Section 2: (The Book)  (The Myth of the Torment Of the Grave)

Published in May 3, 2008

Authored by Ahmed Subhy Mansour

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy  

Dear fellow Quranists following our forum,

Peace be with all of you,

 We tickle your minds with refutation of a centuries-old myth: the falsehood known as the torment of the grave. Within many scientific and Quran-based lines of evidence and proofs, we deny such a lie ascribed falsely to Prophet Muhammad through hadiths authored and invented by Middle-Ages narrators/fabricators.

Let us quote some of these concocted hadith narratives about this myth.

 Hadith No. 1002 in Al-Bokhary, part 1, p 356: (...Abdulla Ibn Salama said that Malik said that Yahya Ibn Saeed said that Omeira daughter of Abdul-Rahman said that Aisha said that a Jewess met her to ask some questions, and eventually, the Jewess implored the Lord to spare Aisha the torment of the grave; Aisha asked her husband, ProphetMuhammad, about if dead ones are being tormented in their tombs, he asked her to wait to receive an answer; then, he rode his camel at noon and returned some time later, and he performed long prayers between two stones, and people prayed behind him, as their imam, and after he finished and found a multitude behind him, he preached to them for a longer while, and eventually asked them to seek refuge in God against torment of the grave ...).

 Hadith No. 1306 in Al-Bokhary, part 1, p 462: (... Abdan said that Abbi said that Shu'ba said that Al-Ashaath said that his father said that Masrooq said that Aisha said that a Jewess talked to Aisha in her chamber, and mentioned the torment of the grave, asking the Lord to spare Aisha from it, and after she left, Aisha asked her husband, the Prophet, about the torment of the grave and if it is true, and he answered in the affirmative, and Aisha said that from that day onward, every time the Prophet prayed, he implored God and sought refuge in Him against the torment of the grave ...).

 In the book of ''Moslem'', part 1, p. 410: (...Chapter on seeking refuge in God against the torment of the grave: Hadith No. 584, Harun Ibn Saeed said that Hirmilah Ibn Yahya said that Ibn Wahb said that Younis Ibn Yazeed said that Ibn Shihab said that Orwa Ibn Al-Zubayr said that Aisha said that her husband, the Prophet Muhammad, entered her chamber to find a Jewess asking about the torment of the grave, and the Prophet felt afraid, and many nights later, Aisha said that the Prophet told her that he was inspired by God to seek refuge in Him against the torment of the grave after each daily prayers ...)

 In the book of ''Moslem'', part 1, p. 411: (... Hadith No. 586: Zuhayr Ibn Harb said that Ishaq Ibrahim said that Jarir said that Mansour said that Abou Wael said that Masrooq said that Aisha said that two elderly women of the Yathreb tribes entered into the chamber of Aisha to talk to her, asserting to her that many dead people in their tombs are being tormented, but Aisha refused to believe them, but both women asserted that camels, horses, and cattle hear their cries when they get nearer to the cemeteries, and when Muhammad heard this, from that day onward he sought refuge in the Lord against the torment of the grave after each daily prayers ...).

 These are some 'holy', 'sacrosanct', and 'hallowed' narratives of the sanctified books held dear by Sunnites, who never cast doubts on the purported series of narrators. It is laughter-inducing and funny in the above hadiths we quote that as if no one would hear about these so-called torment of the grave if it had not been for the assumed Jewess talking supposedly to Aisha, as per such false story, people would not have heard of this notion. Such a story aims to undermine  Muhammad and make him appear as if he were negligent and ignorant, as if he would not have known about this notion if it had not been for an old Jewess. Such false notion within such false narratives are concocted and invented to terrorize and intimidate people and make them submit to clergymen who were in their turn obsequiously submissive to rulers. Thus, corrupt clergy and preachers forgot about spreading piety and disregarded pondering the Quran and its facts and teachings. It is funnier still that those wishing to avoid the so-called torment of the grave are advised at the time to read the Quranic Chapter 67, as per this silly hadith narrative, in revised edition of Al-Bokhary and Moslem part 2, p. 540: (... Hadith No. 3839: Al-Hassan Ibn Haleem said that Abou Al-Moujah said that Abdullah said that Sufyan said that Assim said that Ibn Masood said that when torment of the grave would attempt to attack the dead man in his tomb, but people would recite The Quranic Chapter 67 at his tomb, the torment escapes his legs, then they read it again, and torment escapes his belly, then again, and it escapes his head, and leave his body forever, for this Quranic Chapter 67 prevents the torment of the grave, provided that he would be among those who read it regularly every night during his lifetime, for it has been part of the Torah before being distorted by the Jews, and this hadith is uttered by the Prophet but it text is agreed upon by narrators ...).               

 Thus, the gullible masses who believe in the myth called torment of the grave must believe in such hadiths and the next one as well about intercession of the Quranic Chapter 67, from the hadiths book of Tirmezeiy, part 5, p. 164: (... chapter on the merits and qualities of the Quranic Chapter 67: M. Ibn Abdul-Malik said that Yahya Ibn Amr  said that his father said that Abou Al-Jawzaa said that Ibn Abbas said that when some of the companions of the Prophet pitched their tent beside a tomb, unknowingly, they saw that a man is reading the Quranic Chapter 67 over this tomb many times, and they told the Prophet about this, asking him about it, and he said to them that this Chapter prevents torment of the grave ... Abou Eissa and Abou Hurayrah asserted and repeated this story as good and true ...).

 Such fake narratives are refuted by the Quran, as we will show below. God says in the Quran: "On the Day when We raise in every community a witness against them, from among them, and bring you as a witness against these. We have revealed to you the Book, as an explanation of all things, and guidance, and mercy and good news for those who submit." (16:89); "Say, "The Holy Spirit has brought it down from your Lord, truthfully, in order to stabilize those who believe, and as guidance and good news for those who submit."" (16:102); "And before it was the Book of Moses, a model and a mercy. And this is a confirming Book, in the Arabic language, to warn those who do wrong-and good news for the doers of good." (46:12); "And on that Day, Hell is brought forward. On that Day, man will remember, but how will remembrance avail him?" (89:23).

 We would like readers to read carefully this booklet, or rather the lengthy article, below about refuting the myth of the torment of the grave and to write comments on it so that Quranists learn from one another; please accept our greetings to each one of you.

