Ibn Ḥajar said, “Its chain of transmission is sound.”
3- Slanderous gossip among people is forbidden, and it is one of the causes of punishment in the grave.
4- The Prophet’s mercy toward his Companions and his eagerness to keep harm away from them.
5- Concealing people’s sins and shortcomings: he did not state the names of the two buried men, and this was most likely intentional.
6- His words, “They are not being punished for something great,” mean that the sin both of them neglected to avoid was not a difficult one. Refraining from tale-bearing and taking care to avoid urine are neither hard nor burdensome, yet their punishment became severe because of the far-reaching harm those two acts cause.
Benefit: The scholars have differed over whether the deceased benefits from the deeds of the living when the living dedicate the reward of a bodily or financial act of devotion to them.
• Imām Aḥmad held that every kind of good reaches the dead, on the strength of the textual evidence.
• Two opinions are reported from Ibn Taymiyyah:
- The deceased does benefit, and the jurists are unanimously agreed on this.
- It was not the custom of the early generations, when they performed voluntary acts of worship, to dedicate their reward to deceased Muslims, and following their way is preferable.
Al-Ṣanʿānī said: the deceased can validly receive the gift of any act of devotion. As for the rest of the devotional acts, there is a difference of opinion, but the stronger view is that they do reach him.
Ibn Taymiyyah also noted that the reports are abundant affirming that the dead are aware of the conditions of their families and friends in this world, rejoicing at what pleases them and grieving over what displeases them.