Abu Hurairah (RA) reported Allah's Messenger ( صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم ) as saying that a person who had never done any good deed asked the members of his family to burn his dead body when he would die and to scatter half of its ashes over the land and half in the ocean. By Allah, if Allah finds him in His grip, He would torment him with a torment with which He did not afflict anyone amongst the people of the world; and when the person died, it was done to him as he had commanded (his family) to do. Allah commanded the land to collect (the ashes scattered on it) and He commanded the ocean and that collected (ashes) contained in it. Allah questioned him why he had done that He said: My Lord, it is out of Thine fear that I have done it and Thou art well aware of it, and Allah granted him pardon.

Abu Hurairah (RA) reported Allah's Messenger ( صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم ) as saying that a person committed sin beyond measure and when he was going to die, he left this will: (When I die), burn my dead body and then cast them (the ashes) to the wind and in the ocean. By Allah, if my Lord takes hold of me, He would torment me as He has not tormented anyone else. They did as he had asked them to do. He (the Lord) said to the earth: Return what you have taken. And he was thus restored to his (original form). He (Allah) said to him: What prompted you to do this? He said: My Lord, it was Thine fear or Thine awe, and Allah pardoned him because of this.

Abu Hurairah (RA) reported Allah's Messenger ( صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم ) as saying that a servant transgressed the limit in committing sins. The rest of the hadith is the same but there is no mention of the story of the cat in it and in the hadith transmitted on the authority of Zubaidi (the words are): "Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, said to everything which had taken a part of his ashes to return what it had taken."