Seen alive in a dream after burial

Question

A young man about twenty-three years old, in the blessed month of Ramadan, having eaten sahur, was going to the mosque for the prayer when he fell on the way. It seemed that he had had a fit, since he had had fits twice before; on the road he was in a position as if he were prostrating. His heirs were informed and then he was shown to doctors, and it became known that he had died. However, from his complexion, face and appearance the signs of death did not become apparent for eight hours. After that he was buried.

Answer

When an expert doctor, having examined [him], determined that death had occurred, and he was buried with this certainty, then it is not permitted to dig up the grave merely on the basis of a dream; so it is in “al-Shami”. A dream is not a proof (hujja) of the Sacred Law such that it must be believed with certainty.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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