Answered by Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat
Question: Asslamu Alaykum
“My life is a great good for you, you will relate about me and it will be related to you, and my death is a great good for you, your actions will be shown to me and if I see goodness I will praise Allah, and if I see evil I will ask forgiveness of Allah for you.” I want to know whether this is a Sahih Hadith and does this prove that Prophet Muhammad, may God’s peace and salutations be upon him, is alive in his grave?
Answer: Wa ‘alaykum as-salam wa rahm atullah wa barakatuh
Thank you for your question.
The hadith you mentioned is narrated by Imam al-Bazzār:
حَياتِي خير لكم وموتي خير لكم، أما حَياتِي فأسن لكم السّنَن وأشرع لكم الشَّرَائِع. وَأما موتِي فَإِن أَعمالكُم تعرض عَلّي فَمَا رَأَيْت مِنْهَا حسنا حمدت الله عَلَيْهِ، وَمَا رَأَيْت مِنْهَا سَيِّئًا استغفرت الله تَعَالَى لكم
‘My life is good for you and my death is good for you. As for my life, I set sunnas and legislate laws for you. As for my death, your deeds are presented to me; I praise Allah for the good I see of them, and ask Allah to forgive you for the bad that I see.’
Some experts considered all the narrators to be sound, whereas others disagreed (al-ʿIraqi, Mughni al-Asfar). The least that can be said of the hadith is that it is a well authenticated, ḥasan, hadith.
The Life of Prophets After Death
Yes, this narration is a strong proof for the life of the Messenger of Allah, and the other prophets (Allah bless them and grant them all peace), although the nature of their life in the Barzakh is different to what we perceive as life. Imam Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti has a work dedicated to this topic, Inbaʾ al-adhkiya bi hayat al-anbiyaʾ (Apprising the Intelligent of the Life of the Prophets).
In it he states, ‘The life of the Prophet [Muhammad] in his grave and the other prophets (Allah bess them all and grant them peace) is known to us with certainty due to many proofs and mass-transmitted (mutawatir) narrations. He then proceeds to cite various proofs such as the narration of Sahih Muslim which describes the prophet Musa praying in his grave on the night of the Isra.
And Allah knows best.
[Shaykh] Abdul-Rahim Reasat