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The Prophet
(may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him)
continued:
Then Hell will send
forth a shower of sparks, as numerous as the stars. Each
spark will be like an enormous cloud arising in the West,
and the shower of sparks will fall upon the heads of the
assembled creatures.
Description of
the Bridge (Pul-Siraat)
He went on to
say
(may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him):
Then the Bridge 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 will be as follows: from the first
platform down to the second platform, the distance of a
journey taking five 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; the fifth down to the sixth, the same distance again;
and from the sixth down to the seventh, likewise. This
seventh platform will be widest of them all, the hottest of
them all, and 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 flame 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 torments then 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 a 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 one of those separate
hills, there will be seventy thousand thorny trees. Each of
those trees will have seventy branches, and there will be
seventy serpents and seventy scorpions lurking on each side
of its branches. Each of those serpents will be three miles
in length, and as for the scorpions, they 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 have
thorns inside them instead.
Further
Description of Hell
The Prophet
(may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him)
also used to say:
Hell has seven
entrances, and each of those entrances has seventy valleys.
The depth of each of those valleys is a 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
have seventy thousand spinal columns, and each of its spinal
columns contains a flask of poison. Neither the unbeliever
nor the hypocrite will reach his final destination without
experiencing all this to the full.
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