Is the life of the dead in their graves like their life in this world?

Our brother is also asking a question related to creed. In fact, Your Eminence, he says: I believe in Allah and I affirm what came in the Noble Book, but what raises doubt in me is the revival of the dead in the grave. My question is: Is it the same as his first life? How many senses return to him? And how long does his life in the grave last? And if the dead person is questioned in his body, what is the fate of those who are burned, such as in India, Albania, and others? And where is their questioning carried out? When a doctor performs an operation, he removes the human senses from him with an anesthetic, but as for this death, I am still wondering. I show you that I am not joking, but I am in confusion, and I hope for clarification through this useful program. May Allah reward you with good.
Answer: First, it should be known that it is obligatory for every believer, male or female, to believe in what Allah has informed us of in His Book, or on the tongue of His Messenger Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), regarding all matters related to the Hereafter, the Reckoning, the reward, Paradise, and Hellfire, and regarding death, the grave, its punishment, and its bliss. The believer must believe in what Allah and His Messenger have informed us of. So, whatever came in the great Qur'an or was established by the authentic Sunnah, we must believe in it, submit to it, and affirm it; for we know that our Lord is the Truthful in His saying. He, the Exalted, said: [Al-Nisa: 122] [Al-Nisa: 87]. And we know that the Messenger (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 here. We believe in what he informed us of regarding the matters of the Hereafter, the matter of Paradise, the matter of Hellfire, the punishment of the people of Hellfire, the bliss of the people of Paradise, the fact that the servant is punished or blessed in his grave, that his soul is returned to him... he is questioned. All of this is truth, brought by the texts and the authentic hadiths. So the servant must submit and believe in everything he has learned from the great Qur'an or that was established by the authentic Sunnah from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), or upon which the scholars of Islam have reached consensus.
Then, if Allah grants the believer, male or female, knowledge of the rulings and the secrets, that is good upon good, light upon light, and knowledge upon knowledge. So let him praise Allah and thank Him for the insight He has given him in the rulings and the secrets He has bestowed upon him, until his knowledge increases and his tranquility increases.
As for what is related to the brother's question about the state of the grave and the state of the dead person, the question is true. The dead person's soul is returned to him when he dies, and the reports from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) are authentic that his soul is returned to him, and he is questioned in his grave in a manner known best to Allah. It is a life other than his worldly life; 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, drink, and the like. Rather, it is a special life in which he understands the question and the answer. Then his soul returns after that to 'Aliyun (the highest heaven) if he is among the people of faith, to Paradise, and if he is among the people of Hellfire, to Hellfire. But it is returned to him at the time of the question and the answer. The two angels ask him: Who is your Lord? What is your religion? Who is your Prophet? So the believer says: My Lord is Allah, Islam is my religion, and Muhammad is my Prophet. This is the case for the believer, male and female. And it is said to him: What is your knowledge of this man, meaning Muhammad? He says: He is the Messenger of Allah; he came to us with guidance, so we believed in him, affirmed him, and followed him. Then it is said to him: Sleep well; we have known that you were a believer. A door to Paradise is opened for him, and he receives from its spirit and its bliss. And it is said to him: This is your place in Paradise until Allah resurrects you to it. And a door to Hellfire is opened for him, and he sees his place in Hellfire. And Allah is Able to do all things. These are great, unseen matters. He sees his place, and it is said to him: This is your place if you had disbelieved in Allah. But now, Allah has spared you from it, and you have gone to Paradise. And so it is said to the disbeliever. When he is asked, the disbeliever says: Ah, ah! I do not know. I heard people saying something, so I said it. Then he is struck with a muzzab, meaning an iron hammer, and he lets out a scream that everything hears, everything except the two heavy ones, except the jinn and the humans. The animals hear it. Then it is said to him: We have known that you are not a believer, and upon this you lived and upon this you died. A door to Hellfire is opened for him, and his grave is constricted upon him until his ribs are crushed, and his grave becomes a pit from the pits of Hellfire. We seek refuge in Allah. And a door to Hellfire is opened for him, and he receives 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 if Allah had guided him. But Allah turned him away from it because he disbelieved in Allah. And your Lord is the Most Wise and the Most Knowing, Glorified and Exalted is He.
So the grave is either a garden from the gardens of Paradise or a pit from the pits of Hellfire. The punishment and the bliss are for the soul and the body both in the grave, for the soul and the body. And so it is in the Hereafter: in Paradise, it is for the soul and the body; in Hellfire, it is for the soul and the body. As for the one who died by drowning, died by burning, or died by being eaten by wild beasts, his soul receives its share of the punishment and the bliss, and his body receives its share of that in the sea, or in the burning, or in the bellies of the wild beasts, or otherwise. It receives its share of that in the manner that Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, knows. But the majority and the important part is for the soul, which remains; it is either blessed or punished.
So, what the wild beasts ate, the soul has gone to its place of good or evil. And so it is for the one whom the fire burned, or who fell into the seas and was eaten by the sea creatures or otherwise. The souls go to their place. The believer's soul goes to Paradise. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . And the disbeliever's soul goes to Hellfire and to what Allah wills of the punishment of Allah, even if his body went into the burning, or into the wild beasts, or otherwise.
So you, O questioner, O believer, and O believing woman, should be reassured by what Allah and His Messenger have informed us of. And the fact that a person is burned, or eaten by wild beasts, or goes into the seas, or otherwise, all of this does not prevent the punishment and the bliss. So the bliss and the punishment reach him as Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, wills. And most of it is in the grave, for the soul, whether bliss or evil. And the body receives its share of that. And when he is resurrected and raised, Allah gathers for him what He has promised him of good and evil for his soul and his body. So the soul and the body on the Day of Resurrection are either blessed or punished, both of them, either in Hellfire, and they are the disbelievers, or in Paradise, and they are the people of faith.
As for the sinners, they have their share. The sinners have their share between Paradise and the Fire, between these and those. If Allah forgives them, they are joined with the people of faith and they enter Paradise and honor, and they are saved from the punishment of the grave and the punishment of the Fire. If He does not forgive them because of their sins, such as unlawful sexual intercourse, drinking intoxicants, undutifulness to parents, severing family ties, consuming usury or interest, or other such things, and if He does not forgive them, they will receive their share of punishment in the grave according to their degree, but they are less than the disbelievers, less than the disbelievers. On the Day of Resurrection, Allah will put them in the Fire and they will be punished according to their sins if Allah does not forgive them. When they are purified in the Fire and freed from the filth of their sins, Allah will take them out of the Fire into Paradise, by the grace of His mercy, Blessed and Exalted is He. They may also be brought out by the intercession of the intercessors, such as the intercession of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), the intercession of the angels, the prophets, the believers, and the foremost in faith. And those whom Allah wills will remain in the Fire from among the sinners, and Allah will take them out of the Fire by His mercy, Blessed is He, without the intercession of anyone, but purely by His favor and mercy, Exalted and Majestic is He; because they died upon the oneness of Allah. Allah will take them out of the Fire after they have been recompensed, if He did not forgive them before that. No one remains in the Fire except the disbelievers, who are immortalized in it forever, the disbelievers remaining immortalized in the Fire forever. As for the sinners who died upon their sins without repenting, they are under the will of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He. If He wills, He will forgive them by their good deeds and their oneness of Allah, and if He wills, He will punish them and torment them in the grave and in the Fire according to their sins. But they will not be immortalized eternally, never, no. They will remain in the Fire, if they enter it, for varying periods according to their evil deeds. When their punishment ends, Allah will take them out of the Fire into Paradise. This is the statement of the people of the Sunnah and the community, all of them, contrary to the Khawarij and the Mu'tazilah, for the Khawarij and the Mu'tazilah say: The sinners, if they enter the Fire, will not come out forever, like the disbelievers. And this is a false statement. What the people of the Sunnah and the community are upon, and they are the companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and their followers with excellence, is that the sinners, if they are not forgiven and they enter the Fire, will not be immortalized, but they will be punished with a varying punishment according to their sins for periods that Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, wills and knows. When the period that Allah has decreed for them ends, they will be taken out of the Fire and they will go to a river called the River of Life, where they will grow as a seed grows in the flood. When their creation is complete, they will be permitted to enter Paradise, a favor from Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He.
We ask Allah for everyone success, guidance, and beneficial knowledge. Yes.
The presenter: May Allah reward you with good. So we must believe in what came in the Noble Qur'an and what came in the Noble Sunnah regarding the bliss of the grave and regarding its punishment, and we must stay away from doubts and illusions that come to a person's mind regarding that?
The Shaykh: Yes, whatever doubts or illusions come to a person, he should present them to the Qur'an and the Sunnah so that they remove that. What is in the Book and the Sunnah is the clear, pure guide; it is what removes doubts and illusions and puts the believer in ease and tranquility, at ease with what Allah and His Messenger said, even if he does not understand it or does not know the wisdom behind it. Allah is the Most Wise and the Most Knowing. [Al-An'am:83] He does not punish except for a wisdom, He does not bless except for a wisdom, He does not give except for a wisdom, and He does not withhold except for a wisdom. He is the Wise, Blessed and Exalted is He, the Wise, the All-Knowing of everything, Blessed and Exalted is He.
The presenter: May Allah bless you. Your Eminence, perhaps what modern science has reached at the present time brings the reality of those matters closer to some of the brothers, especially regarding ....
The Shaykh: It may be utilized in some things. Yes.
The presenter: Regarding image-making, regarding recording, regarding those matters..
The Shaykh: All these things you mentioned are a lesson. Some people used to ask and say: How do the people of Paradise call out to the people of the Fire, while the people of Paradise are in the highest of the highest and the Fire is in the lowest of the lowest, with a great distance between them? So Allah showed them these wonders now, this radio, from the farthest point of the world to the farthest point of the world, they hear the news from it, and Allah shows them the lesson, this radio and this television now that people hear from afar, and this telephone, they converse with it from far to far. This is a sign and a lesson that indicates to them the truth of what the messengers informed about, namely that the people of Paradise call out to the people of the Fire and hear their howling and their evil if they wish. All of this is among the signs of Allah. Yes.
The presenter: May Allah bless you. Recording a person's footsteps and recording his voice, Your Eminence, perhaps this also has an effect on the preservation of deeds and their perfection, and that everything is recorded and preserved?
The Shaykh: It is said so. Seeing it on television and others, the people of Paradise see the people of the Fire [As-Saffat:55] despite the great distance. Allah enabled them to see the people of the Fire. This is among the signs of Allah, just as now a person sees someone speaking in a distant place, the satellites transmit it, and he sees it now in another place. Yes.
The presenter: May Allah reward you.
The Shaykh: Subhan Allah! ...... These are signs among the signs of Allah [Fussilat:53], so He is Able to do all things, Blessed is He, and All-Knowing of everything. He shows His servants lessons and clarifies for them the signs, perhaps they will understand, perhaps they will comprehend, to establish the proof and cut off the excuse. Yes.
The presenter: It seems to me that Your Eminence is calling for reflecting on such things, which bring those images closer?
The Shaykh: There is no doubt that they bring it closer and help in understanding the Book and the Sunnah, they help in understanding the Book and the Sunnah, in what is difficult of these matters. Yes.
The presenter: May Allah reward you.
The Shaykh: And Allah is the One to be sought for help.