Concerning the nature of the Fire of Hell and what Allah has prepared therein for its inhabitants, and the nature of the Garden of Paradise and what Allah has prepared therein for its inhabitants.
Abu Hurairah (may Allah be well pleased with him) is reported as having said: “Allah’s Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace) once said:
‘When the Day of Resurrection [Yawm al-Qiyama] has finally arrived, and all creatures have been gathered together on a single piece of high ground “for a Day of which there is no doubt [li-Yawmin la raiba fih],” a black shadow will envelop them, and the darkness will be so intense that they will not be able to see one another. The assembled creatures will all be standing on the balls of their feet [as they try to peer upwards], even though the distance between them and their Lord (Almighty and Glorious is He) will still be that of a journey that normally takes seventy years to complete.’
“He then went on to say (Allah bless him and give him peace):
‘While they are in that situation, the Creator [al-Khaliq] (Blessed and Exalted is He) will suddenly make Himself manifest to the angels. The earth will at once become radiant with the light of its Lord, and the darkness will vanish away. All those creatures will thus be enveloped by the light of their Lord, while the angels are circling around the Heavenly Throne [‘Arsh], hymning the praise of their Lord and celebrating His holiness.’
“He then continued (Allah bless him and give him peace):
‘While those creatures are all standing there in rows, with each religious community [umma] lined up in a separate area, the record sheets [suhuf] and the balance [mizan] will suddenly be brought to the fore. The record sheets will be laid in the scale, while the balance is held suspended by the hand of one of the angels, and they will sometimes cause it to rise up high, and at other times to sink down low.’
“To this he added (Allah bless him and give him peace):
‘While they are in that state, lo and behold, the screen will suddenly be removed from the Garden of Paradise, which will then be brought nearer. A wind will blow forth from inside it, and the Muslims will discover that it has a fragrant aroma like musk, even though the distance between them and the Garden of Paradise is still that of a journey that normally takes five hundred years to complete.
‘The lid will then be removed from Hell [Jahannam], and a wind will blow forth from it, together with a terrible cloud of smoke. The wicked sinners will thus discover that it has a stinking aroma, even though the distance between them and Hell is still that of a journey that normally takes five hundred years to complete.
‘Hell will then be brought closer, dragged along by means of an enormous chain, to which it has been firmly tied. Nineteen keepers, chosen from among the angels, will be tugging at that chain, and each of those keepers will be accompanied by seventy thousand other angels, serving as his assistants. While each of the nineteen keepers, together with his assistants, takes a turn at dragging Hell along, the other keepers, together with their assistants, will be walking to the right and left of it, and following behind it. Each and every angel amongst them will hold in his hand a grappling hook made of iron. They will shout and bellow as they goad Hell along, but its slow progress will be made to the accompaniment of moaning and sighing, staggering and stumbling, clouds of gloom and smoke, rattling and clanking noises, and a towering inferno stoked by the fury of its rage against its own inhabitants. Thus they will eventually install it in a position midway between the Garden of Paradise and the place where the resurrected creatures are kept standing [al-mawqif].
‘At this point, Hell will lift its gaze. As soon as it spies the creatures assembled there, it will bolt toward them in order to devour them. Its keepers will have to pull on its chains to hold it in check, for if it were left to its own devices, it would pounce upon every believer [mu’min] and unbeliever [kafir] without distinction. Once it sees that it has been effectively restrained from attacking the assembled throng of creatures, it will simmer and boil with an intensity that can hardly be distinguished from the most furious kind of rage. Then it will have another sigh, and the resurrected creatures will hear the sound of the gnashing of its teeth. This will cause their hearts to shudder and tremble with alarm. They will fly into a state of panic, their eyes will glaze over, and their hearts will end up in their throats.’”
According to another report, somebody once said: “O Prophet of Allah, describe Hell to us!” He responded to this (Allah bless him and give him peace) by saying:
Very well. Like this earth in magnitude. Seventy degrees of longitude. Dark black. It has seven heads, and each of its heads has thirty doors. The length of each of its doors is equal to the distance of a journey that would take three nights. Its upper lip protrudes against its nose, while it trails its lower lip on the ground. In each of its nostrils there is a shackle and an enormous chain, which is held in the grasp of seventy thousand angels, all of them rough, stern, their teeth firmly gritted, their eyes like live coals, and their colors like the flames of fire. While their nostrils give vent to lofty columns of flame and smoke, they stand at the ready, prepared at all times to receive and carry out the command of the All-Compelling One [al-Jabbar] (Blessed and Exalted is He).
Then the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) went on to say:
There will come a moment when Hell [Jahannam] asks its Lord (Almighty and Glorious is He) for permission to perform an act of worshipful prostration [sujud]. He will give it permission to do so, and Hell will thereupon adopt an attitude of prostration for as long as Allah wills. Then the All-Compelling One [al-Jabbar] (Almighty and Glorious is He) will say: “Now raise your head!”
He continued (Allah bless him and give him peace):
Hell will raise its head at once, saying: “Praise be to Allah, who has made me the instrument by which He exacts retribution from those who disobey Him, and has not made anything in the whole of His creation an instrument by which to exact retribution from me!”
To this he added (Allah bless him and give him peace):
Then Hell will say, over and over again, with a tongue that is fluent [taliq] and eloquent [dhaliq] and smooth [saliq]: “Praise be to Allah [al-hamdu li’llah]!” For as long as Allah wills, it will go on repeating this declaration of praise, in a loud voice peculiar to itself alone.
Then Hell will heave a deep sigh, which will so affect those who hear it that not a single one of them will fail to sink down on his knees – not one angel brought near to the Lord [mal’ak muqarrab], not one Prophet sent as a Messenger [nabi mursal], and not one of those resurrected creatures who are present at the place of standing [al-mawquf],
Then Hell will heave a second deep sigh, and not a single eye that still has a drop of moisture in it will fail to shed a tear.
