Munkar and Nakir

Munkar and Nakir (Arabic: منكر ونكير) (English translation: "The Denied and The Denier") in Islamic eschatology, are angels who test the faith of the dead in their graves.

— Saheeh International Al-Suyuti quoted from Ibn Abi al-Dunya, Al-Bayhaqi, and Musnad al-Bazzar that when Munkar and Nakir spoke, tongues of fire come from their mouths.

[3] Meanwhile, Al-Suyuti described from Hadith recorded Al-Hakim al-Nishapuri and from Sunan Abu Dawood Munkar and Nakir carrying hammers "so large, that [they] cannot be moved even if whole of mankind unite to lift [them]".

[3] Muslims believe that after a person dies, his soul passes through a stage called barzakh, where it exists in the grave.

Nakir and Munkar prop the deceased soul upright in the grave and ask three questions: A righteous believer will respond correctly, saying that their Lord is Allah, that Islam is their religion, and that Muhammad is their prophet.

He writes that "the image and function of Munkar and Nakīr carries certain echoes of the Zoroastrian concept of the angels Srōsh (“Obedience”) and Ātar (“Fire”)".

[11] According to a recent research, it is hypothesized that Munkar and Nakir were derived from astrological figures that originally associated with the Mesopotamian astral god Nergal.

The Assyrian nakru, like the names Munkar and Nakir, comes from the same root, that is, it comes from the proto-Semitic NKR which derived some negative terms.

Furthermore, he is identified with the celestial twins (Gemini) in the Babylonian astral mythology which forms a direct link to Munkar and Nakir.

[16][17][self-published source]Thus, Nergal the god of the Underworld who is symbolized by the planet Mars, is a possible prototype for Munkar and Nakir.