Who is the first one whose grave will open

Muhammad sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, whose grave is in AlMadinah, will be the first one whose grave will open up.

RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam says, “I am the leader of mankind on the day of judgement and I am the first one whose grave will open on the day of judgement.”

In another authentic hadith, a Muslim had a dispute with a Jew. The Jew said, “In the name of the One who revealed the tawrah on Musa” so this Muslim hit him and started praising Muhammad sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. So the Jew came and complained to RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said, “Do not prefer me over Musa, because I will be the first one to come out of his grave, but I will find that Musa is already holding onto the throne of Allah subhaana wa ta’aala. So I do not know whether he was included in the ones who were dead in the first blow or not.”

What does this hadith mean – ‘do not say that I am better than Musa’? Obviously, RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam did say in many ahaadith that he is the leader of mankind. We believe that RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam is the greatest of all of the ambiya, but RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam does not want us to say that when we are in a conversation with a non believer because we are just putting down the ambiya just to make the non believer upset. The ambiya of Allah belong to this Ummah, not to anybody else. Musa belongs to the Ummah of Islam. That’s why when RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam went to Madinah and saw the Jews fasting, he asked why they were fasting, and they said, “This is the day in which Allah has saved Musa from Fir’awn.” RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said, “Musa belongs to us more than he does to them, so we should fast this day.”

We should not go to the Jew and say, “Muhammad is better than your Prophet!” We should not go the Christian and say, “Muhammad is better than your Prophet!” We are putting the Messengers of Allah down; we need to show the respect we have for all Messengers, even though we believe Muhammad sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam is the one Allah chose out of all of his creation.