Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī Ḥadīth [6514]

When a person dies, his mourners will follow him; his family will escort him to the cemetery. How surprising, insignificant and trifle is the life of this world! The most beloved of people to you will oversee your funeral; they will bury you and keep you away from them. Even if they are paid for the body to remain with them, they will not accept that. Therefore, the persons who are the most beloved to you are those who will direct the funeral, accompany you (to the gravesite), and mourn you.

His property will also accompany him: that is, his slaves, domestics, and belongings. This is typical of a wealthy man who has slaves and domestics; they will all accompany him. So also are his deeds, they will follow him. However, the other two will return and leave him alone but his deeds will remain with him; we beseech Allāh to make your deeds and ours righteous. Hence, his deeds will stay with him to keep his company exclusively in his grave until the Day of Resurrection.

This has evidence that the world will cease to exist. All the adornments of this world will return and will not remain with you in your grave; the property and children – the adornments of world life – will turn back. What will remain? Only deeds! My dear brother, it is incumbent on you to strive to maintain this companion who will remain and not leave with those who will leave. It is necessary for you to struggle hard until your deeds – which will hang out with you in your grave when you are left exclusively with them without loves ones, family and children – become righteous.

The correlation of this ḥadīth with the chapter heading is clear because numerous (good) deeds necessitate striving on the soul. Therefore, man has to work hard regarding his soul upon the righteous deeds which will remain (with him) after his death.

We beseech Allāh to grant you and us good end, and to look after us with His assistance and care. Verily, He is the Overly Generous, the Bountiful.

• Reference: [104 (2/97-98), Riyāḍuṣ Ṣāliḥīn, Dārussalām (Eng)]

This ḥadīth induces one to perform such deeds which always remain with him in the grave, where every being and thing leaves one and he is all alone in the grave. What is left is his good deeds which become the means of refuge and salvation.

• Reference: [104 (1/119), Riyāḍuṣ Ṣāliḥīn, Dārussalām (Eng)]

This ḥadīth has a warning for the Muslims that they should adopt the way of piety and fear of (Allāh), not of sin and impiety because those are actions which will go with him to the grave and which decide his fate in the life after death. If he carries with him good deeds, he will have a comfortable sojourn in barzakh (the intervening stage between death and Resurrection). On the contrary, if the record of his life is devoid of good deeds, all the wealth that he leaves behind, even if it is beyond calculation, will be of no avail to him because what he will be having with him will be the bad deeds which he performed during his life. These bad deeds will be a constant source of torture for him during his stay in barzakh.

• Reference: [461 (1/422), Riyāḍuṣ Ṣāliḥīn, Dārussalām (Eng)]

“His wealth” demotes slaves, etc. During the period of ignorance, people used to take the horses and weapons of the deceased along with his janāzah for pride..

• Reference: [1939 (3/76), Sunan an-Nasā’ī, Dārussalām (Eng)]

Three things connected with man in the world keep him company until he is taken for burial. His children and servants etc. accompany him right up to the grave. All connections with his family and wealth are, however, severed the moment he is buried. What remain with him in the grave are his deeds for which he will be questioned.

• Reference: [2379 (4/396), Sunan at-Tirmidhī, Dārussalām (Eng)]

• Mukhtaṣar Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (2499 (4/158))
• Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (2960)
• Mukhtaṣar Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (2086 (1/555))
• Sunan an-Nasā’ī (1937 [1939])
• Sunan at-Tirmidhī (2379)
• Musnad Aḥmad (12080 (19/135)) ^{[Shu’ayb al-Arna’ūṭ]}
• Ṣaḥīḥ ibn Ḥibbān (3107 (10/374))
• Muṣannaf ibn Abī Shaybah (37490 (19/410))
• Nasā’ī’s Sunan al-Kubrā (2075 (2/426))
• Nasā’ī’s Sunan al-Kubrā (11760-11761 (10/376-377))
• Sharḥ as-Sunnah (4056 (14/259))
• Riyāḍuṣ Ṣāliḥīn (104 & 461)
• Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmi’ (8017)
• Silsilah Aḥādīth aṣ-Ṣaḥīḥah (3299 (7/879-885))

Grade: Ṣaḥīḥ (Authentic)