the Hijrah. He died of that very wound at the age of thirty-seven. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ performed the funeral prayer over him, and he was laid to rest in al-Baqīʿ. (1)
Ibn Saʿd said: Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar informed us, reporting that Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ḥuṣayn related to him, from Dāwūd ibn al-Ḥuṣayn, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Jābir, from his father, who said:
When they reached Saʿd’s grave, four men went down into it: al-Ḥārith ibn Aws, Usayd ibn al-Ḥuḍayr, Abū Nāʾilah Salkān, and Salamah ibn Salāmah ibn Waqsh, while the Messenger of Allah ﷺ stood by.
After Saʿd was placed in his grave, the face of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ changed; he pronounced the tasbīḥ three times, and the Muslims echoed him until al-Baqīʿ trembled. Then he uttered the takbīr three times, and the Muslims followed suit. He was asked about this, and he replied:
“The grave constricted your companion and squeezed him; had anyone been spared that squeeze, it would have been he. Then Allah relieved him.” (2)
I say: This squeeze is in no way part of the punishment of the grave. Rather, it is something the believer experiences just as he feels the pain of losing a child or a close friend (3) in this world, the pain of illness, the pain when the soul departs, the pain of being questioned and tested in the grave, the pain caused by his family’s weeping over him, the pain of rising from the grave, the anguish and terror of the standing, the distress of passing over the Fire, and the like. All these shocks may befall a servant, yet they are neither the punishment of the grave nor the torment of Hell. Allah, however, is gentle with the God-fearing servant in some or all of these trials, and the believer finds no true rest until he meets his Lord.
Allah, exalted is He, says: “And warn them of the Day of Regret,” and He says: “And warn them of the Approaching Day, when hearts will reach the throats.”
So we ask Allah—mighty and exalted—for pardon and His hidden kindness. Despite all these jolts, Saʿd is, to our certain knowledge, among the people of Paradise, and he