2758 — “When the soul of a servant is taken, the people of mercy among Allah’s servants receive him as people in this world receive one bearing glad tidings. They come to him to question him, and some say to the others: ‘Give your brother time until he has rested, for he was in distress.’ Then they come to him and ask: ‘What has become of so-and-so? What has become of so-and-so?’ ‘Did she marry?’ If they ask about a man who had died before him, and he tells them, ‘He has perished,’ they say: ‘Indeed, to Allah we belong and to Him we shall return. He has been taken to his mother, the Abyss—what an evil mother and what an evil nurse!’

He said: ‘Their deeds are then presented to them. When they see something good, they rejoice and receive glad tidings, saying: “O Allah, this is Your blessing upon Your servant, so complete it for him.” But when they see something evil, they say: “O Allah, bring Your servant back.”’

Ibn al-Mubarak recorded it in al-Zuhd (149/443): Thawr ibn Yazid informed us, from Abu Rahm al-Sama‘i, from Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, who said it. Thus, they reported it as attributed to the Companion. Ibn Sa‘id—the narrator of al-Zuhd—said immediately afterward: “Salam al-Tawil narrated it from Thawr and attributed it to the Prophet.”

I say: The chain of transmission of the report attributed to the Companion is authentic. Abu Rahm al-Sama‘i was named Ahzab ibn Usayd. Al-Hafiz said in al-Taqrib: “There is disagreement as to whether he was a Companion; the correct view is that he was a trustworthy mukhadram.” Thawr ibn Yazid was a trustworthy and highly precise narrator, one of al-Bukhari’s transmitters. Its being attributed to the Companion does not detract from it, for he speaks of matters of the unseen that cannot be said on the basis of personal opinion; thus, it certainly carries the ruling of a report attributed to the Prophet (1), and