and open a door for him to the Fire.’” He said:

“Some of its heat and scorching wind reach him.” He said: “His grave is constricted around him until his ribs interlock.” He said: “Then someone blind and mute is assigned to him, carrying an iron sledgehammer which, if used to strike a mountain, would reduce it to dust.” He said: “He strikes him with it once, a blow heard by all between the east and the west except humans and jinn, reducing him to dust. Then his soul is restored to him.”

The hadith thus explicitly states that the soul is restored to the body and that his ribs interlock. This clearly indicates that the punishment afflicts both the soul and the body together.

A report similar to the hadith of al-Barā’, concerning the taking of the soul, the questioning, the bliss and the punishment, has also been narrated by Abū Hurayrah. His hadith appears in al-Musnad and elsewhere. Abū Hātim ibn Hibbān also narrated it in his Sahīh, on the authority of Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), from the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), who said:

“When the deceased is placed in his grave, he hears the sound of their sandals as they turn and walk away. If he is a believer, prayer stands at his head, fasting to his right, charity to his left, and good deeds—charity, maintaining ties of kinship, kindness and benevolence—at his feet. The two angels approach him from the direction of his head, and prayer says, ‘There is no entrance on my side.’

“Then he is approached from his right, and fasting says, ‘There is no entrance on my side.’ Then he is approached from his left, and obligatory almsgiving says, ‘There is no entrance on my side.’ Then he is approached from the direction of his feet, and good deeds—charity, maintaining ties of kinship, kindness and benevolence—say, ‘There is no entrance on my side.’

“Then he is told, ‘Sit up.’ He sits up, and the sun is made to appear to him as though it is nearing sunset. He says, ‘Let me pray first.’ They say, ‘You will pray. Tell us about what we ask you: this man who was among you—what do you say about him? And what