Speaking to the dead at the well of Badr
ʿUmar asked why he was addressing bodies.
يَا أَبَا جَهْلِ بْنَ هِشَامٍ يَا أُمَيَّةَ بْنَ خَلَفٍ يَا عُتْبَةَ بْنَ رَبِيعَةَ يَا شَيْبَةَ بْنَ رَبِيعَةَ أَلَيْسَ قَدْ وَجَدْتُمْ مَا وَعَدَ رَبُّكُمْ حَقًّا فَإِنِّي قَدْ وَجَدْتُ مَا وَعَدَنِي رَبِّي حَقًّا
Have you found what your Lord promised to be true? I have found what my Lord promised me to be true. ʿUmar said: are you speaking to bodies with no souls? He said: you do not hear what I say better than they do, but they cannot answer.
The full narration
Anas b. Malik reported that Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) let the dead bodies of the unbelievers who fought in Badr (lie unburied) for three days. He then came to them and sat by their side and called them and said:O Abu Jahl b. Hisham, O Umayya b. Khalaf, O Utba b. Rab'ila, O Shaiba b. Rabi'a, have you not found what your Lord had promised with you to be correct? As for me, I have found the promises of my Lord to be (perfectly) correct. Umar listened to the words of Allah's Apostle (ﷺ) and said: Allah's Messenger, how do they listen and respond to you? They are dead and their bodies have decayed. Thereupon he (the Holy Prophet) said: By Him in Whose Hand is my life, what I am saying to them, even you cannot hear more distinctly than they, but they lack the power to reply. Then'he commanded that they should be buried in the well of Badr
Source
Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim · 7223
- Agreed upon as authentic (al-Bukhārī / Muslim)