by Mustafa Masih
We live in a time where many people conciously or subconsciously feel that the idea of hell, jahannam, is unfair. If Allah SWT loves His creation, they argue, why should he create Hellfire? How can a Merciful Creator justify punishing His creation?
To appease the anguish of imagining hellfire underneath our feet on the Day of Judgment, we conjure wishful thoughts of Allah as Al-Ghafur (Most Forgiving) and Al-Rahim (Most Merciful). We should take heed of the perished nations of the past as mentioned in the Quran for their transgressions.
The horrifying torment of Hellfire as depicted in the Quran lends credence to the adage that human beings are much more motivated by the stick than the carrot. How can there be a moral society in which the people have no concept of being accountable for what they do? It is due to the same reason that an average person would not speed on the highway for fear of getting a traffic ticket.
Thus it is pivotal for us to be reminded of hellfire to stay on the straight path. To forget the reality of the stick is like being neglectful of cops waiting to catch a driver speeding.
Fear and Hope
Having said this, it is not to deny that Allah is All Merciful. The believer should always live between fear and hope (bayna al-khauf wa al-raja). When you are blessed with good health, you should instill fear of incurring the wrath of Allah SWT. When you are in hardship, have hope, raja‘, and bear patiently for it is merely a trial from Allah the All Merciful. When you are poor, know that Allah is the one Who provides whom He Wills. When you are rich, do not forget that Allah knows what you spend with your wealth.
This life, this dunya, is no more real than the Hereafter. The human soul, the ruh or nafs, is a most indestructible creation of Allah SWT that no nuclear weapons can annihilate. The great Imam Al-Ghazali, left a poem under his pillow upon his death in which the first lines read “I was a shell. Now the shell is open and I am free.” Know that the real self is not our body. If a person loses his hand, it does not mean the person lost his self. His self is his soul, the ruh.
Just as This Life is Real, the Next Life is Even More Real
As the Prophet SAW said, the bodies of people in Hellfire will be made bigger. Why? So that they can feel more pain. This is the reality of it. Yet we should not understand this as meaning there is no mercy from Allah SWT. His Mercy is everywhere and as Imam Ibn Taymiyyah states, the Mercy of Allah SWT is felt even in hellfire because the person is given the ability to tolerate this punishment.
Punishment in the Grave
This raises the question of why should there also be punishment in the grave. The punishment in the grave is given as a kafarah (atonement) so that perhaps it will put you in a better more pure state before you stand in front of Allah SWT on the Day of Judgment.
Another reason is that it is the angels who will question you in the grave. Whereas in the Hereafter Allah SWT is the one who will question you. The angels can only see what you do externally, the Shari’ah aspect, and question those acts but they do not know what is in your heart. Only Allah will take you into account for that in the Hereafter.
The Hellfire
After the stage of barzakh in the grave, a person proceeds to walk on the sirat, the straight path. Underneath this path is the hellfire, a fire that is alive, constantly trying to reach and grab every single person into its pit. The person’s first test is salat, the obligatory prayers. If its rights were not fulfilled, he goes falls down into hellfire and takes the punishment. Then the person will be brought to the beginning and start again. Then, perhaps the person participated in riba, and that is haram, he falls down again. This cycle is repeated until Jannah is reached.
For such a horrifying punishment, keep in mind that Allah SWT does not put us in a situation that is unfair for us. We are between His Justice and His Mercy. For the people in Hellfire, the mercy of Allah SWT is that they can bear the punishment. In fact, we don’t even deserve Jannah for it is only by the Mercy of Allah that He grants us Jannah insha Allah. Therefore, we ask for Allah’s Forgiveness because He is Al-Ghafurur Rahim.
In the hellfire, we will neither be dead nor alive. This is mentioned in Surah Al-A’la, “Wherein he will neither die nor remain alive.” The reality of hell fire and jannah is something no human being has full comprehension, not even the Prophet SAW.
Our knowledge of the Hereafter is merely a taste of its reality. It is analogous to the guest who is first given an appetizer as he enters the host’s home. Everything we know of the hereafter, is like this appetizer. The real delight of Jannah and torment of Jahannam cannot be comprehended in this physical world. For example, the people in the hellfire will have their skin burnt and then the skin comes back. This is only something we can imagine. The point you should understand is that Allah is saying verily His punishment is severe indeed.
Note that when Allah mentions in the Qur’an the delight of Jannah, it is matched by mentioning the opposite, Jahannam. Both of these realities have to be kept in mind.
What About Those Who Do Not Know the Truth?
