Grave - First stage of the hereafter

The grave is the first stage of the hereafter.  There are 2 kinds of graves.  One is the Qabr-e-Abraar (The graves of the pious) and the other is Qabr-e-Fujjaar (The graves of the sinful).  In the graves of the pious, there is comfort and solace and in the graves of the sinful, there is nothing but pain and agony.

The Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) said:  The grave is either a row from the gardens of paradise or a pit from the pits of hell.

Attachment with everything of this world which suppresses one’s attachment with Allah Most High results in tortures of the grave.  As long as those things are with us, one feels a semblance of comfort.  We don’t even know that attachment with them and love for them results in punishment.  The moment we die, all these things are separated (from us).  Thus, the same attachment which was comforting in this world turns into torture in the grave.  Hadhrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti (May Allah shower His mercy on him) says:  I met a saint.  When he would hear anything about death and the grave, he would shiver like anything.  Blood would flow from his eyes like a stream of water.  Seeing his crying, we would also cry.  He would say:  Dears!  If you get to know even some of the conditions of the deceased, you would melt like ice.  He also said:  I went to the graveyard along with a saint.  He was blessed with divine unveilings (Kashf).  Both of us sat near a grave.  The person in that grave was being punished.  When that saint saw it, he screamed and fell.  When I wanted to lift him, I found that he was dead and within a short time, he melted away like ice.

Shaykh Auhad Kirmani (May Allah shower His mercy on him) was sitting near a grave.  By chance something happened that made him laugh.  A voice came from the grave:  O heedless one!  Who has to pass through such a place, whose friend is the angel of death and whose companions are snakes and scorpions, how does he have anything to do with laughter?

When he heard this voice, he swooned out of awe and said:  For 40 years, out of shame neither did I look towards the sky nor did I laugh.  I am embarrassed as to how will I fare on the Day of Judgment.

Hadhrat Rabi’a Basriyya passed by a grave which was being repaired.  When she asked, she was told that it is being done to strengthen the grave and for its adornment.  She said:  The adornment should be inside it and not outside.  How does this adornment benefit the person inside the grave?

The logic behind being buried around the graves of the saints is that when the mercy and rewards of Allah descend on them, these deceased are also included in it.  The way a person using a hand-held fan fans himself, but it does benefit those around him as well.  For this reason, efforts are made to bury the deceased near a Dargah.  This custom of the pious predecessors and their successors is because of this reason.

By going to the grave and reciting Fatiha, apart from the reward to the deceased, a personal benefit is that we remember death.  Another reason is that the deceased are comforted by the recitation of the Holy Quran.  Whether the recitation is in a soft voice or in a loud voice, it does reach them, because after death the powers of the soul (Ruh), relative to life, are increased.  The radiance spread with the recitation of the Holy Quran also comforts the deceased.  For this reason, going to the grave and giving Fatiha is more reasonable although gifting of reward (Isaal-E-Sawab) can be done from anywhere.

[Excerpted from Mawaaiz-e-Hasana, Vol. 1, Pg. No. 289]