📖 The Book of Graves by Ibn Abi al-Dunya 📖

By Abu Bakr ibn Abdullah ibn Muhammad ibn Ubayd ibn Sufyan ibn Qays al-Baghdadi, famously known as Ibn Abi al-Dunya

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Graves appear to be just earth, but in reality, they are either a garden from the gardens of Paradise or a pit from the pits of Hell. So, what is the state of those who accompany the dead to those graves? Imam al-Ghazali, may God have mercy on him, said: “Know that funerals are a lesson for the discerning, and in them is a reminder and a warning. Usayd ibn Hudayr said: ‘I never attended a funeral and my mind was not preoccupied with anything other than what was being done and what was to come.’ Al-A’mash said: ‘We used to attend funerals, and we didn’t know whom to console because of the grief of everyone present.’

Such was their fear at the time of death. Now, we don’t see a group attending a funeral without most of them laughing and playing, and not one of them thinking, except as God wills, about their own funeral and their state when they are carried on the bier. There is no reason for this heedlessness except the hardness of the heart due to the multitude of sins and transgressions, until we have forgotten God Almighty, the Hereafter, and the terrors that lie ahead. So we have become preoccupied with amusement, heedlessness, and engaging in what does not concern us. We ask God Almighty to awaken us from this heedlessness. The best thing that can be said of those attending funerals is that they weep for the deceased. If they were truly wise, they would weep for themselves, not for the deceased.” How many lessons and admonitions lie hidden in the graves, if only hearts were alive...

Author: Al-Hafiz Abu Bakr, Abdullah ibn Muhammad ibn Ubayd ibn Sufyan ibn Qays al-Baghdadi al-Qurashi, a freedman of the Banu Umayya (208 AH - 281 AH), nicknamed Ibn Abi al-Dunya (a nickname that overshadowed his given name until he became widely known by it). Al-Hafiz Abu Bakr was born in Baghdad in the early third century AH, in the year 208 AH. He was an Arab historian and educator who tutored al-Mu'tadid al-Abbasi and his son al-Muktafi Billah. Al-Hafiz Ibn Kathir, may God have mercy on him, said of him in Al-Bidayah wa'l-Nihayah: "He was famous for his numerous, beneficial, widely circulated, and widely known works on matters of spiritual refinement and other subjects. He was truthful, a memorizer of hadith, and a man of integrity."

❇️ Some Reviews of Ibn Abi al-Dunya's Book of Graves ❇️

▪️Source of reviews: www.goodreads.com/book/show/23383116▪️

- A discussion of the practices of the early Muslims in attending funerals and their reaction to death, and some stories about the state of the deceased and their ability to hear the living... Perhaps this will suffice the reader and render Ibn Rajab's "The Terrors of the Graves," al-Suyuti's "Explanation of the Breasts," and Ibn al-Qayyim's "The Soul" unnecessary.

Muhammad al-Mufarrij

❇️ Some Quotes from Ibn Abi al-Dunya's Book of Graves ❇️

- Malik ibn Dinar said: I went out with Zayn al-Qurra' Hassan ibn Abi Hassan to visit the graveyards. When he reached them, tears welled up in his eyes. Then he turned to me and said, "O Malik, these are the armies of the dead, waiting for those among the living to protect them. Then a cry will be raised against them, and then They stood looking. Malik placed his hand on his head and began to weep, saying, "Woe to me on that day! Woe to me on that day!"

- On the authority of Sajf ibn Manzur, he said: I witnessed Abdul Aziz ibn Salman at a funeral. When the deceased was being carried from the bier to be placed in his grave, he called out, and a loud voice was heard saying, "O leader of his brothers!" I wonder what he would say to him. Then he fainted.

- On the authority of al-Abbas ibn Yazid al-Basri, he said: I said to Sufyan ibn Uyaynah, "Why was it recommended to lower one's voice at funerals?" He said, "They likened it to the gathering before God. Have you not heard Him say, 'And all voices will be hushed before the Most Merciful, so you will hear nothing but a whisper'?"

- A man dug a grave and sat down to shade himself from the sun. A cold wind came and hit his back. He looked and saw a small hole. He widened it with his finger and found a grave. He could see as far as the eye could see, and there was an old man with henna on his hands, as if the women who had combed his hair had just removed their hands from him, and some of his shroud remained on his chest.

- On the authority of Qatari al-Khashab, he said: We witnessed a funeral, and among those present were al-Sha'bi and the notables of Kufa. When the deceased was buried, al-Sha'bi said: "This is death, the ultimate end of humankind in this world," and his words moved the people to tears.

- On the authority of Dawud ibn al-Muhabbar, he said: I heard Salih al-Murri say: "I knew young and old men in Basra who would attend funerals and return as if they had been resurrected from their graves. By God, they would be seen to have increased in spirit afterward."

- On the authority of Salman ibn Salih, he said: "Al-Hasan was absent one day. When evening came, his companions asked him: 'Where were you today?' He replied: 'I was with brothers of mine. If I forgot, they reminded me, and if I was absent, they did not speak ill of me.' His companions said to him: 'By God, these are the brothers, O Abu Sa'id. Show them to us.' He said: 'These are the inhabitants of the graves.'"

- On the authority of Yazid ibn Shurayh, he said: "I heard a voice from a grave: 'If you see the likes of us today, we were like you, and we were your peers in life, like your forms. That desert is swept by its winds, and we are in a secluded place, beyond your reach. Whoever is among us will not return. Those are our homes, and that is your destiny.'"

❇️ Some Chapters from Ibn Abi al-Dunya's Book of Graves ❇️

- One Who Calls Out from the Graveyard with a Sermon
- Chapter on the Sermon at the Funeral and Reflecting Upon It
- Chapter on the Resurrection
- A Collection of Remembrance of Graves
- Chapter on What is Recited from the Book at Graves

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