I finish the prayer.’ They will answer, ‘You will certainly pray; but first give us the information we are asking you for…’ — and so forth, to the end of the narration.

From these ḥadiths and others that carry the same meaning, several points become clear:

1. The questioning takes place as soon as the deceased is laid in his grave. This refutes the innovators such as Abū al-Hudhayl and al-Marīsī, who claimed that the questioning occurs between the two blasts of the Trumpet.

2. The two angels are called Munkar and Nakir. This rebuts those Muʿtazilīs who maintained that it is impermissible to name them so, and who re-interpreted the report by saying that “munkar” refers to the deceased’s stammering when questioned, while “nakir” refers to the angels’ rebuke of him.

3. The soul is returned to the dead person in his grave at the moment of questioning; he is made to sit up and to speak. This invalidates the view of Abū Muḥammad Ibn Ḥazm, who denied the matter—unless he merely intended to deny the kind of life familiar to us in this world, in which case he would be correct. For the soul’s return to the corpse is not identical to its attachment to the body in worldly life, though in some respects it may be more complete—just as the next mode of existence surpasses this one even while differing from it. Indeed, every realm—this earthly life, the Barzakh, and the Day of Resurrection—has its own ruling. Therefore the Prophet ﷺ informed us that the grave is widened for the deceased, that he is questioned, and the like, even though the soil itself may show no outward change; the souls are returned to the body and then depart from it again.