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The State of the
Assembled Creatures in viewing Hell
‘At this point, Hell
will lift its gaze. As soon as it spies the creatures
assembled there, it will bolt towards 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 and unbeliever 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 heave another sigh, and the resurrected creatures will
hear 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.”
Description of
Hell
According to
another report, somebody once said: “O Prophet of Allah.
Describe Hell to us!” He responded to this
(may
Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him)
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 grimly gritted, their eyes like live coals, and their
colours 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 (Blessed and Exalted is
He).
Hell is a Lover
of Allah
Then the
Prophet
(may
Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him)
went on to say:
There will come a
moment when Hell asks its Lord (Almighty and Glorious is He)
for permission to perform an act of worshipful prostration.
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 (Almighty and Glorious
is He) will say “Now raise your head!”
He continued
(may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him):
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
(may
Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him):
Then Hell will say,
over and over again, with a tongue that is fluent, and
eloquent and smooth: “Praise be to Allah!” For as long as
Allah wills, it will go on repeating this declaration of
praise, in a loud voice peculiar to itself alone.
The Sigh of Hell
overwhelms the Creatures with Fear
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, not one prophet sent as
a Messenger, and not one of those resurrected creatures who
are present at the place of standing.
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 will surely be moved to
embrace her as a man embraces a woman.
The Fear of the
Closest Friends of Allah the Majestic
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 of
the All-Merciful One, each one of whom will say, as they
cling to the Heavenly Throne “My own soul, my own soul, that
is all I beg you to spare!”
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