How the People of the Sunnah and the Community Argue for the Existence of the Punishment of the Grave Through Dreams: A Point of Confusion
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The Shaykh : Yes
The questioner : Shaykh, may Allah preserve you. I am confused about the issue of how the People of the Sunnah argue in their refutation of the Mu'tazilah regarding the punishment and bliss of the grave. For example, they argue using dreams, stating that a person experiences certain things in sleep. They used this to refute the Mu'tazilah. O Shaykh, may Allah preserve you, I see that—Allah knows best—they gave the example of the punishment of the grave[Az-Zumar 39:42] How did the People of the Sunnah argue in their refutation of the Mu'tazilah specifically regarding dreams?
The Shaykh : They argued that this is possible. It is possible for a person to experience punishment and bliss while his body has not changed. Those people said: How can we establish the punishment of the grave when we bury a man today and come back the next morning to find him as he was? We say: It is not necessary for the body to change. The punishment in the grave is, in principle, upon the soul, but it may connect to the body. Likewise, the visions in dreams are for the soul in reality, but the body may still feel pain. That is why you find that when a person sees something he dislikes in his dream, he is restless and turns over, saying: "By Allah, my sleep was not good tonight."
In fact, Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned in his book *Al-Ruh* (The Soul) that sometimes a person, if he sees in a dream that he was struck or something similar, finds the mark of the strike on his body. This is an approximate example. Otherwise, there is no doubt that there is a difference between a dream and death. What the deceased finds of joy and bliss, or punishment and retribution, is far more severe than what the sleeper sees.
The questioner : Shaykh, may Allah preserve you. I am confused about the issue of how the People of the Sunnah argue in their refutation of the Mu'tazilah regarding the punishment and bliss of the grave. For example, they argue using dreams, stating that a person experiences certain things in sleep. They used this to refute the Mu'tazilah. O Shaykh, may Allah preserve you, I see that—Allah knows best—they gave the example of the punishment of the grave
Allah takes the souls at the time of their death, and those that do not die [He takes] during their sleep
اللَّهُ يَتَوَفَّى الْأَنْفُسَ حِينَ مَوْتِهَا وَالَّتِي لَمْ تَمُتْ فِي مَنَامِهَاThe Shaykh : They argued that this is possible. It is possible for a person to experience punishment and bliss while his body has not changed. Those people said: How can we establish the punishment of the grave when we bury a man today and come back the next morning to find him as he was? We say: It is not necessary for the body to change. The punishment in the grave is, in principle, upon the soul, but it may connect to the body. Likewise, the visions in dreams are for the soul in reality, but the body may still feel pain. That is why you find that when a person sees something he dislikes in his dream, he is restless and turns over, saying: "By Allah, my sleep was not good tonight."
In fact, Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned in his book *Al-Ruh* (The Soul) that sometimes a person, if he sees in a dream that he was struck or something similar, finds the mark of the strike on his body. This is an approximate example. Otherwise, there is no doubt that there is a difference between a dream and death. What the deceased finds of joy and bliss, or punishment and retribution, is far more severe than what the sleeper sees.