perceive it with our senses.

Likewise, if the torment of the grave could be witnessed and physically felt, it would lead to public disgrace. Imagine passing a man’s grave and hearing him tortured and screaming—how humiliating that would be for him.

Thirdly, if that punishment were audible, it would plunge his family and loved ones into constant distress; they would never sleep, hearing their relative cry out day and night. But, out of His mercy, Allah—glorified and exalted—is He—has made it part of the unseen, hidden from human perception. Therefore, when someone objects, “If we were to reopen the grave after two days, we would find no trace of punishment,” we reply, “That is because it belongs to the unseen.” Still, Allah may disclose such unseen matters to whomever He wills among His servants, and at times He does.

It is recorded in the two Ṣaḥīḥ collections, from the report of Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them both), that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) once passed by two graves in Madinah and said, “They are being punished, yet they are not being punished for something great: one of them used not to keep himself clean from urine, and the other used to circulate malicious gossip.” Allah allowed His Prophet to know that these two were undergoing punishment.

In sum, we are obliged to believe in the trial (fitnah) of the grave—the questioning by the two angels about one’s Lord, one’s religion, and one’s Prophet—and to believe in the grave’s bliss or its torment.

Among the tenets of faith regarding the Last Day is that a person affirms what will occur on the Day itself: when the Trumpet is blown a second time, people will rise from their graves before the Lord of all worlds barefoot, without sandals, and naked, without any clothing,