Then a caller will call from the sky: "My slave has spoken falsely, so spread out for him from the hell fire, and open a door for him from the hell fire (within his grave)", so its heat and hot wind will come unto him, then his grave will be contracted upon him until his limbs are caught up among one another. Then a man will come to him. His face will be ugly, and his clothes will be ugly, and his smell will be vile. Then he shall say unto him: I bring you tidings of that which will harm you. This is the day that you were promised (70:44). Then he will say [and you, may Allah give you bad tiding] "who are you?, for your face is the face of someone who comes with evil". He shall reply: "I am your evil deeds [by Allah, I did not know of you but that you were quick to the disobedience of Allah and slow to His obedience, so may Allah reward you bad, and then will be assigned to him a blind, deaf and mute person who holds in his hand a hammer, if a mountain is hit with it, it would disintegrate, and he will beat him with it until he becomes dust, and then Allah will render him to his initial form, and he will beat him again, and he (the wicked) will cry of sorrow and pain a cry that will be heard by all creatures except humans and jinn, and a door of hell will be opened unto him within his grave and will spread out for him sheets of hell fire]". Then he shall say: "My Lord do not bring the hour".

This hadith is narrated by Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Abu Dawud, Ibn Majah, at-Tayalisi, and al-Hakim who said it is according to the standards of Bukhari and Muslim. This text is the text of Ahmad, all text between brackets is from the other narrators and other narrations of Ahmad.

Notes

(1) `illiyin: comes from the root word of `uluww which means highness. It is a place in the (highest) seventh sky where the souls of the believers are gathered (Ibn `Abbas), it also carries the meaning of a very high and wide place (Ibn Kathir).

(2) Sijjin: comes from the root word of sijn which means narrowness. It is a place in the (lowest) seventh earth where the souls of the unbelievers are gathered (Ibn `Abbas), it also carries the meaning of a very low and narrow (Ibn Kathir).

Reading the previous hadith one may think that the punishment of the grave is reserved only for those who did not believe in Allah or associated with him someone else in worship, lordship, creation or in his names and attributes. It is not the case! the following authentic hadith tells us more! so let us read it carefully : Ibn Abbas (Radiya Allahu `anhuma) says that the Messenger of Allah, salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam, once, while passing by two graves, remarked : The inmates of these two graves are being tortured not for any serious sins, but in fact they are serious sins. One of them used to carry tales [gosseping] (nameemah) and the other used not to yastatir (1) when urinating. [Bukhari and Muslim]