The Reality of Reporting on the Conditions of the Dead

Question:
We return at the beginning of this episode to a message sent to the program from one of our female listeners. She says: A Yemeni listener residing in the Kingdom, your sister in Islam, Latifa Muhammad Ahmad. We presented some of her questions in a previous episode, and in this episode she asks your Eminence, Shaykh Abdul Aziz, and says: There is a woman among us named Mutasaffila, and this word means that she visits graves at night and knows the conditions of the dead, whether they are relatives or not. It has been observed that some people go to this woman and give her money for her to visit their sons or brothers to learn about their conditions. When this woman goes—according to her claim—these dead people ask for things from their relatives, and they must carry them out in this world, not by going to them in the graves. Then she continues to narrate this matter, your Eminence, to reach this conclusion, saying: When this woman visits the graves, she sleeps, and only her soul goes, while the body remains in the house. Our question is: Is the work of this woman correct? May Allah reward you with good.

Answer:
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon the Messenger of Allah, and upon his family and his Companions, and upon those who follow his guidance. As for what follows:
The work of this woman is abominable and invalid, and it is all deception, misguidance, and lying.
First: Her visiting of graves is not permissible, because women do not visit graves. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) cursed the women who visit graves, so it is not permissible for women to visit graves; that is for men. As for women, their visiting of graves has been abrogated, and the matter has settled on the fact that they do not visit graves, due to his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): Thus... for men. And in the authentic hadith: .
As for her claim that she knows the conditions of the buried and conveys their requests to their relatives, this is all invalid. No one knows the unseen except Allah, and no one knows the conditions of the graves except Allah He is the One who knows their conditions and what they are in. There is no evidence for what she says; rather, it is lying, and taking the money of people for nothing, and promoting falsehood. So it is not permissible to believe her; rather, it is obligatory to report her case to the legitimate authority so that she is punished with what she deserves. It is not permissible to believe her, nor to give her anything of what she says. Yes, a person may see some of his relatives in a dream, in good, or he may see them in bad. This may happen in a dream. As for the woman visiting graves, or a man if he visits graves, knowing the conditions of the buried in good and bad, and that they bequeath things and command things, all of this is invalid and has no truth. Allah may reveal to some people some of the conditions of the buried if the grave is opened for a need in the grave, and then a digging tool or something else is forgotten in the grave. Ibn Rajab (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned that some people had their graves dug up, and they found them being punished in their graves. This may happen; Allah shows His servants lessons. It may... indicate that he is in good and light, but there is nothing indicating that anyone knows the conditions of the buried without tangible causes, or that the people of the graves inform him of such and such, and teach him such and such. All of this is invalid. Rather, a dream may occur, either a good dream or a bad dream. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) informed that: So if a person sees what pleases him, he tells it to whom he loves. And the disliked dream is from Shaytan, so if a person sees it, he spits to his left three times, and seeks refuge in Allah from Shaytan and from the evil of what he saw three times, then he turns over to his other side, and it will not harm him, and he does not tell anyone about it. This is how the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) commanded.
The point is that this Mutasaffila, as her name indicates, is a vile, evil woman. It is not obligatory to believe her, nor to pay attention to her; rather, it is obligatory to rebuke her and discipline her for this bad deed. We ask Allah for safety. Yes.
The presenter: O Allah, amen. May Allah reward you with good, and may He do you good, your Eminence! From the messages presented to your Eminence from the Muslim brothers here and there, it is observed that the Ummah is in need of more and more awareness, especially regarding these charlatans and these fraudsters who extort the money of people with words that have no basis and no verification. Your Eminence’s guidance: How do we raise the level of the Ummah so that it realizes that there is no truth to what these people claim?

The Shaykh : For this reason, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) explicitly warned against them, these fraudsters and liars. He said (peace and blessings be upon him): Whoever goes to a diviner and asks him about something, his prayer will not be accepted for forty nights. This is a warning against the diviners who claim knowledge of the unseen. And he said: (Whoever goes to)... He said (peace and blessings be upon him): And he said: .
So it is obligatory upon the Ummah to beware of these liars, fraudsters, and charlatans, and not to believe them, and not to ask them. Rather, they should ask about what Allah has prescribed for them and what Allah has forbidden for them. They should ask the people of knowledge. This is how the Ummah asks the people of knowledge, because Allah the Exalted says: [Al-Nahl: 43]. And the people of knowledge are the people of the Qur'an, they are the people of the noble Hadith. So the person who needs to ask, whether a man or a woman, must ask the people of knowledge, the people of knowledge who are known for beneficial knowledge, knowing the Qur'an and the Sunnah, and the rulings of the Shari'ah.
The man asks them, and the woman asks them by way of the telephone, by way of Nur 'ala al-Darb, by way of correspondence, by way of the circles of knowledge. As for the fraudsters, charlatans, sorcerers, and diviners, it is not permissible to ask them ever, and it is not permissible to believe them ever, because they are liars and sinners. Some of them may be disbelievers; if he claims knowledge of the unseen, he becomes a disbeliever. We ask Allah for safety. And so the sorcerer who worships the jinn and draws near to them is also one of the disbelievers.
In conclusion, it is obligatory for Muslims to be wary of these charlatans and diviners, the soothsayers. It is not permissible to ask them, nor to believe them, ever. If a person wants to ask, he should ask the people of knowledge, the scholars of the Shari'ah, the scholars of the Qur'an and the Sunnah. He should ask them about the rulings of Allah that are unclear to him, about what is lawful and what is forbidden. He should ask them about a dream if he has one and wants to ask about it. He should ask the people of knowledge: [16:43]. So asking the people of knowledge is what is required. And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: The Muslim is one who points to good and abounds in good. And he said (peace and blessings be upon him): And he said (peace and blessings be upon him): And it is narrated from him (may Allah have mercy on him) that he disapproved of a group who issued rulings without knowledge, and he said: Meaning: asking the people of knowledge. Yes.

The presenter : May Allah reward you with good, and may He do you good.