What is the validity of the common saying among people that the soul remains beside the body after death, witnessing its washing, hearing people's words, and suffering from wailing until the body is buried, especially when compared to what is mentioned in the book "Death and Barzakh" that the angels of death ascend with the soul and then descend with it to the grave for the questioning by the two angels?

The Barzakh (interim period between death and resurrection) is part of the Unseen, and we know nothing about it except what has reached us through the texts of revelation. The soul is returned to the body at the time of questioning (in the grave). As for the common people's saying that after death, the soul remains beside the body, witnesses the washing, hears people's speech, and suffers from wailing until the body is buried, we know of no evidence in Islamic law that supports this. Rather, the soul is elevated to the heavens, then returned to the body for questioning. The deceased generally hears the speech of the living, but not always. The torment of the deceased due to the wailing of their family has been mentioned in authentic hadiths. Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah clarified that the torment here is pain, not a punishment for a sin of the deceased, and that through this pain, Allah may expiate sins for the believer.