Dr. A. S. Mansour

Title of the booklet: "The Myth of the Torment of the Grave and Falsehoods of the Sheikhs of the Bald Snake"

Written by: Dr. A. S. Mansour

Preface written within the first and last paper edition:

 The whole world is about to step into the 21^st century with technological and scientific advancement that amaze everyone; meanwhile the Muhammadans focus still on myths that goes back to 20 centuries B.C., such as the Pharaonic myth of the torment of the grave and the bald snake, imposed on hadiths ascribed falsely to Muhammad. When we deny such a myth and refute it using he Quran, the Muhammadans accuse us of being a heretic and an apostate who cast doubts on what is known necessarily in their earthly Sunnite religion. Hence, the Muhammadans never live the present; they live the past of 4000 years ago of Pharaonic mythology, though Islam has emerged in the 7^th century A.D. and the Quran has stood firmly against myths, lies, and falsehoods. The Quran gives us a scientific and empirical methodology to discover and research, but ancestors in the Middle Ages abandoned the Quran and focused on myths instead. When the Arab renaissance began in Egypt in the 19^th century and first half of the 20^th century, it has been aborted since the 1970s as Wahabi Sunnite myths of the Middle Ages have re-surfaced to influence minds of religious youth in Egypt and the Arab world, bringing to them backwardness and obscurantism instead of using the Quran as the means to intellectual reasoning and knowledge as well as a liberating force. What is to become of Arab youths now?! Are they are being prepared to become slaves of the 21^st century to the modern-world countries?! Are Arabs are to remain backward and sink into oblivion while the world advances into the future with light speed?! Why the powers of darkness (i.e., agents of Wahabism) ascribe their terrorism, backwardness, obscurantism, and myths to the name of Islam, hijacked by them?! This brief study on the myth of the torment of the grave and tales linked to it is a humble attempt to clear the name of Islam of such falsehoods and to raise the awareness of the Muhammadans who deem themselves as Muslims. Our noble aim deserves that we tolerate, pardon, and bear patiently with verbal abuse and virulent attacks aiming to tarnish our reputation from those Wahabi Sunnites who have abandoned the Quran. May God aid all of us.           

Signature:     

Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour

Cairo, 1993 A.D./1414 A.H.

CHAPTER I

 The notions of the torment of the grave and 'the bald snake' are never found in the Quran; they are mentioned in the so-called Sunna hadiths invented by men who have ascribed forcibly to Muhammad to reinforce their own fabricated views and lend them fake legitimacy, apart from distorting meanings and interpretations of Quranic verses to serve their purposes of consolidating invented myths. When a researcher like us who are faithful to the Quran clear Muhammad's name of lies and false narratives ascribed to him decades after his death, by using the Quran as the criterion to judge all issues, many accusations are leveled at us, on top of them all denying the so-called Sunna. The question raised here is as follows: what is the link between the so-called Sunna hadiths and the Quran?! In other words, why the so-called Sunna attributed to Muhammad is used as a motto to conceal clergymen's failure to think and use ijtihad and their rejection of the Quranic Truth? Actually, Muhammad had nothing called Sunna; he obeyed and adhered only to the Quran, and those who really love Muhammad must believe that his deeds and words are recorded exclusively in the Quranic text. In fact, Muhammad never uttered any of the so-called hadiths; otherwise, those ascribing hadiths to him are accusing him of rejecting the Quran and disobeying God, thus making themselves as enemies of Muhammad, the Quran, and God. the Muhammadans never ponder deeply on the Quranic verses; if they do, they would know that the real traditions or Sunna of Muhammad is applying the Quran, which is the method/way he adopted in his life. In fact, God in the Quran tells us that enemies of Muhammad are those who follow devilish, Satanist narratives/hadiths attributed falsely to God's religion though they contradict the Quran: "Likewise, We have assigned for every prophet an enemy-human and jinn devils-inspiring one another with fancy words in order to deceive. But had your Lord willed, they would not have done it. So leave them to their fabrications." (6:112). We read the following about the Last Day: "On that Day, the wrongdoer will bite his hands, and say, "If only I had followed the way with the Messenger. Oh, woe to me; I wish I never took so-and-so for a friend. He led me away from the Message after it had come to me; for Satan has always been a betrayer of man." And the Messenger will say, "My Lord, my people have abandoned this Quran." Likewise, to every prophet We assign enemies from among the wicked. But your Lord suffices as a Guide and Supporter." (25:27-31). This means that sinners and disbelievers will regret on the Last Day their not following the Quran because they befriended disobedient ones who urged them to reject the Quran: God's Path and Message. This regret after it will be too late is because the sinners and disobedient ones followed Satan who let them down, and this is why Muhammad will disown those who abandoned the Quran as per 25:30. This means that the Quran will be there but rejected and put aside and rarely pondered: this happens now by the Muhammadans who reject the Quranic message to believe in and adhere to other narratives that contradict it and add to religion things never commanded by God. these false narratives are hadiths attributed falsely to Muhammad and regarded as holy and sanctified so as to stop others from criticizing and refuting them using the Quran. This is why in 25:31, we read how believers in such lies are enemies and among the wicked. The so-called hadiths are never Sunna/method of Muhammad; abandoning the Quran and  rejecting it to favor the man-made narratives is showing hatred and enmity toward God and Muhammad, and this is why Muhammad with disown those enemies, who ascribed falsehoods to him never uttered by him, on the Last Day as per 25:30. Strangely, Sunnite books contain a story that Muhammad commanded others around him never to write anything after him except for the Quran and to remove anything else written about him or copied from his own words. Thus, Muhammad never uttered or knew any hadiths at all and so were his contemporaries who had nothing but the Quran as the only source of religion. Even the caliph Omar Ibn Al-Khattab said the following in his speech once he became caliph: (... There is no any other book after the Quran, and I follow it and will be never inventing anything new in religion ...). yet, whims prevailed and oral narratives/traditions called hadiths spread among people while attributed to Muhammad decades after his death; accumulated and increased exponentially, these so-called hadiths were written for the very first time in the 3^rd century A.H. in a systematic way. Thus, inventing hadiths increased the more; countless hadiths contradicted one another even in the same book by a given author, even in the same page of his book! All hadiths contradict the Quran by either adding to it useless items or by flagrantly denying Quranic facts and teachings. This is why discrepancies abound in all books of hadiths, within their texts and series of narrators; rivalry in fabricating and inventing hadiths, apart from political motives, led authors to invent hadiths to refute hadiths of other authors, with debates ensued for centuries among Sunnite scholars, until Napoleon Bonaparte surprised Egyptians by conquering Egypt, and at the time, Azharite scholars, or rather ignoramuses, attempted to seek the aid from their saint, Al-Bokhary, for protection, by reciting his book aloud in groups, and this was of no avail to them before weapons of the French, who broke into Al-Azhar Mosque with their horses, anyway!