Then Hell will heave a third deep sigh, and even if those who hear that sigh – be they human beings or jinn – were each endowed with the merit of seventy-two Prophets, they would surely be moved to embrace her as a man embraces a woman [la-waqa’u-ha].
Then Hell will heave a fourth deep sigh, and nothing that is capable of speech will fail to have its speech arrested. The only exceptions will be Gabriel, Michael, and [Abraham] the Bosom Friend [Khalil] of the All-Merciful One [ar-Rahman] (Almighty and Glorious is He), each one of whom will say, as they cling to the Heavenly Throne [‘Arsh]: “My own soul, my own soul [nafsi, nafsi] – that is all I beg You to spare!”
The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) continued:
Then Hell will send forth a shower of sparks, as numerous as the stars. Each spark will be like an arrow an enormous cloud arising in the West, and that shower of sparks will fall upon the heads of the assembled creatures.
He went on to say (Allah bless him and give him peace):
Then the Bridge [Sirat] will be erected over Hell. Seven hundred arches will be made ready to support it, and the distance between each pair of arches will be that of a journey taking seventy years. The dimensions of the Bridge [Sirat] will be as follow: from the first platform down to the second platform, the distance of a journey taking fine hundred years; from the second down to the third, the distance of a journey taking five hundred years; from the third down to the fourth, the same distance again; from the fourth down to the fifth, the same distance again; from the fifth down to the sixth, the same distance again; and from the sixth down to the seventh, likewise. This seventh platform will be the widest of them all, the hottest of them all, the most deeply concave of them all, the most varied of them all [in its range of torments], and the most fiery of them all – by a factor of seventy.
As for the lowest platform, its flames will rise up past the Bridge on the right side and the left, as they soar into the sky to a distance of three miles. Each platform will be hotter, more thickly littered with live coals, and beset with more varied kinds of torment than the one above it – by a factor of seventy.
Upon each platform there will be an ocean, rivers, mountains and trees. The height of each of those mountains, as it towers up into the sky, will be equal to the distance of a journey taking seventy thousand years. There will be seventy such mountains on each platform, and on each mountain there will be seventy thousand separate hills. On each of those separate hills there will be seventy thousand thorny trees [shajara dari’]. Each of those trees will have seventy branches, and there will be seventy serpents and seventy scorpions lurking on each of its branches. Each of those serpents will be three miles in length, and as for the scorpions, they will resemble huge Bactrian camels. Seventy thousand pieces of fruit will be dangling from each of those trees, and each piece of fruit will have the shape of a devil’s head. Inside almost every one of those pieces of fruit there will be seventy worms, and each of those worms will be exceedingly long. Some pieces of fruit will not contain worms, but they will contain thorns inside them instead.
The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) also used to say:
Hell [Jahannam] has seven entrances, and each of those entrances has seventy valleys. The depth of each of those valleys is the distance of a journey taking seventy years. Each of those valleys has seventy thousand branches, and in each of its branches there are seventy thousand caves. In each of those caves there are seventy thousand crevices, and each of its crevices extends to the distance of a journey taking seventy years. Seventy thousand snakes are lurking inside each of those crevices, and there are seventy thousand scorpions inside the jaws of each of those snakes. Each of those scorpions has seventy thousand spinal columns, and each of its spinal columns contains a flask of poison. Neither the unbeliever [kafir] nor the hypocrite [munafiq] will reach his final destination without experiencing all this to the full.
He also said (Allah bless him and give him peace):
While the assembled creatures are down on their knees, and Hell is prancing about like a camel in heat, a herald will issue a proclamation in a very loud voice. The Prophets [anbiya’], the champions of truth [siddiqun], the martyrs [shuhadah’] and the righteous [salihun] will thereupon spring to their feet. Then they will offer a proposal, to the effect that wrongs should be set right. Then they will offer a second proposal, the effect of which will be that the disembodied spirits [arwah] and the physical bodies [ajsad] engage in mutual debate, and that the physical bodies win the argument against the disembodied spirits. Then they will offer a third proposal to Allah, as a result of which the record sheets [suhuf] will fly up into the air – and fall into the hands of the people assembled at the place of Resurrection. One person will have his record given to him in his right hand, another will have his record given to him in his left hand, and yet another will have his record given to him behind his back.
As for those who receive their records with their right hands, they will be granted a light from the Light of their Lord, and the angels will congratulate them on their mark of honor. They will then pass over the Bridge [Sirat], through the mercy of their Lord, and proceed to enter their Garden of Paradise. Their guardians will be waiting to meet them at the gates of their Gardens of Paradise, ready to present them with their garments and their riding mounts, and to equip them with all the finery that will suit them best.
They will then disperse to their respective dwellings, and gleefully make tracks toward their palatial mansions, where they will enter into the company of their spouses. They will see sights that their tongues could never have described, that their eyes have never beheld, and the very idea of which has never occurred to their hearts. They will eat and drink, and put on their fine new clothes and ornaments. They will then embrace their spouses, to the utmost extent of which they are capable.
Then they will offer praise to their Creator [Khaliq], who has banished their sorrow from them, replaced their sense of anxiety with a feeling of security, and made their reckoning an easy matter for them to undergo. Then they will express their gratitude for all that their Lord has bestowed upon them. They will say: “Praise be to Allah [al-hamdu li’llah], who has guided us to this, for we could not have guided ourselves, if Allah had not guided us.” They will be highly delighted when they recognize the provisions they have obtained from their life in this lower world, for they were people of conviction [muqinin], people of faith [mu’minin], believers in the truth [musaddiqun], people whose fear and hopes and longings were focused on their Lord. That is the criterion by which the saved obtain salvation [naja’n-najun], and by which the unbelievers are doomed to perdition [halaka’l-kafirun].
As for those who receive their records with their left hands on from behind their backs, their faces will be darkly stained, the fair color of their eyes will be altered, a brand will be stamped on the tips of their noses, their bodies will be bloated, and their skins will turn coarse and rough. They will cry out in woeful distress, when they look at their records and see their sins with their own eyes. Whatever the nature of the sins they committed in the past, be they minor or major offenses, they will find them every single one of them substantiated in their records.
