(1) Its chain of transmission is sound. Shayban is Ibn Farrukh al-Habbati. The report is also found in Ahmad, 1/26, and Muslim, no. 2873 (Book of Paradise), through three chains from Sulayman ibn al-Mughira – Thabit – Anas. Its full wording is as follows: “Then he began to tell us about the people of Badr and said: Yesterday the Messenger of Allah ﷺ showed us the spots where the warriors of Badr would fall tomorrow, God willing. He pointed, saying: ‘Here will fall so-and-so tomorrow, if Allah wills.’” ʿUmar remarked: “By Him who sent him with the truth, they did not miss the places he marked, nor the limits the Messenger of Allah set.” The bodies were then thrown into a well, one on top of another. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ went to its edge and called: “O so-and-so son of so-and-so! O so-and-so son of so-and-so! Have you found what Allah and His Messenger promised you to be true? I indeed have found what Allah promised me to be true.” ʿUmar asked: “Messenger of Allah, how can you speak to bodies that have no souls?” He replied: “You are no better able to hear what I say than they are; they simply cannot reply.” This hearing was granted only to those slain at Badr; it was a miracle for the Prophet ﷺ and an added humiliation for the unbelievers. In principle the dead do not hear, as the Quran states explicitly: “You cannot make the dead hear, nor can you make the deaf hear the call when they turn away” (al-Naml 80). Ibn Jarir explains that the verse means: you are unable to make these idolaters—whose ears Allah has sealed so that they cannot grasp the admonitions of His revelation—understand, just as you cannot make the dead—whose hearing Allah has taken away—understand. Likewise, “nor can you make the deaf hear the call” signifies: just as you cannot make a deaf person who has turned his back on you hear, you cannot enable those from whom Allah has removed understanding of His signs to hear or comprehend them. He then transmits with an authentic chain from Qatadah: this is a parable for the unbeliever; just as the dead do not hear the call, so the unbeliever does not hear. If a deaf person walks away and you call him, he will not hear; likewise the unbeliever neither hears nor benefits from what he hears. Among those who denied that the dead hear the speech of the living was ʿAʾisha, citing the verses “You cannot make the dead hear” and “You cannot make those in the graves hear” (Fatir 22). Al-Bukhari (7/236, “Military Expeditions,” chapter “The Killing of Abu Jahl”) and Muslim (no. 932, “Funerals,” chapter “The deceased is punished because of his family’s weeping over him”) relate through Hisham ibn ʿUrwa, from his father, that when ʿAʾisha heard Ibn ʿUmar attributing to the Prophet ﷺ the words, “The dead person is punished in his grave because of his family’s crying over him,” she said: “He is mistaken. The Messenger of Allah only said: ‘He is punished because of his own sins or wrongdoing, while his family are now weeping for him.’ Something similar occurred when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ stood over the pit at Badr containing the slain idolaters; he is reported as saying, ‘They hear what I say,’ but he really said, ‘They now know that what I used to tell them was true.’” She then recited the verses: “You cannot make the dead hear” and “You are not one who makes those in the graves hear.” Al-Hafiz Ibn Rajab notes that a group of scholars agreed with ʿAʾisha on this point, a position preferred by the judge Abu…