Is their argument based on the hadith of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in which he heard the punishment of two graves, so he took a green branch and placed it on the two graves, valid?

The questioner : Our Shaykh, some Muslims argue that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) passed by a grave, took a green branch or something like that—I do not remember the exact wording—and placed it on the grave. They use this hadith to argue that it is permissible for them to place trees and other things on graves. I do not know if this hadith is valid in this context?

The Shaykh : This hadith is undoubtedly authentic, but it does not indicate the purpose that these people rely on when they place flowers and plant trees on graves, claiming that this alleviates the punishment of the deceased because this green tree glorifies Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and through this glorification, the punishment of the people of the graves is alleviated. This authentic hadith does not indicate this reasoning, which has no basis in the Shari'ah. First, the hadith you asked about indicates that the greenness of the branch the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) placed was not a cause for alleviating the punishment, such that this cause could be adopted as a system and applied in the graves of Muslims. Rather, it indicates that the greenness of this branch was a sign and a marker for the time when the punishment of those buried would be alleviated. This is because when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) 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 'Abdullah al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him), the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when asked, answered that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) accepted his intercession (peace and blessings be upon him) to alleviate the punishment as long as the branch remained green. So what is the cause of the alleviation? The intercession of the Messenger, that is, the supplication of the Messenger. So this greenness is not the cause; it is a sign. As long as they are green, the punishment is alleviated. This is explicit in the hadith. However, there are theoretical deductions that are sound and confirm this explicit text in the hadith. First: if merely placing a green branch on the grave were a cause for alleviating the punishment, the earliest generations (Salaf) would have adopted this means to alleviate 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 alleviation is the greenness of the branch. This is one point. Another point: if that were a Shari'ah cause for alleviating the punishment, then happy are the disbelievers whose graves have become lush gardens, so their punishment would be alleviated because of this invented, fabricated cause that has no basis in the Sunnah. Third 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 the saying of Allah 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 gravel. All of it falls within the generality of the noble verse. Therefore, what they say is nothing but fabrication.