Some Muslims cite the hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) planting a fresh branch

The questioner : These people, in this matter, Shaykh, some Muslims cite the fact that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) passed by a grave, took a fresh branch, or something like that, I do not remember the exact text, and placed it on the grave. They use this hadith to argue that it is permissible for them to place trees and other things.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : I do not know if this hadith means that it is...

The Shaykh : This hadith is undoubtedly authentic, but the hadith does not indicate the purpose for which these people rely on it. This hadith does not indicate the purpose that those who place flowers and blossoms and plant trees on their graves or tombs rely on, claiming that it lightens the punishment of those deceased because this green tree glorifies Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and through this glorification, the punishment of the people of the graves is lightened. This authentic hadith does not indicate this reasoning, which has no basis in the Shari'ah in the first place. Rather, the hadith you asked about indicates that the freshness of the branch that the Messenger (peace be upon him) placed was not a cause for lightening the punishment, such that it would be valid to adopt this cause as a system and apply it in the graves of Muslims. Instead, it indicates that the freshness of this branch was merely a sign and a marker for the time of the lightening of the punishment for those buried; because when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was asked about what he did in placing the two branches on the two graves, he said: This is a hadith of al-Bukhari and Muslim.
In a narration from the hadith of Jabir ibn 'Abd Allah al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him), when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was asked, he answered that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) accepted his intercession (peace be upon him) to lighten the punishment as long as the branches were fresh. So what is the cause of the lightening? The intercession of the Messenger; that is, the supplication of the Messenger. So this freshness is not the cause, it is a sign. As long as they are fresh, the punishment is lightened. This is explicit in the hadith. But there are theoretical, sound deductions that confirm this explicit text in the hadith:
First of all: if merely placing the green branch on the grave were a cause for lightening the punishment, the earliest generations would have adopted this means to lighten the punishment. Since they did not do so, this is evidence that they did not understand it in this later understanding that the cause of the lightening is the freshness of the branch. This is one point.
And a second point: if that were a Shari'ah cause for lightening the punishment, then happy are the disbelievers whose graves have become lush gardens. So the punishment would be lightened for them because of this invented, fabricated cause that has no basis in the Sunnah.
And thirdly and finally: our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) says: ; everything around the deceased, indeed the deceased himself, whether he is still flesh on bone, or the flesh has melted and the bone remains, or the bone has crumbled; all of this and this and this falls within the generality of His saying (the Exalted): ; so there is no difference between the green and the dry, no difference between the tree and the stone, between the stone and the pebble; all of it falls within the generality of the noble verse. Therefore, what they say is nothing but fabrication.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: Yes.