From the lessons of "Al-Raghba wa al-Ra'ba (Encouragement and Warning)," encouraging fear and its virtue, explaining the hadith of Abu Hurayrah

The Shaykh : Our hadith tonight begins with the fourth hadith from the chapter on encouraging fear and its virtue. The hadith is authentic, as its tracing indicates. The author (may Allah have mercy on him) said: And from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: .
And in a narration: That the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . It was narrated by al-Bukhari and Muslim, and Malik and al-Nasa'i narrated it in similar terms.
This hadith contains some of the strange events and occurrences that took place in the time before the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). There were strange and wondrous things that either no longer occur after the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) for a wisdom intended by Allah, or some of them may occur but their news does not reach us, because we have no one there to investigate these reports except the Creator of their owners and those with connections to them. Then He inspires them to our infallible Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and then he conveys them to his Ummah as a warning and a reminder.
For this reason, al-Bukhari and Muslim included in their "Sahih" collections the hadith of Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-As (may Allah be pleased with them both), who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . The point of relevance is the middle paragraph of this hadith, which is his saying (peace be upon him): . And among the best things one of us can narrate today about the Children of Israel is what the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) narrated to us, for which the chains of narration are authentic regarding him (peace and blessings be upon him)...
As you heard, there is a wonder among those wonders. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) says: . In the other narration: . In this first narration, he continued in his extravagance with himself—that is, his oppression of it—until death approached him; that is, he was not one of those who spend a portion of their lives in extravagance, in open sinfulness, and in lewdness, and then before their death they turn to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) and repent to Him. This person was not like that; rather, he continued in his extravagance and his oppression of himself and his disobedience to his Lord until death approached him. But he was not one of those deluded people who do evil deeds and then hope for the forgiveness of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). This is how many Muslims are today, with great regret; they rely on the forgiveness of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and do not engage in the righteous deeds by which they would deserve the forgiveness of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He).
So this man was acknowledging his shortcoming and his sin against himself, and yet it appears from this strange story that his faith was still alive in his heart, and there was still in him something that qualified him to receive the forgiveness of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), even though he took a path that perhaps no one before him or after him had taken. That is, he made this unjust will, where he said (peace and blessings be upon him): This person , and he was not satisfied with that, then he said: , imagining that the burning might not consume all his bones, so that something of these bones would remain standing. To confirm what he imagined as a means of escape from the punishment of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), he said to them: ; meaning, considering what was the case, he was a sound human being who died, so he ordered them to burn him with fire, then he confirmed that for them by having him ground, then taking the result of that burning and grinding, which is that he would become dust.
He said: . And in the other narration, there is clarification as you heard, and it will also come that he ordered them to scatter or cast—two narrations—half of this ash in the wind and half in the sea; an exaggeration, also, that he be lost to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in his deluded opinion. He said: . Why did he make this strange, unjust will? He swore and clarified, saying: meaning: from those who are extravagant with themselves. . Here a type of obedience from the children to their parents is shown, an extreme obedience, but it appears that they did not have, either in their law, that such a will is an unjust will that is not permissible to be made, and if one makes such an unjust will, it is not permissible for the one to whom it is made to execute it, because it is contrary to the Shari'ah of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). So the execution of this will by these sons is to be understood in one of two ways:
The first: that perhaps it was not in their law that this is not permissible.
And the other way: that if it was in their law, these people were not aware of it, and therefore they hastened to execute their father's will.
He (peace and blessings be upon him) said, completing the hadith: ; after the particles of this burned man, who was scattered in the wind and in the sea, had dispersed, he said to each of the sea and the dry land: Gather the particles of so-and-so. And he said to it: Be so-and-so. And he was a sound human being. Then He (Blessed and Exalted is He) said, addressing this man after He had restored him as he was: , or He said: . And in a narration, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . He shifted from direct address to third-person reference, saying: .