  Thus a renaissance began to form when the French Expedition occurred and Great Britain interfered in the Persian Gulf as the Ottoman Empire grew weaker; the Muslim, or rather Muhammadan, societies were deeply shaken but two contradictory trends emerged: within the Najd region deserts, the Wahabi call emerged and sought to move people back in time, by reviving the extremist Ibn Hanbal Sunnite doctrine, while considering Sufism is the only cause for regression and backwardness, with the only 'salvation' to be found in hadiths written by the ancestors. The other opposite trend is Muhammad Ali Pacha, king of Egypt, when he was bent on modernizing Egypt to make it like European countries, but his grand project faltered in its steps because of foreign colonial powers. Meanwhile, the Wahabi Saudi state was established three times and collapsed twice. The third current KSA used oil revenues to spread Wahabism all over Egypt and Arab/'Islamic' countries and it invaded minds of the masses gradually. This has led to the rise of the same old myths and phenomena of the Middle-Ages: growing beards, dress-codes of the past, niqab and hijab, 'the bald snake' and the torment of the grave, among other myriads of myths rejected and refuted by the Quran.

 Before the era of Gulf oil, Egypt witnessed a true intellectual renaissance, and this movement included religious reform and ijtihad appearing amidst Al-Azhar, led by its head the imam Muhammad Abdou, with his modern school of thought seeking radical reform by the call to return to the Quran as the only and sole source of religion and Islamic legislations. This school of thought lingered faintly until 1960s in Egypt within the imam/head of Al-Azhar Mahmoud Shaltout who repeated phrases of M. Abdou in his books published in the 1960s, with enlightenment built on the school of M. Abdou, who died in 1905. Shaltout tackled issues like permitted bank interests and he refuted myths found in hadiths linked to the Last Day and declared that the only source of religious knowledge is the Quran, as hadiths are never authentic, absolute, or true and cannot be trusted, and he refuted myths linked to the realm of the future and the unknown, including the so-called torment of the grave. Yet, intellectual endeavors of Abdou and Shaltout are lost when the oil revenues of the KSA increased exponentially and allowed Saudis to sponsor and spread Wahabism (as though it were 'genuine' Islam) since the 1970s onwards in Egypt and worldwide, thus invading minds of youths by myths. Those in Egypt who tried to revive views of Abdou and Shaltout, spread in earlier decades in the 10^th century, to undermine Wahabism were persecuted as apostates and heretics who risked their lives as they might get killed! When we have emerged with Quranism as our call and trend since 1977, we are still in danger of being murdered and we live under threats, only because we demand openly and outspokenly the return to the Quran as the sole source of religion and the only criterion to judge anything, thus refuting Sunnite Wahabism and all hadiths of all types. Since our foes cannot declare their hating the Quran, abandoned by them, they have no other option left but to verbally abuse us, to launch virulent attacks against us, and to persecute and threaten us as much as they can. This is our own history since 1977 until now because of our vociferous non-compromising reformist call and reform endeavors to understand the Quran in the best way possible and to reject all fiqh and hadiths. We use the Quran as the sole criterion to refute the topic of the torment of the grave and all hadiths linked to it, hoping for guidance to ourselves and others, and even our slanderers and abusers whom we tolerate and pardon, knowing very well they verbally abuse us because they cannot refute our views.

 Why Muhammad never uttered any hadiths, especially linked to the realm of the future and the unknown? We deny all hadiths of course, and larger part of them are linked to future events: the Day of Resurrection, intercession, those promised with entering Paradise, the awaited second coming of Christ, emergence of the so-called Al-Mahdi, and the fear of the so-called Anti-Christ, etc. We are never to believe such nonsense, because the only source for the realm of the unknown and unseen is the Quran. Azharite scholars insist that 'authentic' hadiths are the ones with asserted series of narrators; we beg to differ. No single hadith is absolutely true as if  part of Quranic verses; the Quran is the only Absolute Truth. Even many Middle-Ages scholars of fiqh rejected the notion that some hadiths are 'authentic' or 100% 'true' based on 'verified' series of narrators, and these scholars include Al-Hazimy, Al-Shatbi, Abou Hayyan, Al-Nawawi, etc. and some of them made verified hadiths to be only one, three, or five, including the one about those who ascribe lies to Muhammad as entering Hell in case they never repent before their death. No hadith narrators ever described hadiths of the torment of the grave as 'authentic' or 'verified' but rather as doubted narratives, as per hadith scholars. We pose these questions: do we really need such thousands of hadiths filling countless books about the realm of the unseen, the unknown, and the future, which are based on mere guessing?! Is it not better to confine knowledge about the realm of the unseen, the unknown, and the future to the Quranic text?! Each group of Middle-Ages authors who would defend their invented myths about the realm of the unseen, the unknown, and the future would invent myriads of hadiths to support their views; contradictions abound in their books and discourse, and religion cannot be based on discrepancies made by mortals, right?!

 Let us focus on the Quran itself to answer this question: did Muhammad uttered any hadiths at all?! What about the so-called torment of the grave hadiths? Did Muhammad ever talked about the realm of the unseen, the unknown, and the future? We find definitive answers in the Quranic verses, as for true believers only, God says nothing but the Truth. God the Omniscient is the Only One knowing this realm; Muhammad, and all mortals, never knew about the realm of the unseen, the unknown, and the future; we assert this fact by the following Quranic verses: "With Him are the keys of the unseen; none knows them except He..." (6:59); "...Say, "The realm of the unseen belongs to God..." (10:20); "To God belongs the future of the heavens and the earth, and to Him all authority goes back..." (11:123); "To God belongs the unseen of the heavens and the earth..." (16:77); "Say, "No one in the heavens or on earth knows the future except God..." (27:65). Thus, such verses confine this real to God as part of the Divine Attributes never allowed to any mortals.

