and whenever they pass a company of angels, they ask, ‘What is this wicked soul?’ They reply, ‘So-and-so, son of so-and-so,’ using the ugliest names by which he was known in this world. They bring it to the lowest heaven and ask for it to be opened for it, but it is not opened. Then the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, recited:

‘The gates of heaven will not be opened for them, nor will they enter Paradise until a camel passes through the eye of a needle. Thus do We recompense the criminals.’

Then Allah Most High says, ‘Enter his record in Sijjīn—in the lowest earth.’ He said: His soul is then flung down. Then the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, recited:

‘Or the wind sweeps him away to a far-off place.’

He said: His soul is returned to his body, and two angels come to him and sit him up. They ask him, ‘Who is your Lord?’ He replies, ‘Ah, ah! I do not know.’”

He related the hadith as above until he said: “A man with an ugly face and a foul stench comes to him and says, ‘Receive tidings of what will distress you! This is your deed, which you were promised.’ He asks, ‘Who are you? Yours is a face that brings no good.’ He replies, ‘I am your evil deeds.’ Then he says three times, ‘My Lord, do not bring on the Hour!’”

This hadith contains various kinds of knowledge. Among them is that the soul continues to exist after leaving the body, contrary to the misguided speculative theologians; that it ascends and descends, contrary to the misguided philosophers; that it is returned to the body; and that the deceased is questioned and then granted bliss or subjected to punishment, as those who submitted the question had asked about. It also establishes that his righteous or evil deeds come to him in a beautiful or ugly form.

In the two Sahīh collections, Qatādah narrates from Anas ibn Mālik, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Prophet