Life in the Grave

Q: If it is said that the deceased lives in the grave, is it the same life as his first life? How many of his senses return to him? And how long does his life in the grave last? And if the deceased is questioned in his body, what is the fate of those who are burned, such as the Hindus and the Japanese and others? And where are they questioned?
When a doctor performs an operation, he removes the human senses from him with an anesthetic... As for this death, I wonder how it is?

A: First: It should be known that it is obligatory for every believing man and woman: to believe in what Allah has informed us of in His Book, or on the tongue of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), regarding all matters related to the Hereafter, the Reckoning, Paradise, and the Fire, and regarding death, the grave, its punishment and its bliss, and the rest of the matters of the unseen that have come in the Noble Qur'an or are established by the pure Sunnah. It is upon us to believe, submit, and affirm this; because we know that our Lord is the Truthful in what He says, Glorified and Exalted is He, and in what He informs us of, Mighty and Majestic. As He, the Exalted, said: [Al-Nisa: 122] and He, the Exalted, said: [Al-Nisa: 78]. And we know that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) is the most truthful of people, and that he does not speak from desire; it is nothing but a revelation that is revealed. So whatever is established from him in the authentic hadiths, it is obligatory to believe in it, even if we do not know its reality.
So it is obligatory upon us to believe in what he brought regarding the matter of the Hereafter, the matter of Paradise and the Fire, the bliss of the people of Paradise, the punishment of the people of the Fire, and the fact that the servant is in the grave being punished or blessed, and that his soul is returned to him. All of this is truth that the texts have brought. So it is upon the servant to submit to this, and to believe in everything he has learned from the Qur'an, or what is established by the Sunnah, or what the scholars of Islam have agreed upon.
Then, if Allah bestows upon the believing man and woman the knowledge of the wisdom in that and the secrets, then that is good upon good, and light upon light, and knowledge upon knowledge. So let him praise Allah and thank Him for what He has given him of knowledge and insight in that, which He has granted him, so that his knowledge has increased and his tranquility has increased.
As for what is related to the questioning in the grave and the state of the deceased: the questioning is true, and the soul of the deceased is returned to him. The reports regarding this are authentic from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). The life of the deceased in his grave is not his worldly life; rather, it is a special life of the barzakh (the interval between death and resurrection), not of the same kind as his life in this world, in which he needs food and drink and the like. Rather, it is a special life with which he understands the questioning and the answering. Then his soul returns after that to 'Aliyun (the highest heaven), if he is from the people of faith, and if he is from the people of the Fire, to the Fire. But it is returned to him at the time of the questioning and answering. So the two angels ask him: Who is your Lord? What is your religion? And who is your Prophet?
So the believer says: My Lord is Allah, Islam is my religion, and Muhammad is my Prophet. This is how the believing man and woman answers. And it is said to him: What is your knowledge of this man? (Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him)). He says: He is the Messenger of Allah. He came to us with guidance, so we believed in him and affirmed him, and we followed him. It is said to him: We have known that you are a believer. And a door to Paradise is opened for him, and he comes from its spirit and its bliss. And it is said: This is your place until Allah resurrects you to it. And he sees his place in the Fire, and it is said: This is your place if you had disbelieved in Allah. But now, Allah has protected you from it, and you have gone to Paradise.
As for the disbeliever; when he is asked about his Lord, his religion, and his Prophet, he says: Ugh, ugh, I do not know. I heard people saying something, so I said it. So he is struck with an iron mallet, and he lets out a scream that everything hears except the two heavy ones: meaning the jinn and mankind. And the beasts hear it. A door to the Fire is opened for him, and his grave is constricted upon him, until his ribs are crushed. And his grave becomes for him a pit from the pits of the Fire. And a door to the Fire is opened for him, and he comes from its fumes and its punishment. And it is said: This is your place until Allah resurrects you to it. And a door to Paradise is opened for him, and he sees his place in Paradise, and it is said to him: This is your place if Allah had guided you.
And by that, it is known that the grave is either a garden from the gardens of Paradise, or a pit from the pits of the Fire. And the punishment and the bliss are for the soul and the body both in the grave, and so it is in the Hereafter in Paradise or in the Fire.
As for the one who died by drowning, or by burning, or by being eaten by wild beasts: his soul receives his share of the punishment and the bliss, and his body receives from that in the land or the sea, or in the bellies of the wild beasts, whatever Allah wills of that. But most of the bliss and the punishment is upon the soul, which remains either blessed or punished. So the soul of the believer goes to Paradise. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: So it is obligatory upon every Muslim man and woman to be reassured by what Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has informed us of, and what His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) has informed us of, and to believe in it in the way that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, intended. And if some of the meaning is hidden from the servant, then for Allah is the perfect wisdom, Glorified is He.