The Slain of Badr and the Issue of the Dead Hearing
Source: Fatawa Ameenpuri by Shaykh Ghulam Mustafa Zaheer Ameenpuri
Question
At Badr, fourteen polytheists were killed and thrown into a well. After three days, the Prophet ﷺ called out their names one by one and said:
يا فلان بن فلان ويا فلان بن فلان أيسركم أنكم أطعتم الله ورسوله؟ فإنا قد وجدنا ما وعدنا ربنا حقا، فهل وجدتم ما وعد ربكم حقا؟
“O so-and-so son of so-and-so! Does it please you now that you had obeyed Allah and His Messenger? Verily, we have found what our Lord promised us to be true. Have you also found what your Lord promised you to be true?”
Hearing this, ʿUmar (رضي الله عنه) asked:
يا رسول الله! ما تكلم من أجساد، لا أرواح لها؟
“O Messenger of Allah, how can you talk to bodies with no souls in them?”
The Prophet ﷺ replied:
والذي نفس محمد بيده! ما أنتم بأسمع لما أقول منهم
“By Him in Whose hand is the soul of Muhammad! You do not hear what I am saying any better than they do.”
(Sahih al-Bukhari 3976; Sahih Muslim 2874)
So how did the slain of Badr hear the words of the Prophet ﷺ, when Allah says:
﴿إِنَّكَ لَا تُسْمِعُ الْمَوْتَى﴾ (al-Naml: 80)
“Indeed, you cannot make the dead hear.”
Answer
The general principle is that the dead do not hear. This was the belief of the Companions (رضي الله عنهم). That is why ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab (رضي الله عنه) questioned the Prophet ﷺ, for he knew the dead cannot hear.
The Prophet ﷺ informed him that the case of the slain at Badr was an exception to this general law. He did not say that the dead in general hear after death; rather, he said: “At this moment, they are hearing me.”
This indicates a one-time special case, not a continuous or general hearing.
Scholarly Explanations
❀ Al-Mazari رحمه الله (536H) said:
“Some people, taking the apparent words of this Hadith, claimed that the dead can hear. But al-Mazari rejected this and asserted that this hearing was specific to those disbelievers.”
(Sharh Muslim 2/387)
❀ Shaykh al-Albani رحمه الله (1420H) said:
“The statement of the Prophet ﷺ to ʿUmar, when he questioned him about addressing the people of the well of Badr — ‘You do not hear better than they do’ — is also specific to the people of the well.”
(Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Da‘ifah 3/286, no. 1148)
❀ Qatadah رحمه الله (118H) said:
أحياهم الله حتى أسمعهم قوله، توبيخا وتصغيرا ونقمة وحسرة وندما
“Allah revived them until He made them hear His Messenger’s words, as a humiliation, disgrace, punishment, and regret for them.”
(Musnad Ahmad 19/459, no. 12417; Sahih al-Bukhari 3976)
❀ Ibn Battal رحمه الله (449H) said:
“Upon Qatadah’s interpretation stand the jurists of the Imams and the group of Ahl al-Sunnah.”
(Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari 3/358)
Conclusion
The Companions and the Salaf never believed in general hearing of the dead. The Qur’an and Sunnah clearly establish that the dead cannot hear. The incident of the slain of Badr was a special case, in which Allah caused them to hear the words of the Prophet ﷺ for the sake of rebuke and humiliation.
Thus, the principle remains: the dead do not hear, except in specific cases proven by authentic evidence.
