Barazakh Reward and Punishment As Mentioned In Akbaar and Hadith

Barzakh Reward and Punishment As Mentioned In Akbar and Hadith
Death & Purgatory

There are many hadiths mentioning reward and punishment as Barzakh. Here we suffice with a few.

In Bihar Al Anwar vol: 3 there is a quotation from the tafsir of Ali bin Ibrahim Qumi (who has quoted Ali a.s.) according to which the Holy Prophet said: When the offspring of Adam (man) enters the last day of this worldly life and the first one of the Hereafter, his wealth and children and his deeds appear before him. He turns his face towards his wealth and says: By God! I had too much lust and greed for you and was also very stingy. Now how much of mine is with you for me? The wealth responds: Take only that much which can suffice for your Kafan cloth (shroud). Then he looks at his children and says: By God. I loved you very very much and was always protecting and defending you. Show me how much of my portion is now with you for me. They reply: We only will take and bury you and that is all. Finally he turns towards his deeds and says: By God, I was very careless with regard to you and I had disliked you. Yet am I to get any share from you? The Aamal (deed) says: Yes. I will be your companion and friend in grave and will also remain with you in the Hereafter (Qiyamat) too, until both of us will be made to stand before Almighty Lord.

If this person was an obedient one and so a friend of God, his deed will approach him in beautiful and handsome shape adorned in the best attire full of pleasing fragrance and say: I give you good tidings that you will get Rowh and Raihaan (heavenly bounties) and divine graces. Welcome. He will ask: Who are you? He will reply: I am your good deed. Come, let us proceed towards paradise from this world. This body recognizes the one who gives a wash to it and asks him, giving him an oath, to carry it speedily to his destination. When this body enters the grave, two angels who examine every dead come to him in a fierce form dragging their lengthy hair on the ground and tearing the earth with their teeth. Their eyes dazzled like lightning and their voice furiously roared. They ask the body: Who is your Lord? Who is your Prophet? What was your religion? (Etc). The body says: My Lord is only one God who has no partner and my prophet is Muhammad (peace be upon him and his household) and my religion is Islam. Then the angels tell him: May God keep you steadfast on the things which you like. It is the same thing his has been hinted at the Holy Quran: ﴾Yusabbitullaah…Aakhiram﴿ (Surah Ibrahim14, V: 27). Then they widen his grave as far as eyes can see and open therein a door in the direction of paradise, telling him: “Now you rest sleep restfully with cool eyes just as a lucky and successful youth goes to sleep”.

Similarly, God has given a hint in this verse also: ﴾Ashaabul…Maquila﴿ (Surah Furqaan: 25, V: 24). But if the body is that of an enemy of God, his Amal-e-Bad (bad deed) approaches him in the worst kind of dress emanating a foul smell and tells him: Take tidings of getting hot hell water as a drink of entering hellfire. He also sees the one who washes him and tells on oath to the bearers of his body to leave him alone and not to take him to his grave. When they bury him, two examiner angels arrive. First they dragged out his coffin cloth (kafan or shroud) and then asked him: Who is your Lord? Who is your Prophet and what is your religion? He replies: I do not know. The angels tell him: May God not allow you to know and to be guided. Then they hit him with a fire club so harshly that it frightens everything in the world except men and animals. Then they open up a door facing hell in his grave telling him: Now you may sleep in the worst condition. Then they squeeze his grave to such an extent that it is almost sandwiched, making his brain matter come out from his nails and flesh and God makes snakes and scorpions etc. attack him and to bite and sting painfully till the Day of Qiyamah (Resurrection). On that Day, he will be made to rise from his grave. The torture will be so severe that he will wish Qiayamat to comes soon.

Faces In Barzakh Will Be Like People’s Faces In This World

There is a narration from Imam Sadiq (a.s) in Amaali of Shaykh Toosi (r.a.). At the end of it, the Imam has said: When Almighty Allah recovers one's soul (Rouh), He sends his soul in its worldly form and shape. There they eat and drink and when a new man (spirit of another dead) arrives to them they recognize him in his worldly face and form and shape. In another hadith the Imam has said that the spirits of the faithful meet one another and talk with one another and recognize one another so much so that if you happen to see any one of them you will say this is so and so.