They will therefore be dejected in their feelings, and their thoughts will be filled with foreboding. Their alarm will be intense, and great will be their anxiety. Their heads will be bowed, their eyes downcast, and their necks bent low. They may try to steal a glance at the Fire of Hell that awaits them, but once they have looked, it will be impossible for them to withdraw their gave from the sight, because they have laid their eyes upon something that is enormous, huge, horrifying, momentous, overwhelming, distressing, terrible, dreadful, tragic, repulsive, disturbing to the feelings and tear-provoking to the eyes.
They will thus acknowledge their servitude to their Lord. They will confess their sins, and they will experience their confession as a scorching fire, a shameful disgrace, a sorrowful affliction, a painful agony, a compulsory obligation, and an extremely distasteful necessity.
He then went on to say (Allah bless him and give him peace):
While the people are down on their knees, confessing their sins in the presence of their Lord (Almighty and Glorious is He), their eyes will be so obscured that they cannot see clearly, their feelings will be so downcast that they cannot think rationally, and their limbs will be trembling so violently that they cannot produce their speech. Their bonds of kinship will be severed, so that they cannot connect with one another. There will therefore be no family ties to link them together on that day, and they will not be responsible for one another. They will be stricken with such personal loss that they cannot recuperate. They may beg for a second chance, but their pleading will go unanswered. They will have to acknowledge the truth of that which they used to dismiss as false, for now they are thirsty and unable to quench their thirst, hungry and unable to satisfy their hunger, naked and unable to clothe their nakedness, defeated and unable to triumph. They are stricken with grief and deprivation, having lost themselves and their families, their goods and their profits.
He also said (Allah bless him and give him peace):
While the people are in this condition, Allah (Exalted is He) will suddenly command the keepers of Hell [Jahannam] to make their exit from it, together with their assistants, and to bring them all their tools and instruments, such as chains, shackles and grappling hooks. They will thereupon emerge from Hell and take up a position outside it, while they wait to see what further orders they will be given.
He continued (Allah bless him and give him peace):
When the wretched people notice that the keepers have come out from Hell, and when they set eyes upon their fetters and their gear, they will start biting their own hands. They will eat their fingernails, then cry out in distress as their blood comes gushing forth. Their feet will shake and stumble, and they will despair of anything good. Then Allah (Exalted is He) will give the order: “Seize them and tie them up, then roast them on the blazing Fire [Jahim], then bind them securely in chains!”
He then went on to say (Allah bless him and give him peace):
Whenever Allah wishes to cast a group of people into those layers [of Hell], He summons their keepers and says to them: “Seize these people!” Seventy angels immediately rush toward each individual member of the group concerned. They tighten their bonds, putting heavy shackles on their necks and fixing chains through their noses. This causes them to be throttled, and their spinal columns are also broken to pieces, since their forelocks are bent over behind their backs and tied to their feet.
He also said (Allah bless him and give him peace):
Once they have been subjected to this treatment, their eyes will become glazed, their jugular veins will be inflated, the flesh of their necks will be scorched, and their blood vessels will be stripped bare. The heat of the shackles will burn into their heads, causing their brains to boil. Their brains will then spill out onto their outer layers of skin and trickle down their feet. This will cause their outer layers of skin to peel off, and the fleshy parts beneath to turn green, as the pus flows out of them.
When the shackles are placed on their necks, they will fill the whole area between their shoulders and their ears. Their fleshy parts will therefore be scorched, their lips will be hacked to pieces, their teeth will be exposed like fangs, and their tongues will stick out as they utter noises and screams. Those shackles will gleam with the glow of soaring flames, the heat of which will flow through their veins like blood, leaving them hollow. Since the flames of the Fire of Hell will also be flowing through them, the heat of those shackles will reach their hearts. Detached from their strings, their hearts will move up till they reach their throats, and this will intensify their strangulation. Their voices will be cut off completely, and their outer layers of skin will totally disappear.
Then, while they are in this condition, Allah (Exalted is He) will command the keepers of Hell [Jahannam] to provide them with clothing. They will dress them at once in shirts and pants. These garments will be extremely dark black in color, reeking with the stench of decay, rough and coarse to the touch, and ablaze from the intensity of their heat. If they were set down on the mountains of the earth, they would cause them to melt away.
He continued (Allah bless him and give him peace):
Then Allah (Almighty and Glorious is He) will say to the keepers of Hell [Jahannam]: “Herd them away to their dwelling places!” They will thereupon produce another set of chains, longer and coarser than those in which the people had already been firmly secured. Each of the angels will then take one of those chains and use it to bind all the members of one of the religious communities [umma mina’l-umam] together. Then he will place the end of the chain over his shoulder and turn his back on them. Then he will set off with them, dragging them along with their faces on the ground.
He went on to say (Allah bless him and give him peace):
At this point the angels will say to them: “This is the Fire of Hell, the reality of which you were in the habit of denying. Is this mere sorcery, or can you not see? Now you must roast in it, so you may or may not have the patience to endure, but that will not make the slightest difference as far as you are concerned. You are simply being repaid for what you used to do.”
He also said (Allah bless him and give him peace):
As soon as they have been brought to a halt at the brink of Hell, its gates will be opened to admit them and its covering will be removed to expose its contents. Its Fire will ablaze and burst forth in flames, and a terrible cloud of smoke will then emerge from it, together with a hail of sparks, as numerous as the stars in the sky. These sparks will fly up high into the sky, to the distance of a journey taking seventy years. Then all of this will come back down, to fall on the heads of the people in chains. The hair on their heads will thus be consumed by fire, and their skulls will be cracked and shattered.
