[leahjhburton]

snip

Ml. Ilyas said that their souls are in jannah, yes, but their bodies cannot be considered dead, either. Otherwise, what is the difference between any regular person who dies and a shaheed? A regular person that dies, regardless of whether he is a shaheed or not has the windows of jannah or jahannam open into his grave. In order to feel such things, the soul has to be alive - this is the life of barzakh.

And the ayah I posed does indicate that it is not the same as the life of the hereafter since everyone of us, when we die, are alive in barzakh but we have broken our bond with this world completely. When a shaheed or a nabi dies, they are still considered alive but we cannot tell or say that they are dead. What I've heard from many Ahle Hadees is that the shuhada are dead and the anbiya عليهم السلام are dead - نعوذ با الله من ذلك. We cannot make such statements as it is against the Qur'an's commandment. No one denies that the shuhada or the anbiya عليهم السلام can die or can be killed. But their dying or being killed does not lead to death. Their bodies are not dead, but we cannot perceive this - as the Qur'an states ولكن لا تشعرون.

Another point was brought up that our souls cannot engage in prayer (this was in a different video). Rasoolullah saw Musa praying in his grave, providing more proof that he was alive in his grave.

BTW, this is not correct regarding HT. HT adopted that Aqidah does not include Punishment in the Grave, rather relegating it to a concept of Islam. This means they do NOT render kufr on the one who does not accept punishment of the grave. They say this because they claim there is no Definitive (yaqeen) proof of the Punishment of the Grave in the Ghaib. The difference is between Yaqeen and Dhanny. I only know of HT holding such an opinion. According to the rest of us, punishment in the grave is part of our belief and to disbelieve it is to be upon baatil.