138 Y. Tzvi Langermann
Here follows a list of the 21 queries, as well as some information
about the contents. In order to give the reader a sense of the relative
lengths of each section, I put in parentheses the page numbers in the
Mecca printing that I have used for this study.
- Are the dead aware of the visit of the living [to the cemetery] and
their greeting, or are they not? (pp. 9–21)
faṣl: Additional proof from the practice of talqīn al-mayyit, “whis-
pering” to the recently buried advice as to how the answer Nakīr
and Munkar.^38 - Do the spirits of the dead meet each other, visit each other, and
remember each other, or not? (pp. 22–25) - Do the spirits of the living meet the spirits of the dead, or not?
(pp. 26–39) - Does the spirit die, or does death appertain to the body alone?
(pp. 40–43) - After they [the spirits] depart from the body and become denuded
[of matter], by what means are they distinguished one from the oth-
er, so that they can be recognized and meet each other? And, after
they have become denuded [of matter], do they take the shape of the
body that they were once in, garbing themselves in its form; or [if
not], then just what is their situation? (pp. 44–46) - Does the spirit return to the grave of the departed at the time of the
interrogation, or not?^39 (pp. 47–66)
Several fuṣūl take up related issues, especially the correct under-
standing of the “punishment of the grave” and whether it is cor-
poreal as well. - The question is posed: what is our reply to the nonbeliever and
heretics who deny the punishment in the grave, its wideness or
narrowness;^40 that it is either a pit from among the pits of hell, or a
garden from among the gardens of paradise; and that the dead nei-
ther sits nor stands in it? (pp. 67–79)
38 Nakīr and Munkar are the two angels who interrogate the newly departed in the
grave.
39 The query refers to the interrogation of the newly departed about his faith, as
described in the traditions cited at length by Ibn al-Qayyim.
40 According to Muslim tradition, the grave of the Muslim will be widened (allow-
ing his body to rest in peace), but that of the hypocrite will be so narrowed that
his bones will be crushed.
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