  Prophets and messengers never knew the realm of the unknown and unseen, except for what God has told them in the messages conveyed to them: "...Nor will God inform you of the future, but God elects from among His messengers whom He wills..." (3:179); "The Knower of the Invisible; He does not disclose His Invisible to anyone. Except to a Messenger of His choosing..." (72:26-27). For instance, God made Jesus and Joseph know some of the invisible to prove to their peoples that they are prophets of the Lord; other prophets had not had that gift from God, such as Noah and Muhammad. Noah said the following to his people: "I do not say to you that I possess the treasures of God, nor do I know the future nor do I say to you that I am an angel..." (11:31); likewise, Muhammad said the following to his people: "Say, "I do not say to you that I possess the treasuries of God, nor do I know the future, nor do I say to you that I am an angel. I only follow what is inspired to me."..." (6:50). God has commanded Muhammad to say to those questioners that he knows nothing about the timing of the Last Day, as God did not choose him among messengers who knew some facts about the realm of the future: "Say, "I do not know whether what you are promised is near, or whether my Lord will extend it for a period." The Knower of the Invisible; He does not disclose His Invisible to anyone. Except to a Messenger of His choosing..." (72:25-27); thus, Muhammad never knew the realm of the unseen and the future, unless things God chose to mention in the Quran, and God denies that Muhammad was omniscient: "They ask you about the Hour, "When will it come?" Say, "Knowledge of it rests with my Lord. None can reveal its coming except He. It weighs heavily on the heavens and the earth. It will not come upon you except suddenly." They ask you as if you are responsible for it. Say, "Knowledge of it rests with God," but most people do not know. Say, "I have no control over any benefit or harm to myself, except as God wills. Had I known the future, I would have acquired much good, and no harm would have touched me. I am only a warner, and a herald of good news to a people who believe."" (7:187-188). If Muhammad were omniscient, he would not have been deceived by hypocrites, who never feared God, seeking his judgment to defend criminals, as we infer from these verses: "We have revealed to you the Scripture, with the truth, so that you judge between people in accordance with what God has shown you. And do not be an advocate for the traitors. And ask God for forgiveness. God is Forgiver and Merciful. And do not argue on behalf of those who deceive themselves. God does not love the deceitful sinner. " (4:105-107); these verses apply to those hypocrites: "They hide from the people, but they cannot hide from God. He is with them, as they plot by night with words He does not approve. God comprehends what they do." (4:108); "They profess obedience, but when they leave your presence, some of them conspire something contrary to what you said. But God writes down what they conspire. So avoid them, and put your trust in God. God is Guardian enough." (4:81). Hence, Muhammad in daily life acted as per his human abilities in all events, occurrences, self-defense battles, etc. and God has responded to those who used to ask Muhammad about this invisible realm in this verse: "Say, "I am not different from the other messengers; and I do not know what will be done with me, or with you. I only follow what is inspired in me, and I am only a clear warner."" (46:9). Thus, Muhammad never uttered anything about the so-called torment of the grave since he had no knowledge of the realm of the invisible, and it is our duty to clear Muhammad's name of such a myth refuted in the Quran. All hadiths are false as the only pieces of information available to us about the invisible realm and the future (i.e., the Afterlife) are found exclusively in the Quranic text. Thus, thousands of hadiths about the so-called intercession and events of the Last Day in hadiths, events that are never mentioned in the Quran, as well as about torment in tombs are never true; those Muhammadans who adhere to these hadiths reject the Quran and disbelieve in it. To believe in the Quran is to reject and disbelieve in all hadiths, and Muhammadans of today could not solve their problem/discrepancy of combining the belief in the Quran and in their revered hadiths contradicting it except to verbally abuse the writer of these lines; it is OK, but this never solves their problem, of course?! One cannot combine the belief in one discourse and another ones contradicting it.

 We summarize the above in asserting the following points which we have concluded:

1- Real Sunna/method/way of Muhammad is adherence to the Quran and following it, and the Quranic verses assert Muhammad never knew the realm of the invisible or the future, and consequently never talked about it; we infer this from the Quran: Muhammad never talked about the notion of the torment of the grave.

2- Most verifiers and collectors of hadiths state in their books that no hadiths are 100 sure or true as authentic or exact words of the Prophet, and they allowed themselves to describe five hadiths only as 100 true, and this does not apply, to them, for the rest of the hundreds of thousands of hadiths, and the supposedly 'ascertained' five hadiths never include one about the notion of the torment of the grave. We, Quranists deny the veracity of all hadiths; not even a single one is deemed to be true. The Quran is the only source of Islam.

3- Since God tells us in the Quran that Muhammad never knew the realm of the invisible or the future, we deny all hadiths about the weird notion of the torment of the grave. Such hadiths include reciting the Quranic Chapter 67 to the dead to prevent their being tormented and those who are never tormented just because they died on a Friday(!) or because they died of a certain illness in the stomach(!). We thank the Almighty for saving us from the belief in such myths!

CHAPTER II

  The only pieces of information about the future in the Afterlife are found exclusively in the Quran, with details about creation of souls, their death, Barsakh, resurrection, judgment, etc. and we are to follow the Quranic verses in order to get to know all this for sure; the Quran never mentions anything about the mythical notion of the torment of the grave inflicted on the dead by a bald, hairless snake. Yet, some Sunnites, past and present, overlap Quranic facts about Barsakh and false hadiths about the notion of the torment of the grave. Let us research within the Quran the topic of the human soul and its relation to the human body, and what are the fates of both the soul and the body, in relation to Barsakh, resurrection and judgment on the Last Day.

 Creation, death, Barsakh, and resurrection: we know from the Quran that God created all human souls at once in the same time: "O people! Fear your Lord, who created you from a single soul, and created from it its mate, and propagated from them many men and women..." (4:1); from this one soul, all souls are sprung, and souls get from Barsakh to the earth to wear a body for a certain duration, and then when we die, souls return to Barsakh in state of timelessness and slumber until resurrection; souls of those yet unborn are still in Barsakh waiting for their being tested in life: "And it is He who produced you from a single person, then a repository, then a depository..." (6:98). Souls before getting into fetuses in wombs are in deep slumber of timelessness inside Barsakh, and souls dominate and control the body as long as one is alive on Earth, until the predetermined timing of one's death, thus ending the test of life that lasted for some duration, and souls return after death to Barsakh, its original place, feeling the timelessness again in deep slumber waiting for resurrection, judgment, and eternal life (either in Hell or Paradise). This means all humanity were dead souls inside Barsakh before being born: death is like the state we felt before being born: nothingness, timelessness, and senselessness, but after resurrection on the Last Day, eternal life is expected (either in Hell or Paradise). God says in the Quran: "How can you deny God, when you were dead and He gave you life, then He will put you to death, then He will bring you to life, then to Him you will be returned?" (2:28); Hell dwellers will realize this fact as they will say: "They will say, "Our Lord, you made us die twice, and twice you gave us life. Now we acknowledge our sins. Is there any way out?"" (40:11). Thus, souls are dead in Barsakh, then live on earth wearing bodies, then die, then live eternally; thus, these are two lives and two deaths. Thus, in Barsakh, our soul was there, along with other souls of people yet to be born, including our grandchildren, and souls of the dead among our ancestors, and when we die one day, our body turns to dust and our soul return to Barsakh. It is impossible that the soul of our dead father would get to know the soul of our yet unborn grandchildren; the reason: Barsakh is a state of timelessness, senselessness, and deep slumber of unconsciousness and lifelessness. God asserts that no one, including Muhammad, can reach the dead souls and make the dead bodies in tombs hear anything: "Nor are equal the living and the dead. God causes whomever He wills to hear, but you cannot make those in the graves hear." (35:22); "If you pray to them, they cannot hear your prayer. And even if they heard, they would not answer you. And on the Day of Resurrection, they will reject your polytheism..." (35:14), and God tells us that it is no use to worship entombed dead saints in mausoleums: "They are dead, not alive; and they do not know when they will be resurrected." (16:21). Thus, dead bodies are mere dust and cannot hear or feel anything, and souls in Barsakh never meet or talk to one another at all, unlike what we read in Sunnite, Shiite, and Sufi myths.