He continued (Allah bless him and give him peace):
Then Hell will scream in the loudest voice it can muster: “Come here to me, O people of the Fire, come here to me! By the Might and Glory of my Lord, I shall most certainly inflict retributions upon you!” Then it will; say: “Praise be to Allah, who has made me angry on account of His anger, and who is using me to inflict retribution upon His enemies. My Lord, add heat to my heat, and add strength to my strength!”
He went on to say (Allah bless him and give him peace):
Yet another set of angels will then come forth from Hell, and each one among them will approach one of the religious communities [umma mina’il-umam], He will pick up the members of that community at his leisure, and then topple them facedown into Hell. This means that they will land on their heads – eventually, since they will go on falling for the distance of a journey taking seventy years, before they read the peaks of the mountains of Hell.
To this he added (Allah bless him and give him peace):
Even when they finally reach the peaks of the mountains of Hell, they will not alight upon those peaks until each and every individual amongst them has had his skin stripped and replaced no less than seventy times.
He also said (Allah bless him and give him peace):
The first meal they get to eat on those mountain peaks will be a meal consisting of the fruit called az-zaqqum, the heat of which is outwardly apparent, the bitterness of which is extremely intense, and the thorns of which are very many. While they are chewing that meal of theirs, the angels will suddenly come upon them, beating them with their goading irons till their bones are smashed to pieces. Then the angels will grab hold of them by their legs and fling them into Hell, so that they plunge headfirst for the distance of a journey taking seventy years, before landing on the outlying ridges of the mountains of Hell.
To this he added (Allah bless him and give him peace):
They will not alight upon those outlying ridges, however, until each and every individual amongst them has had his skin stripped and replaced no less than seventy times.
He also said (Allah bless him and give him peace):
That meal of theirs will be stuck in their mouths, for they will find it impossible to swallow and stomach. The food will thus combine with the heart to form a lump in the area of the gullet, causing a choking sensation. Each and every individual amongst them will then appeal for help in the form of something to drink. It will suddenly become apparent to them that, within those mountain ridges, there are river valleys streaming into Hell, so they will set off walking until they reach them, at which point they will bend down over them and attempt to drink the liquid they contain.
He continued (Allah bless him and give him peace):
The result of this will be that the skin is stripped from their faces, to be carried away in the current. They will find that it is actually impossible to drink from those streams, and so they will turn around and try to move away from them. The angels will be catching up with them, however, while they are still bending over those springs, and they will flog them till their bones are smashed to pieces. Then they will grab hold of them by their legs and flung them into Hell, so that they plunge headfirst for the distance of a journey taking one hundred and forty years, through blazing flames and a terrible cloud of smoke, before landing in those river valleys.
To this he added (Allah bless him and give him peace):
They will not alight upon those river valleys, however, until each and every individual amongst them has had his skin stripped and replaced no less than seventy times.
He went on to say (Allah bless him and give him peace):
The ultimate destination of the liquid that flows from those mountain springs is down in those river valleys. They will try to drink from it, but only to find that it is the fluid of Hell’s inferno [ma’ al-Jahim]. It will not settle in their stomachs until Allah has stripped and replaced the skin of each and every individual amongst them no less than seventy times.
To this he added (Allah bless him and give him peace):
As soon as some of that liquid has settled in their bellies, their intestines will be cut to pieces, which will then come out through their buttocks. The rest of it will flow through their veins, causing their fleshy parts to melt and their bones to crack. The angels will soon catch up with them, to beat them with their goading irons on their faces, their backsides and their heads. Each goading iron of theirs has three hundred and sixty cutting edges, so when they are used to strike people on their heads, their skulls are smashed in and their spinal columns are shattered to bits. Then they are dragged into the Fire of Hell, lying flat upon their faces, until they find themselves right in the middle of its blazing inferno. The Fire will then consume their outer layers of skin, and burn its way into their ears. Its flames will thus emerge through their nostrils and their ribs, while the pus oozes out of their bodies. Their eyes will pop out of their sockets, to dangle down over their cheeks.
After all this, they will be joined together with those devils [shayatin] of theirs, the ones they used to obey, and with those deities [aliha] of theirs, to whom they used to appeal for help. They will be thrown into places that are narrow and cramped, so they will cry out in their woe and distress, until their possessions are produced – only to be heated in their own fire, then used to brand them on their foreheads and their sides, then pressed down on their backs so that they come out through their bellies.
They have earned this treatment, for they are the friends of Hell [awliya’ Jahannam] and the associates of the devils and the stones [qurana’ ash-shayatin wa’l-hijara]. They piled up their sins like mountains, in order to make sure that their punishment would be very severe indeed. The height of one such mountain is equal to the distance of a month-long journey, while its width is that of a five-day march, its thickness is that of a five-night trek, and its peak is like that of Al-Aqra’, which is a mountain in the remotest part of Syria. In the face of that mountain there are thirty-two sharp teeth, some of which stick out from its head, while some of them appear beneath the bottom of its beard. Its nose is like an enormous hill. As for the length and coarseness of the hair on its head, it resembles the cedar tree, and the sheer abundance of it is like all the thickets of this world. Its upper lip is contracting, while the lower one is ninety cubits [dhira’] in length. The length of its hand is equal to the distance of a ten-day journey, and the thickness of it is equal to that of a single day’s march. Its thighs are like a couple of metal plates, and the thickness of its skin is forty cubits on its arm. The length of its leg is equivalent to the distance of a five-night journey, while the thickness of it is equal to that of a single day’s march. Each pupil of its eyes resembles Hira’, which is a mountain near Mecca. When tar is poured over its head, the fire inside it glows more brightly, for it can only add to its inflammation.
According to one traditional report, the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) used to say:
By the One who holds my soul in His hand, if a man were to emerge from the Fire of Hell – dragging a chain, with his hand shackled to his neck, with shackles on his neck and iron fetters on his legs – and if his fellow creatures were then to catch sight of him, they would certainly flee from him and run as far away from him as they possibly could.
