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Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali

Ahwal al-Qubur wa Ahwal Ahliha ila al-Nushur

Author died
795 AH
Editions
Dār al-Ghad al-Jadīd

Ahwal al-Qubur wa Ahwal Ahliha ila al-Nushur (The Terrors of the Graves and the States of Their Dwellers Until the Resurrection) is an eschatological and hortatory treatise by the Hanbali traditionist and jurist Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali (736–795 AH / 1335–1393 CE), dedicated to describing the intermediate realm (Barzakh), the conditions of the dead in their graves, and the afterlife before the Resurrection .

Purpose and Sources

Ibn Rajab notes in his introduction that he composed the work at the request of fellow believers who asked him to collect transmitted reports concerning the barzakh and the states of the deceased to admonish hearts and awaken the heedless . He structured the treatise concisely from Quranic verses, prophetic traditions, reports of the early generations (salaf), and didactic sayings and poetry . In its subject matter and thematic arrangement, the work shares substantial material with Kitab al-Ruh by his teacher Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, drawing on numerous traditions and topics treated in that work, particularly regarding the abode of souls in the barzakh .

Structure and Contents

The book is organized into thirteen thematic chapters (abwab):

  1. The state of the deceased upon entering the grave, the interrogation by the angels, the widening or constriction of the grave, and the viewing of one's place in Paradise or Hell .
  2. The speech of the grave to the deceased upon burial .
  3. The gathering of previously deceased souls around the newly dead to question them .
  4. The gathering of a person's good and bad deeds to defend or confront them, the remorse over the cessation of deeds, and those honored with ongoing deeds .
  5. The daily showing of the dwellings of Paradise or the Fire to the deceased morning and evening .
  6. The punishment and bliss of the grave .
  7. The meeting and mutual visitation of souls in the barzakh .
  8. The dead hearing the speech of the living, recognizing those who greet or visit them, and their awareness of relatives left behind .
  9. The resting places and abodes of souls in the barzakh .
  10. The darkness and tightness of the grave, its illumination through supplications of the living, and the deceased's need for prayers .
  11. Visiting graves and taking heed from the dead .
  12. The recommendation to remember graves and reflect upon their dwellers, including the practices of the early generations .
  13. Selected prose and verse from the early generations on drawing admonition from cemeteries .

Manuscripts and Publication

Manuscript copies of the work are preserved in European and Middle Eastern libraries, including the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin (MS 2661) and the Municipal Library of Alexandria . The text was printed in Mecca in 1357 AH and has since seen multiple modern critical editions, including those edited by Muhammad al-Sa'id Zaghlul (Beirut, 1405 AH / 1985 CE) , Khalid 'Abd al-Latif al-Sab' al-'Alami (Beirut, 1414 AH / 1994 CE) , Iyad ibn 'Abd al-Latif al-Qaysi (2004 CE) , Tal'at al-Hulwani (2004 CE) , and 'Atif Sabir Shahin (Mansoura, 1426 AH / 2005 CE) .

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