How the soul is taken from the dying person and what becomes of it thereafter:

The procedure of death and the soul’s destination have been detailed in the lengthy ḥadīth of al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib; its wording is as follows:

Al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib (may Allah be pleased with him) related: “We were attending a funeral in the cemetery of al-Baqīʿ al-Gharqad when the Prophet ﷺ came to us. He sat down and we sat around him so motionless that it was as though birds were perched on our heads. While the grave was being prepared, he said, ‘I seek refuge with Allah from the punishment of the grave’—three times.

“He then said: ‘When a believing servant is on the brink of the Hereafter and turning away from this world, angels descend to him whose faces shine like the sun. With them are a shroud from Paradise and balm from Paradise. They sit within sight of him as far as the eye can see. Then the Angel of Death comes and sits at his head and says, “O good and pure soul, come out to forgiveness from Allah and His pleasure.”

“‘The soul then slips out as smoothly as a drop of water flowing from the mouth of a waterskin. The Angel of Death takes it, and no sooner has he seized it than the other angels take it from his hand, wrap it in that shroud and perfume it with that balm, and from it issues a scent finer than the sweetest musk ever found on earth.’”