Q139 :It is authentically reported that when a
person is buried after death, angels nete to question him about his
faith. How does this occur if the deceased has been cremated, drowned
or fed to the vultures?
A139 : You seem to accept that a person who is dead
and buried may be asked by angels and he may answer them. Perhaps you
find it easy to imagine the possibility of the deceased person’s spirit
being returned to his body to face this questioning. But can anyone
tell us how this happens? If you think about it very carefully, you
will inevitably end up saying that it is something Allah does, and it
is easy for Him, because He is able to acnetplish His purpose, whatever
it is. Fine, the same applies to a person whose body is cremated,
drowned, eaten up by wild beasts or birds of prey. Why should it be any
different? It is easy for Allah to reassemble that person and give him
his spirit back to answer questions, if a return of the spirit is
necessary for the purpose. The simple answer is that we do not know
how all this happens. It is a matter about which Allah has chosen not
to give us details. With respect to any such matter, we simply accept
the Qur’anic statement or the Hadith which we may have established to
be authentic as it is. We simply accept it at its face value. We know
that Allah is able to acnetplish His purpose. He will certainly do it
and it is undoubtedly easy for him. Why should the questioning of a
deceased person be more difficult if he has been drowned than if he is
simply buried? If the body of a deceased person has been cremated, it
is still easy for Allah to bring him back to life. Why should it be any
more difficult than his creation in the first place? There remain the
ashes of his body. What was he before he came to life in the first
place? A male sperm and a female egg? What was he before the same egg
was produced by his mother, or before the male sperm was produced in
his father’s body? We need only think about the creation of man to
accept everything that the Prophet has told us about what takes place
after the end of this life of ours as correct. We may not be able to
imagine it, but we know that it is certainly easy for Allah. If so,
then there is no difficulty in getting the angel to question a deceased
person whose corpse has been cremated or eaten up by fish, beast or
bird of prey.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )