicated that they are helped when the living ask for forgiveness for them.


In his supplication over one of the Muslims upon his death, the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allah exalt his mention ) said: 'O Allah! So-and-so the son of so-and-so is in Your custody and near to You. Protect him from the trial of the Grave and the punishment of the Fire. You are worthy of fidelity and truth, so forgive him and show mercy to him. You are Forgiving, Merciful.' [Ibn Maajah]


When the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allah exalt his mention ) finished burying someone who had died, he stood over him and said, "Ask forgiveness for your brother. Ask for him to be made firm. He is being questioned now." [Abu Dawood]


A man said to the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allah exalt his mention ) 'My father has died and left some property, but he did not leave a will. Will he be rewarded if I make an act of charity on his behalf?' He  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allah exalt his mention ) replied, 'Yes.' [Muslim]


The Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allah exalt his mention ) said about the reward of fasting reaching the dead person, 'If someone dies and owes some days of fasting, then his heir should fast on his behalf.' [Al-Bukhari]


Recitation of the Quran is also one of the acts of worship whose reward reaches the dead person, provided that the reciter first intercedes with Allah on his behalf. Allah might or might not accept it, as is the case with all other acts of worship. He might accept the prayer of one man and not that of another man. What counts is the sincere intention to do the action for the sake of Allah Almighty alone.


Let us imagine a group of Muslims who have gathered together to remember someone who was dear to them and has died. They are still wearing black and their grief is still fresh. They have gathered for the sake of the love and comradeship that exists between them to remember Allah and to intercede with Him on behalf of their loved one.


This gathering might take place anywhere, but let it be the home of one of them. Each of them is holding a copy of the Quran whose recitation they have divided up between themselves.


They begin the recitation with the intention of directing its reward to the dead person. This does not diminish the reward that any of them receive in anyway, but the reward also reaches the dead person in his grave if Allah so wills. There is a reward for both the living and the dead.


Included among those people might be a son or grandson of the dead person. This is an extension of his actions and a result of his efforts in this world, for he left a righteous son there and consequently righteous descendants. There might be a brother; a father, a relative or a friend among them which is an indication of his good behaviour with other people, otherwise they would not mention him in their supplication, or remember him or intercede on his behalf with the Lord of Might and Majesty. This is also the result of the dead man's own actions.


A righteous son or daughter is a true treasure for a man and profits him during his lifetime and after his death. Every father or mother should try as hard as they possibly can to bring up righteous children. Every son should try to obey his parents during their lifetime and after their death.