This video is transcribed by Reading Islam team.

Prophet Muhammad says:

“The grave is the first part of the hereafter, if he or she is saved from the punishments and the torments of the grave, then whatever is after it is going to be better and easier (he will be saved from bigger things)

If he is not saved from the torments and the punishments of the grave, then whatever is going to come after that is going to be worse”

When a person goes to the grave, the Prophet tells us, he or she takes with them three things, one stays and two return.

“Your family and your wealth return; what stays with you are your deeds,”

Your good and bad deeds… Because that’s what’s going to determine where you’re going to be and what’s going to happen to you in your grave.

The dead people visit each other in their grave. The prophet (peace be upon him) says:

“When you bury your dead, then make their shroud nice and put on beautiful fragrance for the people of the grave visit one another”

Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) told us that a person who is being punished in their grave the animals can hear them. Aisha said:

“Two old Jewish women entered my house one time (in Madinah) and they said to me the people of the grave get punished inside their graves so I said to them it’s not true. Then they left. Then the Prophet entered and I said:

“O messenger of Allah, two old women from the Jews came to me and said the people of the grave are getting punished in their graves”

he said:

“They spoke the truth. The people of the grave who are getting punished, they get punished until the animals can hear them.”

So the human beings and Jinn can’t hear them, but the animals can hear them every now and then.

I don’t mean to scare you. But it is our deed which inevitably decide what the status of our graves are going to be like; either a garden from the gardens of Paradise, or a pit from pits of hellfire.

So the Prophet (peace be upon him) used to say:

“Oh my Lord, I seek your protection from the punishment of the grave”

And this is what we should be doing as well.