Spirits Ask The Men Arrivals About Others

In another hadith, the Imam said: The spirits dwell in body forms in a garden in paradise. They recognize and know one another. They ask questions and get replies from one another. When a new spirit comes to them they say: Leave it (as it is) because it is arriving towards us after being freed from a great calamity (that is death). Then they ask: What about so and so and such and such a person? If he replies: He was alive until I came here, the spirits express their hope that (God willing, he will also come to us). But if the newly arrived soul says that he had already left the world they say: He has fallen down. It means that when he has not yet come here, he surely must have gone to hell.

Spirits Meet Their Worldly Relatives And Friends

There are some narrations in Behaar-ul-Anwaar, Kaafi and other books. Their gist is: The spirits living in Barzakh come to visit their near and dear ones. Some of them come daily, some once in two days, some once in three days, some on every Friday, some once in a month and some once a year. This difference depends on their condition, places of dwelling and their freedom or captivity.

According to a narration, a faithful soul sees nothing except the well-being and pleasing things about his or her near and dear ones. If there is anything contrary to it, that thing is not shown to him or her (soul in Barzakh). Such distributing things are being kept unknown for it so that it may not become unhappy. The spirit of a Kafir (denier) sees nothing except bad and painful things about its near and dear ones.

Hauz-e-Kausar In Barzakh

Abdullah bin Sanaan has been quoted in several books of Akhbar and Hadith. He asked Imam Sadiq (a.s) about Hauz-e-Kausar (a heavenly spring). He replied: Its length is equal to the distance between Basra and Yeman (Sanaa). When I expressed my astonishment he asked: May I show it to you? I said: Yes, O my Master! Then the Hazrat took me out of Medina. There he kicked the ground on one spot and told me: See (Veils before his eyes were removed by the order of the Imam so he said): I saw that a big spring is flowing, the shores of which are not visible except the spot on which we were standing and which was like a small island. I saw a spring at one bank of which snow white water was flowing in waves and on the other bank whiter than snow milk was waving and in between the two waved wine which had fine red color that was more attractive than topaz both in shining and fineness. I had never before seen such a wine of the best quality flowing between pure milk and snow white water.

I said: O Master! I may be sacrificed to you. From where this spring flows! The Hazrat replied: As mentioned by Almighty Allah in the Holy Quran, there is a spring of milk, a spring of water and a spring of wine in paradise. All these three springs come from there. (The narrator says): I saw many trees on both the banks of this spring and an hour near every tree. She had so beautiful head hair the equal of which I had never seen before. There was a utensil in the hands of every fairy. The said vessels were so beautiful that I had never seen such utensils in the world. They did not belong to this material world. He hinted at an hour to serve water. She filled that utensil from that spring and presented it to Hazrat. He drank from it. He asked her again to fill it. She complied with the command and Hazrat gave that utensil to me. I drank from it and found that I had never tasted such a nice and tasty and pleasing drink ever before. It had a fragrance of musk. I said: May I be sacrificed to you. Whatever I observed today is such that I had not only never seen before but also never even imagined before, (that such things could ever be available in the world).

The Hazrat said: This is a small specimen of the bounties provided by God Almighty for our Shias, which you have seen now. When somebody leaves the world his or her spirit is being taken to this stream and around this garden of paradise. He eats its fruits and drinks its wines. Whenever our enemy dies, his soul is taken to Wadi El Barhoot. He remains in its torture forever. He is forced to eat 'Zaqqum' (a thorny cactus tree) and drink Maa-e-Hameem (hot hell water). So pray to God for being protected from the said Barhoot valley.

Kausar And Hameem At The Moment Of Death

Among those people who were shown the paradise of Barzakh in this world are those companions of the chief of martyr Imam Hussein (a.s.) to whom the Holy Imam had shown their places and stations in Barzakh.

In Behaar-ul-Anwaar, Vol: 3, it is mentioned that Imam Baqir (a.s) said: No Momin leaves this world unless, at his last moments, angels make him drink the Kausar water. Likewise no denier dies until he is made to drink Hameem.

* By: Ayatullah Shaheed Sayyid Abdul Husain Dastghaib.