You Do Not Like Good Advisers

When they were destroyed — completely destroyed — Sayyidunā Ṣāliḥ and his followers were saved. Allah saved them. And after Thamūd were destroyed, Ṣāliḥ came back. He came back to his town that was empty — a ghost town — and he started speaking to the dead bodies.

Fa-tawallā ʿanhum wa qāla yā qawmi laqad ablaghtukum risālata rabbī wa naṣaḥtu lakum, wa lākin lā tuḥibbūna al-nāṣiḥīn. Then he, Ṣāliḥ, turned from them and said: O my people, I have indeed conveyed to you the message of my Lord, and have given you good advice, but you like not good advisers. He was talking to these dead bodies, and telling them: O my people, I've conveyed the message. I advised you, but you don't like the true advisers.

When the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was speaking to the dead bodies in al-Qalīb — after the Battle of Badr, the leaders of Quraysh were all buried in al-Qalīb — the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) came to them and said: O people of al-Qalīb, hal wajadtum mā waʿadakum rabbukum ḥaqqā? Fa-innī wajadtu mā waʿadanī rabbī ḥaqqā. O people of the grave, do you find the promise of Allah on you to be true? Because I find the promise of Allah to me to be true. Allah promised Muhammad (peace be upon him) with victory, and it happened. And Allah promised you with Hellfire: did it happen?

ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said: yā Rasūlallāh, O Messenger of Allah, are you speaking to bodies that are already decomposed? This was a few days after they were already buried. You're talking to bodies that are already decomposed? The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: mā antum bi-asmaʿa limā aqūlu minhum — you cannot hear me better than they. They can hear me, but they cannot reply back.