Journey of the Soul


RasullAllah (SaW) tells us in a long hadeeth
about the story of the soul when it leaves
the body. The trip that the soul takes; he
says, “When the believer is dying, the
angels come down with a coffin from
jannah, and some scents from jannah; and
they descend and they sit in front of that
person. And then the angel of death
descends, and tells the believer, ‘Be happy
and pleased with the promise of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala for you.’ And then he
calls the soul to come out. He says, ‘O you
soul in the state of tranquility, come out to
the pleasure that will be provided to you by
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala.’” So RasulAllah
Salallahu ‘Alaihi Wa Sallam says that soul will
come out so easily, it is like a drop of water
that is flowing down from a jug; like
pouring a drop of water. It slides so easily
out of the body. And as soon as the angel of
death takes that soul, all of the angels would
jump, every one of them wants to take the
honor of holding that soul and wrapping it
in the coffin. And then they would carry it
up in the heavens. And RasulAllah Salallahu
‘Alaihi Wa Sallam says whenever they would
carry up next to a group of angels, they
would smell this beautiful scent and they
would say, ‘Whose soul is this?’ And then
the angels would tell them, this is the soul of
so and so; they would call him with his best
names. Until they reach to the gates of the
lowest heaven. And then they would seek
permission – so the gates of that heaven
will open up. And whenever this soul is
carried through a heaven, the angels of that
heaven would accompany it until the next
heaven. And angels are surrounding this
soul all the way up until it reaches Allah
Subahanahu Wa Ta’ala. And then Allah
Subahanahu Wa Ta’ala will deliver the
promise of jannah to that soul. And then
Allah Subahanahu Wa Ta’ala will say, ‘Take
that soul back to earth because that is
where I have created them from, and that is
where they would return, and that is where
they would be resurrected from.’ So the
souls would then descend down with honor
of Allah Subahanahu Wa Ta’ala. And then
RasulAllah Salallahu ‘Alaihi Wa Sallam tells us
what happens to the soul of an unbeliever
or the evil doer. RasulAllah Salallahu ‘Alaihi
Wa Sallam says the angels come down with
a coffin from hellfire. And they come next
to him and the angel of death would stand
next to him and say, ‘O you evil soul, come
out to the punishment of Allah Subahanahu
Wa Ta’ala and His anger.’ So that soul will
disperse around the body and try to cling to
every nerve and muscle. It doesn’t want to
leave. So the angel of death is pulling that
soul out. RasulAllah Salallahu ‘Alaihi Wa
Sallam says that the pain of that soul is like a
branch filled with thorns being pulled out of
a wet ball of wool. Imagine pulling out a
branch filled with thorns out of a wet ball of
wool. It is tearing apart the nerves and the
muscles of that person, pain and agony of
death. And as soon as that soul comes out
of the body, the angels would jump and
wrap it up in the coffin from hellfire and
then they would carry it up. RasulAllah
Salallahu ‘Alaihi Wa Sallam says it has a
stinking rotten smell. And whenever this
soul passes next to angels, they would start
cursing it and they would say, ‘Whose soul
is this?’ So they angels would call him with
his worst names. And then the angels would
carry it up to the first heaven, the lowest
heaven, and they would seek permission.
But the door of that heavens will not be
opened for them. And then Allahu
Subahanahu Wa Ta’ala says, ‘Throw that
soul to the lowest earth.’ So that the soul will
be thrown down with a disgrace by Allah
Subahanahu Wa Ta’ala. Now the soul is in
the graves.

So we start with the next
section in Al Akhirah and that is Al Kabr. The
graves. Uthman (RA) whenever he would
see a grave, he would cry. So they asked
him, how come when you remember
jannah and naar that wouldn’t affect you
like when you remember the graves, Al
Kabr? Uthman (RA) said, I heard RasulAllah
Salallahu ‘Alaihi Wa Sallam say, that the
grave is the first step towards Akhirah. It’s
the first step towards Akhirah. If you make
it throw it, then whatever comes after it will
be made easier. And if you cannot make it
throw the grave, then whatever will happen
after it is worse. And that is why I cry
whenever I remember the grave. And then
he said that RasulAllah Salallahu ‘Alaihi Wa
Sallam said, everything horrific that I have
seen, the grave is more horrific. Everything
that I have seen in my life, nothing is as
worse as what I have seen in the grave.
Pretty soon we’re going to be there.
Everyone of us. We’re going to leave the
comfort of this dunya, we’re going to leave
it behind and we’re going to be there. Every
single one of us one day will be carried and
we’ll be put in that hole in the earth. The
grave is dark.
There was a woman who
used to clean the masjid in the time of
RasulAllah Salallahu ‘Alaihi Wa Sallam. An old
woman, she would come and clean the
masjid. She was ill and then she died late at
night. So the sahabah RA, they buried her.
And they did not wake up RasulAllah
Salallahu ‘Alaihi Wa Sallam because it was
late as night. And then later RasulAllah
Salallahu ‘Alaihi Wa Sallam asked, where is
that old woman? They said, she became ill
and we buried her. RasulAllah Salallahu
‘Alaihi Wa Sallam said, why didn’t you call
me? RasulAllah Salallahu ‘Alaihi Wa Sallam
was the father for this ummah. He cared
about every single one of them. The weak
and the strong, the man and the woman.
The old and the young. He said, why didn’t
you wake me up? And then RasulAllah
Salallahu ‘Alaihi Wa Sallam said, show me her
grave. So he went and visited her grave and
then he said, these graves are dark but Allah
Subahanahu Wa Ta’ala is going to give them
light because of my salah on them (Narrated
by Bukhari).