Surah An-Naml (27) — Ayah 80

(Ayah 80) ➊ { اِنَّكَ لَا تُسْمِعُ الْمَوْتٰى وَ لَا تُسْمِعُ الصُّمَّ الدُّعَآءَ …:} This is also a consolation for you, O Prophet (peace be upon him), that you should not be grieved by these people not believing in the Qur’an. Due to stubbornness, hostility, and obstinacy, they have decided that they will not believe. These disbelievers are like the dead, to whom inviting and giving any advice is absolutely useless, and they are like those deaf people who are running away with their backs turned. If they were facing forward, perhaps they would pay attention and understand something, but in the state of running away with their backs turned, it is not possible for them to hear anything. The comparison of spiritual death and spiritual deafness with physical death and physical deafness shows that nothing can be made heard to the dead. This is a general negation, except for those occasions which are proven by evidence (the Book and Sunnah), and those are only two; apart from these, it is not proven from any verse or Sahih hadith that the dead can hear. One occasion is the one narrated by Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: [ اَلْعَبْدُ إِذَا وُضِعَ فِيْ قَبْرِهِ وَتُوُلِّيَ وَ ذَهَبَ أَصْحَابُهُ حَتّٰی إِنَّهُ لَيَسْمَعُ قَرْعَ نِعَالِهِمْ، أَتَاهُ مَلَكَانِ فَأَقْعَدَاهُ فَيَقُوْلَانِ لَهُ مَا كُنْتَ تَقُوْلُ فِيْ هٰذَا الرَّجُلِ مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّی اللّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَ سَلَّمَ؟ فَيَقُوْلُ أَشْهَدُ أَنَّهُ عَبْدُ اللّٰهِ وَ رَسُوْلُهُ، فَيُقَالُ انْظُرْ إِلٰی مَقْعَدِكَ مِنَ النَّارِ أَبْدَلَكَ اللّٰهُ بِهِ مَقْعَدًا مِنَ الْجَنَّةِ، قَالَ النَّبِيُّ صَلَّی اللّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَ سَلَّمَ فَيَرَاهُمَا جَمِيْعًا، وَ أَمَّا الْكَافِرُ أَوِ الْمُنَافِقُ فَيَقُوْلُ لَا أَدْرِيْ، كُنْتُ أَقُوْلُ مَا يَقُوْلُ النَّاسُ، فَيُقَالُ لَا دَرَيْتَ وَلَا تَلَيْتَ، ثُمَّ يُضْرَبُ بِمِطْرَقَةٍ مِّنْ حَدِيْدٍ ضَرْبَةً بَيْنَ أُذُنَيْهِ فَيَصِيْحُ صَيْحَةً يَسْمَعُهَا مَنْ يَلِيْهِ إِلَّا الثَّقَلَيْنِ ] [بخاري، الجنائز، باب المیت یسمع … : ۱۳۳۸ ] “When a servant is placed in his grave and his companions turn away from him and leave, so much so that he hears the sound of their sandals, then two angels come to him, make him sit up, and ask him: ‘What did you use to say about this man, i.e., Muhammad (peace be upon him)?’ He replies: ‘I bear witness that he is the servant of Allah and His Messenger.’ So it is said to him: ‘Look at your place in the Hellfire; Allah has replaced it for you with a place in Paradise.’ The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: ‘Then both his places, in Paradise and Hell, are shown to him.’ As for the disbeliever or hypocrite, he says (in response to the question): ‘I do not know; I used to say what the people used to say.’ So it is said to him: ‘You neither understood nor followed (the good people).’ Then he is struck between his ears (i.e., on his head) with a hammer so forcefully that he screams in such a terrifying manner that all creatures around him hear his screams except humans and jinn.”
The second occasion is narrated from Abu Talhah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace be upon him) ordered regarding twenty-four of the chiefs of Quraysh on the day of Badr, so they were thrown into one of the dirty wells of Badr, and whenever the Prophet (peace be upon him) gained victory over a people, he would stay in the field for three days. When the third day at Badr came, he ordered for his she-camel to be saddled, then he set out and his companions followed him, saying, “We think you are going for some purpose.” Until he stood at the edge of the well and began to call them by their and their fathers’ names: [ يَا فُلَانُ بْنَ فُلَانٍ، وَ يَا فُلَانُ بْنَ فُلَانٍ! أَيَسُرُّكُمْ أَنَّكُمْ أَطَعْتُمُ اللّٰهَ وَرَسُوْلَهُ؟ فَإِنَّا قَدْ وَجَدْنَا مَا وَعَدَنَا رَبُّنَا حَقًّا، فَهَلْ وَجَدْتُمْ مَا وَعَدَ رَبُّكُمْ حَقًّا؟ قَالَ فَقَالَ عُمَرُ يَا رَسُوْلَ اللّٰهِ! مَا تُكَلِّمُ مِنْ أَجْسَادٍ لَا أَرْوَاحَ لَهَا، فَقَالَ رَسُوْلُ اللّٰهِ صَلَّی اللّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَ سَلَّمَ وَالَّذِيْ نَفْسُ مُحَمَّدٍ بِيَدِهِ! مَا أَنْتُمْ بِأَسْمَعَ لِمَا أَقُوْلُ مِنْهُمْ ] [ بخاري، المغازي، باب قتل أبي جھل : ۳۹۷۶ ] “O so-and-so son of so-and-so! O so-and-so son of so-and-so! Would you not have liked that you had obeyed Allah and His Messenger? For we have found what our Lord promised us to be true, so have you found what your Lord promised you to be true?” Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “O Messenger of Allah! How can you speak to bodies in which there are no souls?” The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: “By Him in whose hand is the soul of Muhammad (peace be upon him), you do not hear what I am saying to them any better than they do.”
➋ Our belief is that on these two occasions, the dead hear what is mentioned in the hadith; apart from these, the dead do not hear anything from the living. However, based on these two hadiths, some people have made it a belief that all the dead hear and hear everything at all times. In reality, the foundation of grave-worship and calling upon others besides Allah and seeking help from them is this belief that the dead hear; otherwise, if it is certain that they do not hear, only a madman would call upon them. The subject of the dead not hearing is mentioned in several places in the Qur’an. See Surah Rum (52) and Fatir (19–22). In fact, the dead are not even aware that anyone is calling them. See Surah Nahl (20, 21), Fatir (13, 14), and Ahqaf (4–6), and those who die before the Day of Resurrection do not return. See Surah Ya-Sin (31) and Anbiya (95). ‘Uzayr (peace be upon him) and those whose being alive in this world is proven by the Qur’an or Sahih hadith are exceptions to this.
➌ In contrast to the grave-worshippers, some people have denied even the hearing of the dead on these two occasions, and among them, some have outright rejected these hadiths, even though these are hadiths from Sahih Bukhari whose authenticity is agreed upon by the Ummah, and some have made such absurd interpretations of them that are even worse than denial. Whereas the truth lies between excess and negligence.

80-1. This is the second reason for not caring about these disbelievers and relying only on Allah: these people are dead, who cannot benefit from hearing anything, or they are deaf, who neither hear nor understand, nor are they guided. It is as if the disbelievers are likened to the dead, who have neither sense nor intellect, and to the deaf, who neither listen to admonition and advice nor accept the invitation to Allah.

You cannot make the dead hear, nor can you make the deaf hear your call when they turn their backs and go away. [84]

[84] In this verse, the "dead" refers to those whose hearts have died. That is, your admonition and guidance can neither benefit those whose hearts are dead, nor those whose hearts' ears have become deaf. Especially in the case where those deaf ones are running away backwards. Even if a deaf person's face is turned towards the speaker, he can understand something of the meaning from the speaker's gestures or manner of speaking. But if his face is turned away from the speaker, and moreover, he is running away, then what expectation can there be that he will understand anything of what the speaker is saying?