An Examination and Criticism of Salafis' View on the After-Death Connection of the Soul with the Physical World

Wahhabis believe that death cuts off man’s connection with the physical world. Therefore, they deploy some Quranic verses and traditions to support their claim that the dead are incapability of hearing. The verse ( So verily you cannot make the dead to hear) is among the reasons which Wahhabists cite to reject the dead's capability of hearing. They are oblivious to the concept of the verse and they rely on its literal meaning to prove their claim that the dead are incapable of hearing. Another argument they offer to substantiate their claim is the Hadith of Ghulaib Badr. Although this Hadith is typically known to support the fact that the dead are capable of hearing, to prove that the dead are not capable of hearing, Wahhabis manage to manipulate the Hadith in two ways. First, the way Aisha narrated the Hadith suggesting that the dead are deaf. The second is Omar's reaction when he expresses his surprise upon hearing from the Prophet that the dead are capable of hearing. The purpose of the current study is to criticize this Wahhabi view, and to discuss that Wahhabis' understanding of this verse matches neither the context of the verse itself nor the dominant view of the exegetes of the Qur’an. In addition, the two above-mentioned arguments that Wahhabis put forward is totally against the explicit and literal meaning of the words of the Hadith. So, their arguments about the incapability of the dead to hear is invalid utterly rejected.