The traditional report continues:
Due to the intensity of the heat of the Fire of Hell, its grievous affliction, the varied range of its torment, and the narrowness of its dwelling places, the fleshy parts of its inhabitants will turn green, their bones will split and crack, their brains will boil and pour down over their outer layers of skin. As their skin is burned away, their limbs will be cut off at the joints. Then, as the pus oozes out from their dismembered limbs, their bodies will come to be riddles with maggots and worms. Those maggots and worms will soon grow so fat that they come to resemble the wild ass. They will also develop claws, and those claws of theirs will be just like the talons of vultures and eagles. They will burrow into the areas between the outer skin and the flesh of their victims, and rip them to shreds. They will give out a meaning sound in the process, and they will scurry toand fro, just as a frightened wild animal scurries to and fro. They will eat their victims’ flesh and drink their blood, for they have no other form of food and drink.
The angels will come and seize those people, then drag them along with their faces down on the live coals and stones, which stick out from the ground as if they were teeth. They will keep dragging them along until they reach the ocean of Hell [Jahannam]. This means covering the distance of a journey taking seventy years, so they will not reach it until all their joints are broken, not without having their skins stripped and replaced no fewer than seventy thousand times each day. When the angels finally bring them to their destination, they will hand them over to the keepers of the ocean of Hell, who will immediately grab them by their legs and shove them into it. No one knows the depth of that ocean, except the One who created it.
According to some accounts, the following description is recorded in one of the books of the Torah [asfar at-Tawrah]:
The ocean of this world, by comparison with the ocean of Hell, is like a small well on the shore of the ocean of this world. So, when they are thrown into it, and experience the first touch of the torment it has to offer, they will say to one another: “As it seems now, the torment inflicted upon us before this was actually a gentle clemency.”
The traditional report continues:
They will sink down once, before rising again to the surface. Then the ocean will boil, as it plunges them down to a depth of seventy fathoms. The distance of each fathom will be equivalent to the distance of the East from the West. Then the angels will herd them together with their goading irons, bearing them with these sharp rods and driving them back down to the very bottom of the ocean, to the distance of a journey taking seventy years. Their only food and drink will be what the ocean provides, so they will rise back up from its lowest depth, covering the distance of a journey taking one hundred and forty years. On reaching the surface, one of them will wish to pause for breath, so the angels will approach him with their goading irons, rushing toward him in order to give him a beating. This time, however, he will remember that, if he raised his head, seventy thousand goading irons will be aimed at that head of his. Since none of them ever misses its target, they will send him back down to a depth of seventy fathoms, each fathom being equivalent to the distance of the East from the West.
The traditional report continues further:
They will stay in the ocean of Hell for as long as Allah wills that this state of affairs should last. In the meantime, their flesh and bones will be eaten away, so that only their spirits survive. They will eventually be struck by a wave that rolls them along for seventy years, then casts them ashore on one of the beaches of the ocean of Hell. On that beach there are seventy thousand caves, and deep inside each cave there are seventy thousand crevices. Each of those crevices extends as far as a journey lasting seventy years, and lurking deep inside each crevice there are seventy thousand snakes. The length of each of those snakes is seventy cubits, and each of those snakes has seventy sharp fangs. Within each of those fangs there is a flask of poison, and lurking inside the jaws of each of those snakes there are a thousand scorpions. Each of those scorpions has seventy vertebrae, and in each of those vertebrae there is a flask of poison.
The traditional report goes on to tell us:
Once their spirits have finally come ashore from that ocean of Hell, and have found their way into those caves, they will be provided with new bodies and new skins. Then they will be shackled in iron, at which point those serpents and scorpions will come out and attack them. Each and every individual amongst them will find that he has seventy thousand snakes and seventy thousand scorpions clinging to him. They will have no choice but to endure this onslaught with patience. Then the snakes and scorpions will climb up to their knees, and they will again have no choice but to endure the onslaught with patience. Then the snakes and scorpions will climb up to their chests, so they will yet again endure with patience. Then the snakes and scorpions will climb up to their collarbones, and patient endurance will once again be their only response. Then the snakes and scorpions will climb up higher still, attaching themselves to their noses, their lips, their teeth and their ears. At this point they will begin to panic, but they have nowhere to turn for refuge, except by running away into Hell, so into Hell they will tumble. As for the serpents, meanwhile, they will be chewing their flesh and sucking their blood, and as for the scorpions, they will be stinging them so hard that their fleshy parts will drop off piece by piece, and their limbs will be cut off at the joints. Even when they have tumbled into the Fire of Hell, it will take seventy years for the Fire to burn them clear of the poison injected into their systems by all those serpents and scorpions.
The traditional report continues:
Then the Fire of Hell will burn them for seventy years, at the end of which time they will be equipped with new skins, different from the skins they had before. Then they will beg to be supplied with food, so the angels will bring them a special meal, ironically called “the wedding feast [al-walima],” which is actually dry and as hard as iron. They will attempt to chew it, but they will find it quite impossible to eat the slightest morsel of it, so they will spit it out of their mouths. They will then set about devouring their own hands, as the only way to satisfy the extreme intensity of their hunger. They will begin by eating their fingertips and their palms. Once they have eaten those, they will start on their forearms and eat them too, as far as their elbows. Then they will start on their elbows, and go on eating all the way up to their shoulders, until only the tips of their shoulders are left uneaten. If they could get their mouths to reach any part of their bodies after that, they would certainly eat that part as well! After they have done all this to their bodies, however, they will be suspended from the tree called az-zaqqum, by means of iron flesh-hooks attached to their Achilles’ tendons [‘araqib].
The traditional report continues further.
Seventy thousand of them will be suspended from a single branch, with their heads hanging downward, yet this will not cause the branch to bend. Then the blazing inferno will be ignited beneath them, and the heat of the Fire of Hell will rise to scorch their faces. This will go on for a period of seventy years, so that their bodies will melt away and only their spirits will survive intact.
