Anas told that when some people passed a dead body on a bier and spoke highly of the dead man the Prophet said, “It is certain.” When they passed another and spoke very badly of the dead man he said, “It is certain.” ‘Umar asked what was certain, and he replied, “You spoke highly of this one, so paradise is certain for him; but you spoke very badly of that one, so hell is certain for him. You are God’s witnesses in the earth.”
(Bukhari and Muslim.) A version has “The believers are God's witnesses in the earth.”
‘A’isha reported the Prophet as saying, "If a company of Muslims to the number of a hundred pray over a dead person, all of them interceding for him, their intercession for him will be accepted.”
‘Umar reported God’s messenger as saying, “If four people give a good testimony about any Muslim, God will cause him to enter paradise.” ‘Umar said they asked whether this would apply if three testified, and he said it would. They further asked if it would apply if two testified, and he said it would; but they did not ask him about one.
Kuraib the client of Ibn ‘Abbas told that a son of ‘Abdallah b. ‘Abbas died in Qudaid or ‘Usfan and he asked him to go out and see how many people had gathered for the funeral. Going out and finding that people had gathered for the funeral, he told him. Ibn ‘Abbas asked him if he thought there would be forty present, and when he replied that that was so, he gave orders for the body to be brought out, adding that he had heard God’s messenger say, "If any Muslim man dies and forty men who associate nothing with God stand over his bier, God will accept them as intercessors for him.”