In the aqidah of Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah, we believe that Allah will not punish anyone until He sends them a messenger. It is the justice of Allah SWT to not punish who the message did not reach them. This is mentioned in the beginning of Surah Yasin for example. We cannot say anything about the people that did not receive the message in our aqidah. What is clear is the warning for those who the message reached.
The condition of those who did not receive the message is like the narrative of Luqman Al-Hakim. No messenger reached and no book of Allah reached Luqman The Wise. It was from his own fitrah, his human nature, to come to the conclusion that there must be Allah. We believe it is the natural predisposition of human beings to know of a Supreme Being just like we feel hungry when we don’t eat. A person with good fitrah knows thath this whole vast gigantic universe did not come by accident. It is in this light how Luqman advised his son, “O my dear son, do not associate partners with Allah, because this is the greatest oppression.” It is the ultimate denial of your master.
There is no way to determine who the message did not reach. For these people, there has to be some element of tauhid, some belief in their hearts of the Lord of the heavens and the earth. However this should not be our preoccupation. We should be concerned about our own state of iman. It is sufficient to know that Allah will not punish whom the message did not reach. We can merely say that as far the Shariah is concerned, the person died as a non-Muslim. Whether he believes in Allah in his heart, that is a matter for Allah to judge.
Injustice
Let’s say a Muslim is in hellfire for stealing. And some non-muslim is also there for committing the exact crime. In this case, the punishment for both of us is the same. The treatment from Allah for the same sin is the same punishment.
Is this unjust? How do human beings know what is just and unjust? We know justice not by experiencing justice, but through experiencing injustice and vice versa. Since we have established above that everyone is treated with the same punishment for the same crime,.the issue of justice versus injustice is a false dichotomy.
In surah al-Bayyinah, Allah SWT says we are created to be exclusive servants of Him. In addition, we are to establish regular prayer and give zakat. This is the pure servant. After that, Allah SWT mentions hellfire for the people who do deny His signs. For hellfire, the description is khalidina fiha (they will dwell therein). In the next ayah, Allah describes jannah as khalidina fiha abada (they will dwell therein forever). So Allah does not attribute hellfire with “abada” (forever) as is attributed to for jannah. In addition, the Prophet SAW says whoever has a mustard seed of iman, he will come out of hellfire and will enter jannah.
The common denominator of people in hellfire is that they have lost their humanity. Allah SWT describes in Surah Al-Maun the characteristics of those who denied the impending judgment. “Have you considered him who calls the judgment a lie?” When these people feel accountable to no one, their fitrah dies.
Fitrah and Gratitude
Talking about fitrah, there is a very subtle point in surah Luqman where Allah says “We gave Luqman al-hikmah (wisdom) so that he gives shukr (gratitude). This is how you tell whether a person has good fitrah. He does shukr to whoever does good to him. We observe that among the non-muslims, one of the qualities of those who convert to Islam is that they had good feelings towards their parents. Likewise for Luqman, he advises his son to have gratitude to his parents. This is human fitrah. People who have lost fitrah lose the feeling of gratitude to repay people’s kindness.
So as you grow older, your knowledge increases. However, if your fitrah is diluted, you cannot see the world as it is supposed to be seen despite the knowledge that you gain. If you have a clean heart, and you get the knowledge around you, you will see it in its reality.
Hence people with a corrupted fitrah cannot undertand tauhid (monotheism). Only with a pure fitrah can you see the Oneness of Allah. The urge of shukr is like how a child’s sense of shukr towards the mother. As he grows, he starts to have friends, relatives. and know the universe. When the urge of shukr is there, some of them start thanking the monkey, the cow, the sun and so on. This is all incomplete until the person recognizes that this whole universe is created by one Being. When we do things to filth our fitrah, we become deaf, dumb and blind as Allah mentions in Surah al-Baqarah. These people will not return because their fitrah is dead. Thus Allah says He seals their hearts (khatam Allahu ala qulubihim). They have hearts, but they can’t see with their heart.
The Heart is Dominant Over the Brain
If the brain is smart but the heart is jealous, the brain interprets everything according to that jealousy. The brain merely calculates what the hearts see. “They have hearts that have no understanding”. For them, good and bad is measured in terms of pleasure and pain. This is hedonism. The pop culture around us promulgates such an ethic of pain as bad and happiness as good.
When Allah says they have eyes that cannot see, it is referring to their hearts. Abu Jahl had clear eyesight, but his heart is the one that was blind. They are like animals. Rather, they are worse than animals. They have reached a point of no return. We have to be vigilant that we do not corrupt our soul with sin to the point of no return. This is the state of the soul of people in the global corridors of power to utter such statements as the lives of innocent Palestinians being akin to coackroaches who “we should just step on.” How can there be no hellfire for such people as these whose hearts cannot see? Clearly, Allah has set hellfire for such people of inhumanity.