Then they will be supplied with fresh skins and new bodies. But then they will be suspended once again, this time by their fingertips, with the flames of the Fire of Hell beneath them. Those flames will rise and penetrate inside them through their buttocks, consuming their hearts before eventually emerging from their noses, their mouths and their ears. This process will also go on for a period of seventy years, so that their bones and their flesh will melt away and only their spirits will survive intact.
Then they will be granted a brief respite, while they are supplied with fresh skins and new bodies. But then they will be suspended once again, this time by their eyes, for the same length of time and with similar consequences.
They will not cease to be tormented in this fashion, until there is not one joint in their bodies by which they have yet to be suspended, and not a single hair on their heads by which they have yet to be left dangling. Even though death approaches them from every joint in their bodies, they will not turn into lifeless corpses, while yet another ghastly torment is lying in wait behind them. Finally, when this particular form of punishment has been inflicted on them in every detail, the angels will bring them down from the branch of the tree. They will then take each and every individual amongst them off to this dwelling place, shackled with a chain and dragged along with his face to the ground.
The traditional report goes on to tell us:
The dimensions of their dwelling places in Hell will be commensurate with their wicked deeds. One of them, for instance, will be assigned to a lodging the length of which is equal to a month-long journey, and the width of which is similar. A fire will be ignited in it, and no one else will share it with him. Another of them, meanwhile, will be assigned to a lodging of which both the length and the width correspond to a journey of only twenty-nine nights. Yet others will be assigned to progressively smaller and narrower lodgings, till the point is reached where one of them is given a lodging that measures the equivalent of a one-day journey in both length and width.
The torments inflicted on them will match the size of their lodgings, so they will be in several different postures while receiving their punishment. One of them will take his punishment while standing on his head. One of them will take his punishment in a sitting position. One of them will take his punishment while squatting on his knees. One of them will take his punishment while standing on his legs. One of them will take his punishment while sprawled out flat on his belly. In each of these lodgings, the breathing space available to the occupant will be narrower than the tip of a spear.
The height of the fire inside the various lodgings will also vary. In one case, the fire will reach up to the ankles of the occupant. One of them will be in fire up to his knees. One of them will be in fire up to his waist. One of them will be in fire up to his navel. One of them will be in fire up to his collar bone. One of them will be completely immersed in a flood of fire, which will sometimes lift him up to the surface, and sometimes spin him around, as it plunges him down into its depths to the distance of a month-long journey.
Once they have settled into their dwelling places, they will all link up with their comrades, and weep until their tears run dry. Then they will shed tears of blood, to the point where ships could be launched in the current of their tears.
The traditional report continues:
They will have one day to spend together in the pit of the blazing inferno, after which there will never be another opportunity for them to congregate. When Allah gives permission on that day, a herald will cry out in the pit of the blazing inferno, and his voice will be heard by those at the very top and those at the very bottom, by those who are nearest to the center and those who are at the farthest edge. This is what is called the Gathering [al-Hashr]. The herald will say: “O people of the Fire of Hell, assemble together!” In response to this summons, they will all assemble together in the pit of the blazing inferno of Hell [al-Jahim], accompanied by the tormenting angels [zabaniyya].
The traditional report goes on to tell us:
The people of the Fire of Hell will then start arguing with one another. Those who used to be despised will say to those who were scornful: “We used to be your followers in the world below, (14:21)
Fa-hal antum mughnuna ‘an-na min ‘adhabi ‘llahi min shai’.
So will you be of any help to us at all in the face of Allah’s punishment?” (14:21)
Those who were proud will say:
Inna kullun fi-ha inna ‘llaha qad hakam baina ‘l-‘ibad.
“Every one of us is in it; indeed, Allah has already passed judgment on His servants.” (40:48)
Those who were proud will also say to those who used to be despised: “You may turn to us for help, but for you there is no word of welcome here!” Those who used to be despised will then say to those who were proud:
Bal antum la marhaban bi-kum: antum qaddamtumu-hu la-na: fa-bi’sa ‘l-qarar.
“No, you are the ones for whom there is no word of welcome! You prepared this for us in advance, and how evil is the outcome!” (38:60)
Those who used to be despised will take exception to hearing this from those who were proud, and they will say:
Rabba-na man qaddama la-na hadha fa-zid-hu ‘adhaban di’fan fi’n-nar.
Our Lord, whoever did prepare this for us, be sure to give him a double portion of torment in the Fire of Hell! (38:61)
In response to this, those who were proud will say:
Law hada-na ‘llahu la-hadaina-kum.
“If Allah had guided us aright, we would surely have guided you aright.” (14:21)
Those who used to be despised will then say to those who were proud: “Not so! [You were only interested in your] scheming by night and day, when you were instructing us to disbelieve in Allah, and to set up rivals in competition with Him. (34:33). This means that we are untainted by you, and that we are innocent of the things you invited us to do in the lower world.”
The traditional report continues:
Then all of them will turn toward the devils [shayatin] who are their fellow inmates, and the latter will tell them: “We led you into error, as we tempted you and lured you away from the right path.” Eventually, when they have finished saying what they have to say on this subject, Satan himself [ash-Shaitan] will proclaim, in a high-pitched voice peculiar to him:
“Allah surely promised you a promise of truth (14:22), and Allah summoned you, but you did not respond to His call, and you did not believe that His promise was true.
“I made you a promise, too, but then I let you down, for I had no authority over you, except that I called to you and you obeyed me. So do not lay the blame on me, but blame yourselves. I cannot come to your aid, nor can you be of any assistance to me (14:22), for I am quite ungrateful, on this day, for the fact that you rendered worshipful service to me, instead of to Allah.”
The traditional report continues, citing the words of Allah (Almighty and Glorious is He):
Fa-adhdhana mu’adhdhinun baina-hum an la’natu ‘llahi ‘ala ‘z-zalimin.
