Hayat al-Anbiya fi Quburihim lil-Bayhaqi
- Author died
- 458 AH
- Editions
- مكتبة العلوم والحكم
Hayat al-Anbiya fi Quburihim (The Life of the Prophets in Their Graves), also referred to as Hayat al-Anbiya fi Quburihim ba'da Mawfatihim, is a specialized hadith monograph (juz') authored by the Shafi'i traditionist and jurist Abu Bakr al-Bayhaqi (384–458 AH / 994–1066 CE) . The treatise is dedicated to establishing the intermediate (barzakh) life of the prophets following their bodily demise through textual transmissions and hadith analysis .
Subject Matter and Arguments
The work compiles narrations documenting that prophets remain alive in their graves and engage in acts of worship . Central to the treatise is the narration of Anas ibn Malik from the Prophet ﷺ: الأنبياء أحياء في قبورهم يصلون ("The prophets are alive in their graves, praying"), which al-Bayhaqi narrated and authenticated . Al-Bayhaqi supports this thesis with accounts from the Night Journey (al-Isra), such as the Prophet ﷺ seeing Moses standing in prayer in his grave by the Red Dune, as well as meeting, conversing with, and leading the prophets in prayer in Jerusalem and encountering them in the heavens . He argued that the performance of prayer by the prophets across differing times and locations is established by authentic transmission (naql) and is not rejected by reason ('aql), demonstrating the reality of their post-mortem life .
Al-Bayhaqi also examines narrations concerning the preservation of the bodies of prophets, including the hadith of Aws ibn Aws that Allah has forbidden the earth from consuming their physical forms . He discusses narrations stating that prayers and salutations are conveyed to the Prophet ﷺ, as well as the hadith regarding people falling unconscious at the blowing of the Trumpet, explaining that Allah returns the spirits of the prophets to them so that they are alive with their Lord like martyrs, and that their being struck unconscious at the blast represents a temporary suspension of perception rather than total death .
Addressing the narration transmitted through Ibn Abi Layla claiming that prophets are not left in their graves after forty nights but rather pray before Allah until the Trumpet is blown, al-Bayhaqi stated that if sound with this wording, it means they are not left without praying except for that duration, after which they remain continuously in prayer before Allah . In response to the report of Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib stating that no prophet stays in his grave for more than forty days or nights before being raised, al-Bayhaqi commented that they consequently become like other living beings, residing wherever Allah places them .
Transmission and Reception
The text was transmitted from al-Bayhaqi by his son, Abu Ali Isma'il ibn Ahmad al-Bayhaqi, and via a written authorization (kitaba) sent from Nishapur by Abu Nasr Abd al-Rahim ibn Abd al-Karim al-Qushayri .
Later scholars frequently cited and abridged the treatise in their discussions of eschatology and the status of the prophets. Taqi al-Din al-Subki abridged al-Bayhaqi's monograph in the opening chapter of his section on the life of the prophets, martyrs, and the deceased in his work Shifa' al-Siqam . Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti relied directly on it in his legal and theological fatwas compiled in al-Hawi li-l-Fatawi, notably within his treatise Inba' al-Adhkiya' bi-Hayat al-Anbiya' . It was likewise referenced by Ibn al-Mulaqqin in al-Badr al-Munir and al-Samhudi in Wafa' al-Wafa .
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