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Is the circulated narration attributed to Musa (peace be upon him) concerning the burial of his brother Harun (peace be upon him), which states: "O Musa, if you were to permit the dwellers of the graves to tell you of My gentleness towards them, they would tell you, O Musa. I did not forget them while they were alive and provided for on the surface of the earth; would I forget them when they are buried within the earth?! O Musa, when a servant dies, I do not look at the multitude of his sins, but rather at his helplessness!!" authentic or false?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

This story is fabricated and rejected; it has not been narrated by any of the scholars, and its context is invalid. Her saying, "O Moses, I did not forget them alive and provided for on the surface of the earth, so would I forget them buried beneath the earth?" suggests that Allah's mercy encompasses both disbelievers and believers in the grave, which is incorrect. Authentic narrations state that the disbeliever and hypocrite are tormented in their graves. Al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated from Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "When a person is placed in his grave... they (the two angels) say to him: 'What did you used to say about this man, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him)?' He says: 'I don't know; I used to say what people said.' So it is said: 'You did not know, nor did you recite!' Then he is struck with an iron hammer a blow between his ears, and he lets out a shriek that is heard by everyone near him except for the two heavy ones (mankind and jinn)."

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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