FATAWA NUR ‘ALA DARB

Question: May Allah reward you with good. The asker, in the last question, says: How does the Muslim fear the punishment in the grave and in the Fire?

Answer:
Shaykh ‘Uthaymeen: He fears them by doing the righteous deeds that bring you closer to Allah, the Exalted, and a righteous action is one that combines two conditions:
1. The first of them is sincerity to Allah, the Almighty, such that the person only intends by his worship the Face of Allah and the Hereafter, and that he doesn’t intend by it showing off, or fame, or praise from people or anything else from the material world.
2. That he doesn’t come (i.e. perform his worship) with anything innovated from himself into the religion, for Allah does not accept deeds that are done without sincerity and that are not in accordance with His shariah (legislation, i.e. the sunnah).

And the proof for this is His saying, may He be Exalted, in a qudsi hadeeth:

“I am the most free of needing associates. Whoever does an action associating partners with Me within it, I will abandon him and his shirk (associates).”

And the saying of the Prophet (peace be upon him):

“Whoever does an action that is not in accordance with this affair of ours (i.e. Islam), then it will be rejected.”

And from the means of salvation from the punishment in the grave is that he cleans himself after urination and that he is thoroughly and completely clean from (drops of) urine (on his clothes), because it is established in Bukhari and Muslim, as narrated by Ibn ‘Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them), that the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) passed by two graves then said:

“Indeed these two are being punished, but not for major sins” – meaning for serious misdeeds but easy (to avoid) – then he said, “as for one of them, he never used to purify himself from urine, and the other used to backbite.”

And it has been narrated that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said:

“cleanse yourselves from urine (stains/residues) for indeed the bulk of the punishment in the grave is due to it.”

And from the means for safeguarding oneself from the punishment in the grave is for the individual to frequently seek refuge in Allah from it. For this, the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) commanded that, when a person is about to complete his tashahhud (right before the tasleem) in the prayer, he seeks refuge in Allah from four things:

“A’oodhu billahi min ‘adhaabi jahannum wa ‘adhaabil qabr wa min fitnatil mahya wal mamaat wa fitnatil maseehid-dajjaal” (I seek refuge in Allah from the punishment in Hell, the punishment in the grave, the trials of life and death, and the trials of the False Messiah).

END  OF TRANSLATION

Note: Words in parentheses are translator’s addition for the purpose of clarification.

Source: http://www.ibnothaimeen.com/all/noor/article_9163.shtml

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Translator’s notes:

To summarize, shaykh ‘Uthaymeen (rahimahullah) teaches us the following regarding protecting oneself from the punishment in the grave and Fire:
1. To do righteous deeds that bring you closer to Allah.
2. Allah only accepts deeds that combine two conditions:

• a) Ikhlaas (sincerity), which is to do a deed for Allah alone seeking thereby His Face.
• b) Mutaaba’a (following the Prophet), which is to do a deed in the same exact way that the Prophet (peace be upon him) did it, or commanded it, or approved of it.

3. For a deed to be “righteous” it must be done with sincerity and upon the sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him).
4. That he doesn’t add innovations, novelties to his worship of Allah as they will be rejected.
5. Not protecting oneself from urination is a major cause for being punished in the grave.
6. There are two ways to be saved from the punishment in the grave:

• a) By thoroughly purifying himself after urinating and avoiding urine stains or residues on his person and clothes.
• b) By reciting the following du’a, which is to be said at the end of every prayer, in the tashahhud, before the tasleem: “A’oodhu billahi min ‘adhaabi jahannum wa ‘adhaabil qabr wa min fitnatil mahya wal mamaat wa fitnatil maseehid-dajjaal”

Translated by: Yusuf ‘Abdur-Rahman Pyram