Puipui Oe Mai le Fa'asalaga a le Tuugamau

On the most severe trials a person will face before the day of judgment is the punishment of the grave. We seek refuge in Allah from the torment of the grave, for verily it is an evil thing.

Zaid bin Thabit RA narrated how, when the Prophet SAW and his Companions were once passing some graves of polytheists, the Prophet’s horse bolted and almost unseated him. The Prophet SAW explained:

“These people are being tortured in their graves, and were it not that you would stop burying your dead, I would ask Allah to let you hear the punishment in the grave which I (and this horse) can hear.” [O uiga lelei o le taulotoina o Surah Kahf]

So severe is the punishment of the grave that the Prophet SAW commanded us to seek refuge from it in every salah. There are many narrations which speak in depth about the various punishments, but the question arises – what can you do to protect yourself from the punishment of the grave?

It was narrated from Abu Hurayrah that the Prophet SAW said: “A surah from the Quran containing thirty verses will intercede for a man so that he will be forgiven. It is the surah Tabaarak Alathi bi yadihi’l-mulk [i.e., Soorat al-Mulk].”

[Tirmidhi, Abu Dawood and Ibn Maajah]

Both Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah and Shaykh al-Albaani graded this as authentic. However they mentioned that the true meaning is that recitation on its own is not enough. One must act in accordance to the surah and the rulings of it and must believe in it wholeheartedly.

O lea la, whoever believes in this surah and reads it regularly, seeking the pleasure of Allaah, learning and applying the lessons contained in it, then Surah Mulk will insha’Allah intercede for him in the Hereafter.

It takes just a few minutes to read this blessed surah, so make a point of learning it and living by it and insha’Allah you will find coolness and comfort after death. May Allah SWT make us all inheritors of His garden without any reckoning, amene.