—and were his intellect to be restored to him in the grave, he would still not be asked about matters he never had the ability to know. Questioning him about such things would serve no purpose. This is different from the trial they will face in the Hereafter, where Allah, Exalted be He, will send them a messenger and command them to obey him while their faculties are fully intact. Whoever obeys will be saved; whoever disobeys will be cast into the Fire. That is a test involving an immediate command issued at that moment, not a cross-examination about past obedience or disobedience—unlike the interrogation by the two angels in the grave.

They also responded to the earlier proofs. As for the hadith of Abu Hurayrah, the “torment of the grave” mentioned there cannot possibly mean that a child is punished for neglecting a duty or committing a sin, for Allah does not punish anyone who has done no wrong. Rather, “the torment of the grave” can refer to the pain that overtakes the deceased because of something done by others, even when it is not retribution for his own deeds. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The deceased is tormented by his family’s weeping over him,” meaning he feels anguish and pain from it, not that he is penalized for another person’s sin, for “No bearer shall bear the burden of another.” 1 Similarly, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Travel is a portion of torment.” Torment, then, is broader in scope than punishment. There is no doubt that the grave contains pains, worries, and regrets whose effects may reach the child so that he suffers. Therefore, it is prescribed for the one performing the funeral prayer to ask Allah to shield him from that torment. Allah knows best.

The scholars disagreed over whether the questioning in the grave is universal—embracing Muslims, hypocrites, and outright disbelievers—or confined to Muslims and hypocrites alone. One view restricts it to the Muslim and the hypocrite, excluding the stubborn disbeliever who knowingly rejects the truth. The second view holds that the questioning is general, covering both disbeliever and Muslim, and this is what the Qur’an and the sunnah indicate; there is no sound reason to exempt the disbeliever.

They likewise differed over whether the interrogation in the grave is limited to this ummah alone or shared with earlier communities. On this point there are three opinions.

The first opinion states that it is specific to this ummah, because the nations before us had their messengers come to them