from the creed of Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jamaʿah.

Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn said: The punishment befalls both bodies and souls together, though at times it may afflict one of them alone. Allah, exalted is He, has concealed the torment of the grave from humans and jinn for profound reasons. Had its reality been laid bare, the following would have occurred:

First: Faith in its punishment and bliss would no longer count as belief in the unseen; it would be something observed, thereby cancelling the test and the merit of believing in the unseen.

Second: It would bring disgrace and humiliation upon the deceased and his family during their worldly life.

Third: If people could see the misery of the dead, they would stop burying one another and the living would recoil from the dead. Allah has therefore hidden it out of wisdom and mercy.

The punishment itself is affirmed by the Quran, the Sunnah, and the consensus of the scholars.

• “and from the trial of life”: A fitnah is a trial, test, or examination. The trial of life comprises the ordeals, temptations, and tests that assail a person—whether doubts or desires—and the greatest of these is an evil end at death.

• “and the trial of death”: This may refer to the ordeal at the moment the soul leaves the body, or to the questioning in the grave. Al-Bukhari 86 records: “You will be tried in your graves with a test similar to—or nearly like—the trial of the Antichrist,” which includes the interrogation by the two angels.

• “and the trial of the Antichrist”: He is called Masīḥ either because he will traverse the earth lengthwise and breadthwise, or because he is one-eyed, his right eye having been wiped out. He is called Dajjāl because of his deception, lying, and his way of beguiling people, cloaking truth with falsehood.

8 – Al-Subkī said: The special importance of this supplication is clear from the fact that we have been commanded to recite it in every prayer; such emphasis is fitting, given the enormity of these matters and the severity of the tribulation they entail.

9 – The Prophet’s ﷺ seeking refuge from these things, despite his being certainly protected from them, serves to manifest