Had you answered wrongly your grave would have been filled with fire from Hell.

Had you answered wrongly your grave would have been filled with fire from Hell.” I asked him “Tell me how do you know me so well, without having met me? “ He replied “I am the relationship of love and friendship which you had with Imam ‘Ali (as) and the Ahle-Bayt of the Holy Prophet (S). I have been with you always, but you never sensed my presence since in the material world your sight lacked the power to perceive me.” After some discussions, he left me. I soon went to sleep.

On awakening, I saw two men sitting on my either side, one handsome and the other ugly. They kept sniffing my body from head to toe, whispered to each other, and then filled up certain boxes and sealed them. I realized that my deeds were being judged and recorded. On completing their task, they tied some sheets round my neck and kept the boxes beside my head. Next they put me inside an iron cage, which was made smaller by twisting a lever. I was terrified and couldn't breathe.

I heard my bones cracking and oil oozed out of my body which they mopped up. I soon fainted and became unaware of what was going on. When I regained consciousness, I found my head on Haadi's lap. I started crying in a weak voice. He consoled me and then said, “Everyone has to face this in the initial stage in the grave. It is due to one's own past deeds.” After making things comfortable, he left me. My body appeared to have been purged of all debasements and become pure and clean.

I now understood that the constriction had actually been an act of purifying, so that if a man possessed evil traits these debasements would, as a result of the constriction, be squeezed out of him like the black oil which I had seen. On Thursday night, I visited my house in the form of a dove. I saw my family and friends were reciting Quran, listening to religious lectures and then eating good food. I was saddened as all this was being done for tradition's sake.

No needy or deserving person was invited. Of what good was such food to me? When I returned to the grave, I saw Haadi with a tray of sweet ripe apples. “Where have these come from?” I asked. “Somebody sincerely recited Sura al-Fateha near your grave, and Allah has rewarded you”, he replied.