 Death, Barsakh, and sleep: the souls never stand to linger in the body-prison for long times, they return to Barsakh during our sleep, but remain linked to the bodies in an ethereal manner we cannot imagine; thus, sleep is temporary death as per this Quranic verse: "God takes the souls at the time of their death, and those that have not died during their sleep. He retains those for which He has decreed death, and He releases the others until a predetermined time..." (39:42). Thus, the myth of the torment of the grave is refuted; dead bodies turn to dust, and real self is the soul of the dead persons return to Barsakh, locked in this unknown place between life and Afterlife, until resurrection on the Last Day. Death is of two types: temporary repeated one (during sleep) and the one when souls never return to bodies after leaving them. The sensations of souls outside bodies during sleep are called dreams, and during sleep, we never fell the passage of time; time is the fourth side of the physical matter. Thus, upon resurrection, souls feel they have slept for a day or part of day:  timelessness and unconsciousness of Barsakh are felt during sleep and also during death: "Or like him who passed by a town collapsed on its foundations. He said, "How can God revive this after its demise?" Thereupon God caused him to die for a hundred years, and then resurrected him. He said, "For how long have you tarried?" He said, "I have tarried for a day, or part of a day." He said, "No. You have tarried for a hundred years..." (2:259). Even people of the cave, in the story in the Quranic Chapter 18, had remembered events occurred to them before their slumber that lasted for 309 years and felt as if they slept for a day: "...A speaker among them said, "How long have you stayed?" They said, "We have stayed a day, or part of a day."....."If they discover you, they will stone you, or force you back into their religion; then you will never be saved."" (18:19-20). They never knew at this moment that their people died long ago! All people, including sinners, will feel upon resurrection that they died a day ago: "On the Day when they witness it-as though they only stayed an evening, or its morning." (79:46); "Murmuring among themselves: "You have lingered only for ten." We are fully aware of what they say, when the most exemplary of them in conduct will say, "You have lingered only a day."" (20:103-104). This means that sinners never experience torment in the grave; otherwise, they would have felt time very acutely for centuries, passing very slowly, but in fact, they will feel upon resurrection as if the slept for a short while: "On the Day when the Hour takes place, the sinners will swear they had stayed but an hour. Thus they were deluded. But those endowed with knowledge and faith will say, "You remained in God's Book until the Day of Resurrection. This is the Day of Resurrection, but you did not know."" (30:55-56). The word 'hour' here does NOT mean 60 minutes, of course, but rather a short duration. This means they sinners were not tormented in their tombs at all, as the supposed torment will make minutes feel like centuries for them. Thus, souls in Barsakh are senseless and feel nothing nor are they aware of the passage of time, and those with deep faith will respond to them in the manner we read in 30:56.

 Between Barsakh and the moment of dying: because Barsakh is a state of timelessness, senselessness, and lifelessness, the Quran links directly the sensation of the dying persons and their sensation since they are resurrected: "The daze of death has come in truth: "This is what you tried to evade." And the Trumpet is blown: "This is the Promised Day."" (50:19-20). If the resurrected person is among the losers, it is in vain to demand a second chance of life, and angels of death strike such a soul: "Until, when death comes to one of them, he says, "My Lord, send me back. That I may do right in what I have neglected." By no means! It is just a word that he utters. And behind them is a barrier, until the Day they are resurrected." (23:99-100); "How about when the angels take them at death, beating their faces and their backs?" (47:27); "If only you could see, as the angels take away those who disbelieve, striking their faces and their backs: "Taste the agony of the Burning."" (8:50). Thus, angels of death tell sinners about torment waiting for them in Hell for eternity and bring glad tidings to good souls when they receive them from the dead bodies, and both types of souls will be resurrected feeling as if they were asleep for a day or part of a day. Among losers who will feel the moment of dying in panic are those ascribing lies and falsehoods to God and Muhammad, such as intercession and other myths, and angles of death rebuke them severely: "Who does greater wrong than someone who invents falsehood against God, or says, "It was revealed to me," when nothing was revealed to him, or says, "I will reveal the like of what God revealed"? If only you could see the wrongdoers in the floods of death, as the angels with arms outstretched: "Give up your souls. Today you are being repaid with the torment of shame for having said about God other than the truth, and for being too proud to accept His revelations." "You have come to Us individually, just as We created you the first time, leaving behind you everything We gave you. We do not see with you your intercessors-those you claimed were your partners. The link between you is cut, and what you had asserted has failed you."" (6:93-94). Angels of death rebuke such sinners in that way in these two verses, and Barsakh between death and resurrection is a state of timelessness and deep slumber, and upon resurrection, all human beings will feel they slept for a short while, as we read in the verses we have quoted above; this is why the Quranic text in some verses move from describing feelings of the dying ones to their feelings once resurrected. This means there is no torment or bliss in tombs or graves, and certainly no bald snakes to torture any dead bodies. This is the Quranic rule, but there are exceptions of those who feel every single moment of Barsakh: the souls of those killed while striving for God's sake are enjoying a type of Barsakh Paradise, and the souls of the people of Moses' Pharaoh and the people of Noah are being tormented in Barsakh as well. These groups certainly feel the passage of time in Barsakh; this entails some explanation below, based of course on the Quran.   

  Those killed while striving for God's sake: these are not to be mistaken for witnesses who testify for/against their peoples as preachers of the Truth: "Who does greater wrong than he who fabricates lies about God? These will be presented before their Lord, and the witnesses will say, "These are they who lied about their Lord." Indeed, the curse of God is upon the wrongdoers." (11:18); "On the Day when We raise in every community a witness against them, from among them, and bring you as a witness against these. We have revealed to you the Book, as an explanation of all things, and guidance, and mercy and good news for those who submit." (16:89); "And the earth will shine with the Light of its Lord; and the Book will be put in place; and the prophets and the witnesses will be brought in; and Judgment will be passed among them equitably, and they will not be wronged." (39:69). As for those killed while striving for God's sake, they might or might not include preachers of the Truth, and God tells us that they are alive in Barsakh and not dead: "And do not say of those who are killed in the cause of God, "Dead." Rather, they are alive, but you do not perceive." (2:154). They are alive because they dedicated their lives to God, for His cause, and thus, He rewards them with eternal bliss in Barsakh, in a level that cannot be imagined at all with our minds and senses; but those blessed souls feel those on earth, as we read in this verse: " Do not consider those killed in the cause of God as dead. In fact, they are alive, at their Lord, well provided for. Delighting in what God has given them out of His grace, and happy for those who have not yet joined them; that they have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve." (3:169-170). This applies to this believing man mentioned in the Quranic Chapter 36: "It was said, "Enter Paradise." He said, "If only my people knew. How my Lord has forgiven me, and made me one of the honored."" (36:26-27). This may be the Barsakh Paradise where Adam and his wife used to be, or the Paradise mentioned in 53:15, we are not sure, but we are 100% certain that entombed dead bodies never feel a thing, never tormented or delighting in bliss. Souls of those killed for God's cause are blessed in this Barsakh Paradise in  way/level we cannot imagine. It is a shame that ignoramuses quote the above verses to prove myths of the torment of the grave or paradise in tombs for bodies turned to dust, for such notions are never mentioned in the Quran at all.

 People of Moses' Pharaoh and people of Noah: they lived their earthly life fighting and persecuting the prophets sent to them until they died by being smitten by the Lord; the former were drowned in the Red Sea and the latter in the deluge/flood. Of course, other smitten peoples disbelieved in the messages of God conveyed by their prophets, but God mentions people of Moses' Pharaoh and people of Noah in particular as being tormented in Barsakh; other sinners and criminals are not, as they will feel upon resurrection that they slept for a day or part of a day as a general rule, and this means that their Barsakh is a slumber of senselessness and timelessness. Thus, people of Moses' Pharaoh and people of Noah are the two exceptions to this rule; the latter are mentioned as tormented with fire in Barsakh once after their death in this Quranic verse: "Because of their wrongs, they were drowned, and were hurled into a Fire. They did not find apart from God any helpers." (71:25), and we should bear in mind that their disobedience lasted for 950 years, the period of the ministry of Noah, as per the Quran, until Noah said in despair: "Noah said, "My Lord, do not leave of the unbelievers a single dweller on earth. If You leave them, they will mislead your servants, and will breed only wicked unbelievers." (71:26-27). "And it was revealed to Noah: "None of your people will believe, except those who have already believed, so do not grieve over what they do." "And build the Ark, under Our eyes, and with Our inspiration, and do not address Me regarding those who did wrong; they are to be drowned." As he was building the ark, whenever some of his people passed by him, they ridiculed him. He said, "If you ridicule us, we will ridicule you, just as you ridicule." "You will surely know upon whom will come a torment that will abase him, and upon whom will fall a lasting torment."" (11:36-39). This means a lasting torment in Barsakh and then in Hell for eternity, and this story has been told by other prophets for other generations to serve as a warning, and the story of the deluge is found and echoed in all ancient civilizations on earth. The people of Noah were the first people smitten by God, in the deluge/flood, and the last people to be smitten by God, Moses' Pharaoh and his people, were also drowned, in the Red Sea, as they imitate the evil ways of the people of Noah; they rejected all Signs of God given to Moses and Aaron, and the corrupt Moses' Pharaoh declared his self-deification and refused adamantly to allow the Israelites to leave the land to avoid his tyranny. Thus, Moses' Pharaoh dedicated his life in persecuting peaceful weak ones, and the last moments of his life were spent in trying to crush them for leaving the land without his permission, thus, he dedicated his life to Satan and so did his people, and God makes him and them as imams of all disbelievers, like Noah's people, to the next generations: "And We made them leaders calling to the Fire. And on Resurrection Day..." (28:41); "Like the behavior of Pharaoh's people and those before them. They rejected Our Signs, so God seized them for their sins. God is Strict in retribution." (3:11); "Such was the case with the people of Pharaoh, and those before them. They denied the signs of their Lord, so We annihilated them for their wrongs, and We drowned the people of Pharaoh-they were all evildoers." (8:54). This means that polytheists coming after the era of Moses' Pharaoh are like him in Hell, but this Pharaoh and his people are tormented in Barsakh before entering Hell after the Day of Resurrection: "...while a terrible torment besieged Pharaoh's people; the Fire. They will be exposed to it morning and evening. And on the Day the Hour takes place: "Admit the clan of Pharaoh to the most intense agony."" (40:45-46). This means Barsakh torment for them was lesser than the one waiting for them in Hell for eternity, and the lesser on is not in tombs, but in Barsakh for the souls. We imagine that Moses' Pharaoh suffers in Barsakh while seeing the weak Israelites living in bliss in the land in peace and security, as we infer from these verses: "Pharaoh exalted himself in the land, and divided its people into factions. He persecuted a group of them, slaughtering their sons, while sparing their daughters. He was truly a corrupter. But We desired to favor those who were oppressed in the land, and to make them leaders, and to make them the inheritors. And to establish them in the land; and to show Pharaoh, Haman, and their troops, the very thing they feared." (28:46); "So We took vengeance on them, and drowned them in the sea-because they rejected Our signs, and paid no heed to them. And We made the oppressed people inherit the eastern and western parts of the land, which We had blessed. Thus the fair promise of your Lord to the Children of Israel was fulfilled, because of their endurance. And We destroyed what Pharaoh and his people had built, and what they had harvested." (7:136-137). That Moses' Pharaoh saw the Israelites in bliss occurred while his soul is being tormented in Barsakh, this is going on until the Last Day, when he and his people will enter into Hell as per 40:46. Thus, this torment is never in tomb or occurring to body of Pharaoh, but in Barsakh in a special way that cannot be fully imagined by us, while his body is left behind: "Today We will preserve your body, so that you become a sign for those after you..." (10:92). Thus, there is no bald snake biting the body of Moses' Pharaoh, as Sunnites claim in their myths, and he will be made an imam/leader to his people upon entering into Hell for eternity: "He will precede his people on the Day of Resurrection, and will lead them into the Fire. Miserable is the place he placed them in. They were followed by a curse in this, and on the Day of Resurrection. Miserable is the path they followed." (11:98-99). Thus, Moses' Pharaoh and his people were leaders/imams of disbelief and misguidance and they are tormented in Barsakh like Noah's people, unlike those who dedicated their lives for God's sake and got killed, who live in bliss of the Barsakh Paradise until entering the eternal Paradise after the Last Day; we know nothing about Barsakh Paradise except the few words about it in the Quran; thus, we are to believe in its existence without posing any questions about the realm of the unknown. Imagining any additional details would be mythology, and it is better to pose questions and research scientifically the physical world instead: "Have they not seen how God originates the creation, and then reproduces it? This is easy for God. Say, "Roam the earth, and observe how He originated the creation." Then God will bring about the next existence. God has power over all things."" (29:19-20); " How many a sign in the heavens and the earth do they pass by, paying no attention to them? " (12:105). Should our ancestors have applied and pondered upon these verses, they would have made scientific advancement like the West, but instead, they were busy with the bald snake and other myths!               

