and the following morning with Bakr ibn Abd Allāh al-Muzanī, and we exchange (1) news of you.’ I asked, ‘Your bodies or your souls?’ He replied, ‘Far from it! The bodies have decayed; it is only the souls that meet.’ I then asked, ‘Are you aware of our visits to you (2)?’ He replied, ‘We are aware of them on the eve of Friday, throughout Friday, and on the night before Saturday (3), until sunrise.’ I asked, ‘Why is that so on these days rather than all the others?’ He replied, ‘Because of Friday’s excellence and greatness.’”
Ibn Abī al-Dunyā (4) also related that Muhammad ibn Wāsiʿ would go out every Saturday morning to the cemetery (5), stand by the graves, greet their inhabitants, pray for them, and then leave. Someone suggested to him, “Why not do this on Monday instead?” He replied, “I have been told that the dead are aware of their visitors on Friday, the day before it, and the day after it.”
He also related (6) that Sufyān al-Thawrī said: “I have been told that al-Dahhāk said, ‘If someone visits a grave on Saturday before sunrise, the deceased is aware of the visit.’ He was asked, ‘How is that?’ He replied, ‘Because of Friday’s special standing.’”