The good looking man seemed to be a well-wisher because from...

The good looking man seemed to be a well-wisher because from what little I could overhear it seemed as if he was not allowing those sins for which I had repented to be recorded. At times he would say that such and such sin had been compensated by a certain good deed that I had done, just as the alchemist's elixir turns earth into gold. So I developed a liking for this person because of his kindness towards me.

When they finished writing, they folded the sheets and wrapped them around my neck like fetters, and they put the sealed boxes in a bag and placed it by my head. Then I saw them bringing an iron cage; it had thick iron bars and was about my size. They put me inside and bolted it. Then, as they turned its lever, it started to constrict, tightening on my body. It became so tight that it became difficult to breath, and I felt that I could not even call to anybody for help.

They kept turning the lever until the cage which had originally been my size was now no bigger than a small cooking vessel; small and hot. My. bones cracked and brake and quite literally oil oozed out of my body as black as soot. They mopped it up but I had fainted and was unaware of what was going on. When I became conscious again, I found my head in Haadi's lap I said, "Haadi forgive me. But I am feeling so bad that I cannot even get up.

My joints have all broken, and I cannot yet breathe properly." My voice had gone weak and I was crying as if I was reproaching Haadi for not being present when I had needed him so much. This was the first constriction that I had ever faced. Haadi consoled me and told me that what had happened to me was an unavoidable event which everyone had to face in the first stage in the grave. Anyhow, he hoped that I would not have to face similar events in the future.

Secondly, he said, all events here were a result of my own past deeds. (Constriction in the grave and other punishments of the Barzakh, are the result of whose sins which one has not repented for. It has nothing to do with correctness of one's faith. The possibility exists that a person though a (we faithful commits certain mistakes or sins in his life time. and will have to bear the punishment for these in the Hereafter.

Therefore man should only sin to a extent that he can bear to be punished for, Saad lbne Maaz was one of the respected companions of the Holy Prophet. When he died, the Holy Prophet accompanied his funeral barefoot and without his cloak to show his grief.