The Punishment of Hellfire Purifies Your Sins
As for those who have not reached perfection that Allah SWT wanted, the hellfire for them is a source of purification. Even in fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), we know that fire purifies. You take the skin of an animal, tan it, and it becomes pure. Thus, we are tormented in hellfire so that when we enter jannah, our hearts are like the purified ones. For example, there will be no idle talk in jannah, this is such a pure state of fitrah the average Muslim will attain after the “purification” of hellfire. Note, however, that hellfire is a most severe punishment that nobody can bear for even a moment.
Some ahadith point to the fact that the hellfire will ask when people are thrown in it, “Is there any more humans?” Jahannam will never be full. It will constantly ask Allah, “Is there more?” Then Allah puts His Foot in the hellfire, and the hellfire will say enough. Some ulama like Ibn Taymiyyah says this is the justice of Allah. Ibn Arabi has a similar opinion.
At that moment, the hellfire will be made full by this act of Allah. People with no iman will go into a state of non-existence. After all that punishment, like what Ibn Arabi says, maybe because of Allah’s mercy, he will put them in jannah. This is however not the popular opinion but so we know there is also this opinion and Allah knows best. Most ulama say the people of hellfire will be put into a state of non existence. There is also a third opinion which says hellfire is forever and jannah is forever. What is meant in this opinion is that the abodes of hellfire and paradise is forever but the people will either end up in Jannah or, as for the ones who still deny Allah, will cease to exist.
However, the essential message is that nobody will want to be in hellfire. The Hereafter is such that somebody who is suffering so much in this world, when Allah puts them in jannah, he will forget all of that suffering. When Allah puts a rich person in hellfire, he forgets all the luxury he had in this world.
Surah Al-Mulk begins with tabarakal lazi biyadihil mulk. So blessed is in whose hand is kingship. He has the ability to do all things. Here, qadr also means measurement. So Allah has measured everything, the qudrah of everything. The one who created death and created life. He created death before he created life. Because death is not a state of non-existence. Death is a state of existence in a different form. Like water heated into vapor.
He made life and death, to see who amongst you does the best deeds. The One who created the seven heavens one above another. You will never find in the creation of Allah any faults. Then Allah says, look into space, do you see any faults? And Allah says look again. Your eyes will come back tired, but you will not find fault in Allah’s creation.
The sky is dunya, these galaxies are all as-sama ad-dunya. Adna means closest, worthlest, smallest. Masabih is the bright starts etc. We made the starts hit the shaitan. Then Allah says those who deny their rabb, their caretaker, for them is the punishment of the hellfire. and what a bad returning place to go.
As they go down into the pit of the hellfire, you will be hearing the hellfire as if snatching you in. Why? Has no one come to warn you about this hellfire? You ignored, pretended it did not exist? Yes of course.
All it takes to get out of hellfire is only if we actually listened. If only we used our brain, we would have not been of the people of the hellfire. You did not listen to sincere advice. What Islam has to say is simply common sense. It is so much common sense, its like the analogy of when you are in a great palace, and you are sitting, waiting for your food. Someone is coming serving your food, everything is provided, would you deny there is a great owner of that palace?
In surah Ibrahim, in the last scene of the hellfire, when everyone is finally in hellfire, they will ask angels how to get out, they will try to escape, but not able to. They will then plead Allah, though that will not help. they will all gather together and see iblis (known as Lucifer in the Biblical tradition) in the hellfire. They say to iblis you are the one who’s the real culprit. This happens because when you are tormented in hellfire, you want to have someone to blame for such a punishment. So everyone assembles in front of iblis, and after everyone’s done everything, pleaded all they can, Iblis says, “Allah promised you a true promise, I also promised you but I can’t keep my promise. I had no power and control over you. I called you and you answered. I gave you waswasa. a thought. and you answered me. i have no control over you and you have no control over me. I do kufr, I deny you, reject you for all sins you did before.” Then Allah says “Indeed for the wrongdoers is a very severe punishment.” When all that it takes for you to avoid this is common sense.
You see everything has distance with Allah. Angels have fixed ranks before Allah. The sun can’t get closer to Allah. But Adam was given the choice. This is statement of Ibn Abbas, that Adam was given choice to come as close as he wanted with Allah. But it comes with a danger. That if you don’t struggle to get as close as you can to Allah, there is the danger of the opposite, Hellfire. This is the ni’mah that is given to no one. So you have this blessing, and you will be punished if you dont use this blessing right.
And at the end of the day, we are His property. To Him will we all return.