CHAPTER III

 It is natural that children, and later on philosophers, would pose questions about their existence: the reason why they are born, the universe is created, etc. but grownups who are busy with the transient world pleasures, glories, ambitions, and desires of the flesh forget these pivotal questions, and to weep for and lament over the loss of youth as they grow old and weak. Most people are losers in the Afterlife because they forgot that bodies are merely things that souls wear on earth; bodies are not the center/aim of existence. Bodies turn to dust from which it was created and souls return to Barsakh, waiting for resurrection. It is rare that people would be thinking of the deceased ones away from entombed bodies; superficial people thing that the dead body of the deceased people are the essence of them; this is utterly wrong. The dead bodies are just decaying corpses like old, torn, worn-out clothes, as the dead person is really in Barsakh as a soul. Sadly, human experiences are centered on bodies, while forgetting that the real persons are the souls that dominated and controlled these bodies, like a driver driving a car. The bodies the medium by which souls receive pleasure, pain, etc. through the brain. Some people feel their souls float when they are under anesthetics to undergo a surgical operation, and souls are the first and last factor feeling carnal pleasure/pain when a husband and his wife have sex or make love, but people focus on the bodies and forget the souls. This is very wrong. Is this linked to the myth of the torment of the grave?! Certainly; focusing on the body and disregarding the soul makes most people misunderstand death and believe any ancient myths linked to it, while fearing death and the sight of a dying person. The only facts of death are found exclusively in the Quran; death is a deep slumber or fainting state, and thus, there is no room for pain after death before resurrection in Barsakh. Yet, folklore ideas make death appear as if it were painful; no dead person ever returned to speak about this experience. Thus, people fear death for no reason but some myths. It is better to learn facts of death mentioned in the Quran, asserted by the way in some scientific experiments. Yet, myths and tales prevail on the collective memory of the masses; if they reject such mythology, they will be relieved of the nightmares and extreme worries about the false tales of the torment of the grave inflicted by the so-called bald snake. We must NOT focus on bodies, but on souls, and dead people never sleep in tombs; the bodies are like worn-out clothes decomposed gradually to turn to dust, without the soul feeling anything, as the real persons are souls in Barsakh in a state of senselessness and timelessness. Yet, the masses believe the myth that dead bodies feel confined in dark tombs and so on, and folk tales are filled with such myths and literature. Sunnite myths include a dragon with seven heads biting and stinging the dead bodies of the disbelievers, beside striking their heads with massive iron hammers so strong that they might turn mountains to dust, and piercing nipples of women and biting their lips, besides being thrown in a lake of fire and the bald snake would bite them eternally etc. Such silly tales show how Sunnites focus on the body as they worship it, and people afraid of the Hereafter, about which they know little, would be ready to believe in such mythology. Gullible masses believe blindly such silly tales, out of fear, once ignoramuses ascribe them to Muhammad in the form of hadiths as part of the Sunnite religion. As a result, Sunnite imams and saints use such myths as material to control and intimidate their followers, and taking money from the gullible masses so that they turn their tombs from pits of fire with bald snakes into five-star hotels! Hadith narrators were employed by the Umayyads to tell these tales, among other narratives and hadiths, to people all over mosques to distract them away from revolting against caliphs; orators would increase suspense to their tales to attract wider audiences and they used to ascribe such myths and narratives typically to Muhammad. Such oral traditions spread during the Umayyad Era had the chance to be jot down during the Abbasid Era, with much additions and distortions by many authors, including the Persian author follower of Mazdakism, whose first name was Ibn Berzaweih surnamed Al-Bokhary, who died in 256 A.H. Indeed, tales and hadiths if the torment of the grave were popular among narrators during the Umayyad Era, and a clergymen/scholar named Al-Awzaay, who served both the Umayyads and Abbasids, was a popular narrator of hadiths and his tales about torment of the grave were supported by their Pharaonic roots that people knew for thousands of years for many generations. Some Muhammadan cattle and ignoramuses assume that Satan has tendered a resignation once the Quran was conveyed fully and Muhammad died; this cannot be true, and that all conquered nations accepted Islam willingly without doubts or any influence of former civilizations and myths, again another grave error in history. Another fallacy is that the Muhammadans assume that their faith is spotless, perfect, and immaculate as 100% monotheism (!) and they assume another myth that they imitate Muhammad and his application of Islam (!). This is why they hate any Quranist preachers who are outspoken and vociferous in their call for religious reform among all Muhammadans worldwide, and instead, they proselytize Wahabism in remote areas worldwide in deserts, forests, North and South Poles, and at the Equator. Other sly foxes desire to reach power and establish theocracy to make all Muhammadans submit to them blindly as representative of God's religion! They aim to conquer the world like Arabs of the Middle Ages! Such foxes and cattle among the Muhammadans desire to control the awareness of the nations by making them engrossed in Sunnite, Wahabi mythology as opium, and especially hadiths of the so-called torment of the grave, so as to stop them from criticizing and questioning Wahabism, and they are ready to accuse Quranist reformers of being heretics and apostates for their denying Sunna and hadiths. Sunnite Wahabis intimidate people by the motto (no one is allowed to produce ijtihad to understand the texts), as if their 'holy' texts of hadiths and fiqh have one definite meaning! Thus, Sunnite Wahabis intimidate people to prevent them from thinking critically and to control minds of people to the authority of clergy ho steal their money, and they would control the masses to allow theocrats to reach power and to make the masses turn into suicide bombers and fierce fighters whenever needed! Thus, Sunnite Wahabis intimidate people by making them afraid of the bald snaking waiting in tombs to devour those who dare disobey or question clergymen. Thus, Salafist books are filled with details of the so-called torment of the grave and not the other myth of bliss/paradise inside tombs! This is intellectual and moral terrorism that destroys human dignity and mind; Salafists makes people forget that God provided human beings with dignity and made them rule over earth as successors. Hence, Salafists and Wahabis make the gullible masses turn unawares into polytheists who lose both this world and the next, while Satan is glad for their efforts, as they assume that Satan has tendered a resignation to seek a work contract on Mars instead of earth controlled by the bald snake and its clergy!                     