And then a herald in between them will cry out: “The curse of Allah is on the evildoers!” (7:44)
The traditional report goes on to tell us:
At this point, those who used to be despised will curse those who were proud, and those who were proud will curse those who used to be despised. All of them will curse the devils who are their fellow inmates, and their fellow inmates will curse them in return. Then they will say to those fellow inmates of theirs: “If only we were separated from you by the distance that separates the two horizons from each other – for you are evil companions (see 43:38) for us today, just as you were evil ministers [wuzara’] for us in the lower world.”
When it finally dawns on them that they are all lumped together in a single congregation, they will start saying to one another: “Come on! Let us go and look for the custodians of this place. Perhaps they will intercede on our behalf in the presence of their Lord, so that He may relieve us of the torment for a day.” (see 40:49)
The traditional report continues further:
In spite of this, however, they will continue to suffer torment. The keepers of Hell will stay out of their reach for as long as seventy years, and then, when they eventually come around to them, they will say:
a-wa-lam ta’a-kum rusulu-kum bi’l-bayyinat.
“Did your Messengers not come to you with clear proofs?” (40:50)
“Yes, indeed,” they will all respond together, whereupon the keepers of Hell will say:
Fa-‘d’u: wa ma du’a’u’l-kafirina illa fi dalal.
“Then make your plea, although the pleading of the unbelievers is in vain.” (40:50)
Then, according to the same traditional report:
When they see that the keepers of Hell will not do them any good, they will turn to the angel Malik with their next appeal for help, as they cry:
“O Malik, let your Lord make an end of us! (43:77) Let Him finally put us to death!”
Malik will keep them waiting for as long as it would take to travel the world, withholding his answer and declining to give them any response. Then, when he finally condescends to address them, it will be to say:
“You will have to linger on (43:77) for many aeons of time, before He finally puts you to death.”
When they see that Malik will not do them any good, they will address their appeal for help directly to their Lord. To Him they will say:
Rabba-na akhrij-na min-ha fa-in ‘udna fa-inna zalimun.
“Our Lord, bring us forth out of it! Then, if we revert, we shall be evildoers indeed.” (23:107)
– That is to say, “if we revert to our former habit of disobeying You.”
Then, as the traditional report goes on to tell us:
The All-Compelling One [al-Jabbar] (Glory be to Him and Exalted is He) will keep them waiting for as long as seventy years. During all that time, He will neither respond to their request nor provide them with any benefit. Then, when He finally does reply to them in His own words, He will reduce them to the status of dogs, for He will say:
[qala] ‘khsa fi-ha wa la tukallimun.
“Slink away into it, and do not speak to Me.” (23:108)
The traditional report continues further:
When they see that their Lord will not bestow His mercy on them, and that He will not grant them any favor, they will say to one another, referring to their torment:
Sawa’un ‘alai-na a-jazi’na am sabarna ma la-na min mahis.
“It is all the same for us whether we writhe in agony, or whether we patiently endure; we have no place of refuge. (14:21)
Fa-ma la-na min shafi’in; wa la sadiqin hamim: fa-law anna la-na karratan fa-nakuna mina ‘l-mu’minin.
Now we have no intercessors, nor any loyal friend. If only we could have another turn [on earth], so that we might be numbered among the believers!” (26:100-102)
The traditional report recounts what will happen to them next:
Then, as the angels are taking them away into their dwelling places, their feet will slip and stumble. Any argument they try to make will be refuted, and they will see what their Lord (Almighty and Glorious is He) has in store for them. They will lose all hope of His mercy, and their sense of despair will throw them into a state of terrible distress. A profound awareness of shame and degradation will descend upon them, so they will sadly bemoan the loss of all the opportunities they squandered in the course of their worldly lives.
As well as having their own heavy burdens loaded on their necks, they will also have to carry the burdens of those who used to be their followers and attendants, without the slightest reduction in those burdens of theirs. Their torments will be more numerous than the specks of dust on the earth and the drops of water in the oceans. They will be accompanied by some of the guardians of Hell [zabaniya], whose orders are abrupt, whose manner of speaking is harsh and crude, whose bodies are prodigious as the lightning in the sky, whose faces are like live coals, whose eyes are like flames, whose coloring is dark and gloomy, whose teeth and nails are like the horns of cattle. The goading irons they hold in their hands are long, heavy and fiercely hot; if they used them to strike the mountains, the mountains would be split asunder by the force of the blow, then crumble like rotten old bones. The guardians of Hell will use these instruments to beat the sinners who have disobeyed their Lord, so those sinners will have every reason to shed tears of blood, once their ordinary tears have run dry. They may plead with their tormentors, but their pleas will go unanswered. They may weep and sob for mercy, but the zabaniya will show them no compassion. They may beg for a drink of cold water, but the only liquid they get from the guardians of Hell will be a kind of pus that roasts their faces.
According to the same traditional report, the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) used to say:
An enormous cloud will gather each day, then drift over the people of the Fire of Hell. The flashes of lightning from it will dazzle their eyes, its thunder will crash down on their backs, and it will cast a gloom so dense that they cannot even see their hellish guardians. Then the cloud will proclaim, in its own peculiar booming voice: “O people of the Fire of Hell, would you not like me to give you a shower of rain?” They will all respond in chorus: “Shower us with cold water!” But the cloud will subject them for an hour to a hail of stones, which will fall on their heads and smash their skulls to pieces. Then it will rain upon them for another hour, this time with streams of boiling water, live coals in great abundance, smokeless flames of fire, and sharp hooks of iron. Then, for the next hour, it will shower them with snakes, scorpions, maggots and worms, and filthy slime.
The traditional report continues:
Whenever it rains in Hell [Jahannam], the ocean of Hell becomes full to overflowing, so its depths begin to surge in waves and it heaves in a mighty rage. It leaves neither shore nor mountain in Hell uncovered by its rising tide, and so it submerges all the people of the Fire, although they do not die.
