The Shaykh (Al-Mufid), may Allah سبحانه وتعالى support him, narrated to me from Abu al-Hasan Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Dawud, from his father, from Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn al-Husayn, from Muhammad ibn Yahya, from Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Yahya, from Abu ‘Abdullah al-Razi, from Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Nasr, from Isma‘il. Isma‘il said that Abu al-Hasan al-Dallal narrated to him from Yahya ibn ‘Abdullah, who said:
I heard Abu ‘Abdullah
عليه السلام say: "There is no harm for the family of the deceased among you to shield their dead from facing Munkar and Nakir." I asked: "How should we do this?" Imam
عليه السلام said: "When the deceased is left alone, the closest person to him should remain by his side, place his mouth near his head, and call out in a loud voice: 'O so-and-so, son of so-and-so (or O so-and-so, daughter of so-and-so), are you upon the covenant that you left us with - the testimony that there is no god but Allah
سبحانه وتعالى, alone without any partner, and that Muhammad
صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وسلم is His servant and Messenger, the Master of the Prophets, and that ‘Ali
عليه السلام is the Commander of the Faithful and the Master of the Successors? And that what Muhammad
صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وسلم brought is the truth, and that death is true, and resurrection is true, and that Allah
سبحانه وتعالى the Almighty says: "He will raise those who are in the graves"?'" (Surah Al-Hajj
22:7) Then Imam
عليه السلام said: "Munkar will say to Nakir, 'Let us leave, for he has been taught his (rebuttal) argument (Talqin).'"
