[Concerning the Punishment of the Grave 2]

Answer—and Allah is the One who grants success: The life of the barzakh is soundly established: the believer enjoys bliss and the wrongdoer is punished. This is due to His saying, Exalted is He, concerning the people of Pharaoh: “The Fire—they are exposed to it morning and evening. And the Day the Hour is established [it will be said], ‘Admit the people of Pharaoh to the severest punishment.’” [Ghāfir:46]; and by his saying (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace), “The grave is either a garden from the gardens of Paradise, or a pit from the pits of the Fire”; and by what is related that the Prophet (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace) passed by two graves and said, “They are being punished, and they are not being punished for something great (in people’s eyes): as for one of them, he used to carry tales between people; and as for the other, he did not guard himself from (the impurity of) urine.”
It is also indicated by His saying, Exalted is He, regarding the martyrs: “And never think of those who have been killed in the way of Allah as dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, receiving provision, rejoicing in what Allah has bestowed upon them of His bounty, and they receive good tidings about those after them who have not yet joined them …” [Āl ʿImrān:169].
Reconciliation between this and the verse mentioned in the question may be made by saying: the life of the barzakh is purely spiritual. The spirit of the believer enjoys bliss through what it sees of that which Allah has prepared for the believers, and it attains thereby such joy and happiness as cannot be measured.
As for the spirit of the sinner, it is harmed and pained by what it sees of kinds of punishment, by the humiliation, abasement, and disgrace that befall it, and by the regret that overtakes it as it makes the rounds over what Allah has prepared for it of that punishment.
Then, when Allah raises the bodies together with the spirits at the second blast of the trumpet, the criminals will say, “Woe to us! Who has raised us from our sleeping place?” [Yā Sīn:52]. They will say that out of regret when their bodies are resurrected—those very bodies for which that punishment was prepared, which they had learned of and witnessed, and which will taste and sense the punishment of burning.
The punishment of the barzakh does not involve the sensation and tasting of the fire’s heat; rather, it is a punishment of terrors, fear, disgrace, and regrets.
Likewise, the bliss of the Godfearing in the barzakh life is not bodily bliss—wherein the body enjoys food, drink, marital relations, and the like—but rather purely spiritual bliss: the spirit enjoys what it sees, beholds, and is shown of that which Allah has prepared for His believing allies, and that there is no fear upon them, nor do they grieve.
If it is said: Allah, Exalted is He, said regarding the martyrs, “with their Lord they are provided for.” [Āl ʿImrān:169]
We say: This may be specific to the martyrs; and it may be that what the spirits find of joy and happiness from what Allah has prepared for them is termed “provision.” This is what appears strongest.
Yes—supporting what we have said is His saying, Exalted is He: “So when the trumpet is blown, that Day will be a difficult day—for the disbelievers—not easy.” [al-Muddaththir:8–10]. And there are many verses indicating that bodies are not punished in the barzakh, but rather the spirits—such as His words: “You did not remain except a day,” and “[You remained] only ten.” [Ṭā Hā:103–104].
Furthermore, reconciliation may be made by saying: among the sinful are those who are punished in the barzakh—the tyrants who spread much corruption on earth, such as the people of Pharaoh—and among them are those who are not punished.
On this reading, His saying, Exalted is He, “Woe to us! Who has raised us from our sleeping place?” [Surah Yā Sīn 36:52] is the speech of those who were not punished in the barzakh.
Another reconciliation is that the spirits die at the first trumpet-blast; then when Allah restores the spirits at the second blast, they say, “Woe to us! Who has raised us from our sleeping place?”—they say it out of regret for what they missed of rest and safety between the two blasts, even if prior to the first blast they had been in punishment.
Source : Min Thimār al-ʿIlm wa al-Ḥikmah vol.1