The traditional report continues further:
The torments of Hell [Jahannam] will thus become worse and worse for those disobedient sinners, as conditions there become more and more extreme in every respect. Since they have incurred the retribution of their Lord, those who are doomed to reside there must suffer increasing degrees of harshness, heat, wailing and moaning, fire and smoke, darkness and gloom, stress and strain, poisonous fumes, boiling water, blazing and scorching flames, and every kind of agony.
Let us therefore take refuge from it with Allah – and from the deeds that lead to it, as well as from the companionship of its people! O Allah, our Lord and its Lord, do not cause us to arrive within its confines! Do not place its shackles upon our necks! Do not clothe us with its garments! Do not feed us with its bitter fruit called az-zaqqum, and do not make us drink its boiling liquid! Do not put its keepers in charge of us! Do not treat us as fuel for its fire! By Your mercy, enable us instead to cross safely over its Bridge [Sirat], and deflect its sparks and flames away from us, in order that You may deliver us, through Your mercy, from it and from its smoke, and from its grief and its torment. Amin, O Lord of All the Worlds!
The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) also used to say:
If even the least impressive door of Hell were to be opened in the West, it would cause the mountains of the East to evaporate, just as drops of rain evaporate in the heat of the sun. If even a single spark from Hell were to fly out and fall in the West, while a man was in the East, his brain would boil and spill out over his body.
Among all the inhabitants of the Fire of Hell, those who suffer the mildest torment are men who are forced to wear shoes made of fire, which emerges through their ears and their noses, and which causes their brains to boil. Next come those who are hurled down onto one of the rocks of Hell, so that they bounce off it, just as a grain of corn bounces out of a hot frying pan, and each time they fall off one rock they land upon another.
This means that all the inhabitants of the Fire of Hell are made to suffer torments commensurate with the wickedness of their respective deeds. Let us therefore take refuge with Allah from their deeds and their destination!
The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) has told us:
As for the torment inflicted on those who do not protect their private parts, they will be suspended by their genital organs for as long as they lived in this world, so that their physical bodies will disintegrate completely and only their spirits will survive intact. Then they will be released, to be equipped with new bodies and fresh skins. Then they will be tormented all over again. Every individual amongst them will be flogged by seventy thousand angels, for a period corresponding to his lifetime in this world, so that their physical bodies will disintegrate completely and only their spirits will survive intact. Such will be their punishment.
As for the torment inflicted on the thief, he will be dismembered limb by limb, then put together again. That will be the extent of his punishment, except that each individual among the class of thieves will also be assaulted by seventy thousand angels, armed with large razor blades.
As for the torment inflicted on those who give false witness, they will be suspended by their tongues. Then each individual amongst them will be flogged by seventy thousand angels, so that their physical bodies will disintegrate completely and only their spirits will survive intact.
As for the torment inflicted on those who attribute partners to Allah [al-mushrikin], they will be lodged in the cavern of Hell, which will then be sealed to keep them from escaping. Inside that cavern, they will find themselves in the midst of snakes, scorpions, many live coals, and fierce flames and smoke. Every hour, each individual amongst them will have his skin stripped and renewed no fewer than seventy thousand times.
As for the torment inflicted on cruel and arrogant tyrants, they will be placed in coffins made of fire. Then locks will be fastened to keep them inside, and the coffins will be deposited in the lowest tier of the Fire of Hell. Every hour, each individual amongst them will be subjected to ninety-nine different kinds of torment. Each of them will have his skin stripped and renewed a thousand times every day. Such will be their punishment.
According to the traditional report, the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) went on to say:
As for those who are guilty of the betrayal of trust, they will being their trickery with them. Then they will be thrown into the ocean of Hell [Jahannam]. To ensure that they go down all the way to the very bottom of it – the depth of which is known to none but the One who created it – they will then be told: “You must dive down deep, in order to get rid of your fraudulent deceit!”
On hearing this, they will dive as deep as Allah wills. Then they will return to the surface, sticking their heads out as they gasp for breath. At this point, however, each one of them will be assaulted immediately by seventy thousand angels, each of them armed with a goading prong made of iron, ready to be swung against his head. Such will be their punishment forever.
According to the same traditional report, the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) also used to say:
Allah has condemned the people of the Fire of Hell to remain in it for aeons [ahqab]. While I do not know how many those aeons will be, I can tell you that a single aeon [huqb] is a period of eighty thousand years, and that a year is three hundred and sixty days. In the context of Hell, however, one day is the equivalent of a thousand years by your reckoning.
Woe, therefore, to the people of the Fire of Hell! Woe to those faces – those faces that used to regard the heat of the sun as more than they could bear – at the time when the Fire is scorching them! Woe to those heads – those heads that used to regard an ordinary headache as more than they could bear – at the time when Hell’s boiling water [hamim] is being poured on top of them! Woe to those eyes – those eyes that used to regard ophthalmia [ramad] as more than they could bear – at the time when they are losing their color and glazing over within the Fire of Hell! Woe to those ears – those ears that used to take such delight in listening to gossip and scandal – at the time when the flames are flaring out of them! Woe to those noses – those noses that used to twitch in discomfort at the smell of decaying corpses – at the time when they are having to inhale the Fire of Hell! Woe to those necks – those necks that used to regard the slightest ache or pain as more than they could bear – at the time when shackles are being fastened to them! Woe to those skins – those skins that used to regard coarse clothing material as more than they could bear – at the time when they are being clad in garments made from a fiery material that is coarse indeed to the touch, that gives off a stinking odor, and that is smoldering with fire! Woe to those bellies – those bellies that used to regard an ordinary stomach-ache as more than they could bear – at the time when the bitter fruit called az-zaqqum, combined with boiling water, is entering inside them and cutting their intestines to pieces! Woe to those feet – those feet that used to regard the slightest soreness as more than they could bear – at the time when they are being forced to wear shoes made of fire!
Woe to the people of the Fire of Hell, in all their varied torments! O Allah, by virtue of this stupendous knowledge, and of Your universal grace and favor, do not cause us to be numbered among its inhabitants!