CHAPTER IV

  The Egyptian civilization is the most ancient one on the surface of the earth, and its influence on many generations of human beings worldwide for millennia is undeniable; Selim Hassan, the famous Egyptian historian and Egyptologist, assert in his books that religious life and rituals of Ancient Egyptians is the source of the myth of the torment of the grave, with the Pharaonic focus on bodies of their dead ones, by mummification, as the myth of Isis and Osiris made them feel that bodies were to be preserved to return to life later on to be resurrected before Osiris, god of the dead, to be judged. Adolph Erman in his book about the Ancient Egyptian religion asserts that the Pharaonic myths include the dead person being brought back to life body and soul, and until now in rural villages in Egypt, the masses think that the entombed dead ones hear and see everything. In the 125^th chapter of the Book of the Dead, we read about the god Osiris judging the dead people and beside him Anubis and Horus, and how the dead ones are resurrected body and soul to be judged, with the wicked ones being tortured in the grave by a mythical creature made of a serpent, crocodile, lion, and hippopotamus. The court headed by the god Osiris had 42 judges representing 42 provinces of Egypt, with the god Thoth recording everything, and the dead person would glorify Osiris and defend himself/herself before him, and winners enter a paradise and losers would remain to be tortured and eaten by the mythical creature and feeling eternal hunger and thirst, with a huge snake biting them everywhere in their bodies, and their bodies are formed again to be eaten again, for eternity. Thus, this Pharaonic myth were distorted and passed to next generations, and Osiris is renamed Azrael the angel of death as per Sunnite myths, with two angels judging the dead person in his/her grave. Pharaonic influence in that respect spread in Levantine and European myths, as per Erman in his book, and its heavy influence is seen until now in creeds of Jews and Christians, as per H. G. Wells in his book titled "A Short History of the World" and Charles Guignebert in his book about history of Christianity. It is noteworthy that before them mentioned the fact that though the Israelites suffered severe persecution by Egyptians and Moses' Pharaoh, they felt affinity to the Ancient Egyptian religion. Proof: we know from the Quran that when the Lord saved the Israelites from Moses' Pharaoh during the exodus by a great miracle, they forgot all about this and yearned and felt nostalgic to the Ancient Egyptian religion gods and asked Moses to make gods for them to worship: "And We delivered the Israelites across the sea. And when they came upon a people who were devoted to their statues of idols, they said, "O Moses, make for us a god, as they have gods." He said, "You are truly an ignorant people."" (7:138). Once Moses left them temporarily, the Israelites committed the sin of making a golden calf statue and worshipped it, which was similar to Apis, the Ancient Egyptian religion bull-god, and this shows that they used to worship Egyptians gods before the call of Moses. "In his absence, the people of Moses adopted a calf made from their ornaments....They took it for worship. They were in the wrong." (7:148). See also 20:86-96 for more details of this story. More over the Quran mentioned that some Jews at one time worshipped Osir or Osiris as a son of God, imitating the polytheism of ancient ones: "The Jews said, "Osir is the son of God," and the Christians said, "The Messiah is the son of God." These are their statements, out of their mouths. They emulate the statements of those who disbelieved before..." (9:30). Thus, Osiris was turned into Osir and Muhammadans turned Osir into Azrael, the angel of death in Sunnite mythology. This means that Pharaonic myths remained alive for a long time, influencing Egyptians, Levantine areas, Mesopotamia, etc., despite the existence of prophets among the Israelites. The Quran never gives a name to the angels of death, though it gives some names to other angels like Gabriel and Michael. Thus, the Umayyads revived Pharaonic myths of torment of the grave by their narrators of hadiths, especially that the Isis mythology was spread in Arabia before Islam, as the goddess Isis was worshipped by the Arabs in the name Uzza; see 53:19.                           

Narrators of hadiths and distracting tales in mosques: such people were employed by the Umayyads to deliver speeches to people after prayers, and at first, preachers among companions of the Prophet Muhammad worked in the pre-Umayyad era for free to preach people to adhere to piety after the death of Muhammad, but the Umayyads employed their own orators for political reasons: they desired to distract people so as not to allow them to revolt as the Umayyads were despots and never applied justice, the higher Quranic value. Thus, people had to be distracted by oral traditions, distracting tales, hadiths, and false biographical stories of Muhammad, so as to prevent them from pondering on the Quran. those preachers worked as propagandists to support Umayyads by fabricating hadiths serving their purposes; e.g., to spread myths supporting submissiveness to Umayyads as predestined fate and to hate Ali Ibn Abou Talib, whom Mu'aweiya fought for years. Narrators of hadiths received many money gifts and had salaries like judges, and they had to attract audiences with strange stories filled with myths and supernatural things, mixed with the political messages intended by the Umayyads; narrators spread in Egypt, Iraq, the Levant, and North Africa, and religious ales of fear were used to subjugate people by intimidating them with the myth of the torment of the grave with much details to terrify people so as not to allow them to revolt against the Umayyad rule, as frightened people were easily influenced to accept the Umayyad political propaganda and any messages desired to be spread by the Umayyads. Of course, narrators had some never-ending sources to derive their material from: Jewish myths that were in their turn influenced by ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian mythology, and the two Arab Jews, feigning conversion to Islam, Abdullah Ibn Sallam and Kaab Al-Ahbar, were hadiths-producing machines and Abou Hurayrah were taught by them as well, and the influence of such men on hadiths, fiqh, and Quranic interpretations is so big and cannot be ignored. Thus, Pharaonic myths were rephrased in the form of hadiths ascribed falsely to Muhammad, as per what we read in the book titled "The Dawn of Islam" by the Egyptian historian Ahmed Ameen. Those in later eras who claimed to sift through hadiths to verify them had actually retained most of them, and rivalry and intellectual wars among imams and authors in the Abbasid Era led to the creation and inventions of thousands of more hadiths, and all of them tolerated the hundreds of hadiths about the torment of the grave myth, in order to terrorize the gullible masses and control them afterwards. Hence, in the 1970s onwards in Egypt, Salafists and Wahabis repeat the same myths so as to control the terrified people and make them accept theocracy one day in Egypt and in the Arab world. Thus, the gullible Muhammadans blindly follow Sunnite Wahabi imams to Hell, as they forget to ponder the Quran as they have abandoned it.

Conclusion:

 The famous imam Abou Al-Hassan Al-Ashaary who died in 330 A.H. wrote a book about differences in sects, philosophies, and doctrines of the Muhammadans, and he asserts in his book titled "Discourses of Muslims Sects and Differences of Performers of Prayers" that the topic of the torment of the grave drew hot debates for three centuries among all scholars and imams and narrators of hadiths, and some denied it and some added details to is, but the more intellectual ones who loved Greek philosophy, like Al-Mu'tazala group, denied such a myth categorically. Sadly, the extremist Sunnite doctrines retained and cherished this myth for political reasons to make clergy hold authority over peoples and masses in general in all eras, and such myth is still being taught in books of the Cairo-based Al-Azhar University, sponsored by the Wahabi KSA money, from oil revenues, that has revived the Wahabi creed all over the Arab world, a creed based on the extremist Sunnite Ibn Hanbal doctrine. Meanwhile, the Quran is never consulted to judge this myth of the torment of the grave, and when Quranist and intellectuals deny this myth, they are accused of being heretics, apostates, and deniers of Sunna hadiths! We must face the 21th century while armed with science and the Quran, not Middle-Ages myths of bald snakes (as if some other reptiles are hairy or hirsute!) and worship of bodies, and such myths cause Arabs to be backward as colonial powers in the West desire to control Arabs and their oil and other natural resources in the next century, and such myths will certainly make Arabs lose the Eternal Life, in case of not repenting and returning to the Quran alone as the only source of Islam. Islam is Quranism. We leave this issue now to the conscience of our readers. All comments are welcome, and we pardon in advance those who verbally abuse us.