Jahannam
Hell in Islam refers to an afterlife place of punishment for evildoers. The punishments are carried in accordance with the degree of evil one has done during his life. In the Quran, Jahannam is also referred as al-Nar , Jaheem , Hutamah , Haawiyah , Ladthaa, Sa’eer , Saqar, also the names of different gates to hell. Just like the Islamic heavens, the common belief holds that Jahannam coexists with the temporary world.
Suffering in hell is both physical and spiritual, and varies according to the sins of the condemned. As described in the Quran, Hell has many levels ; a blazing fire, boiling water, and the Tree of Zaqqum. Not all Muslims and scholars agree whether hell is an eternal destination or whether some or even all of the condemned will eventually be forgiven and allowed to enter paradise.
Quran
The Quran uses a number of different terms and phrases to refer to hell. Al-nar is used 125 times, jahannam 77 times, jaheem 26 times.One collection of Quranic descriptions of hell include "rather specific indications of the tortures of the Fire": flames that crackle and roar; fierce, boiling waters scorching wind, and black smoke, roaring and boiling as if it would burst with rage. Its wretched inhabitants sigh and wail, their scorched skins are constantly exchanged for new ones so that they can taste the torment anew, drink water and though death appears on all sides they cannot die. They are linked together in chains of 70 cubits, wearing pitch for clothing and fire on their faces, have boiling water that will be poured over their heads, melting their insides as well as their skins, and hooks of iron to drag them back should they try to escape, their remorseful admissions of wrongdoing and pleading for forgiveness are in vain.
The description of Jahannam as a place of blazing fire appears in almost every verse in the Quran describing hell.
Jahannam is described as being located below heaven, having seven gates, each for a specific group or at least a different "portion" or "party" of sinners. The Quran also mentions wrongdoers having "degrees according to their deeds" which some scholars believe refers to the seven gates. The one mention of levels of hell is that hypocrites will be found in its very bottom.
The Quran mentions three different sources of food in hell:
- Ḍari‘, a dry desert plant that is full of thorns and fails to relieve hunger or sustain a person ;
- ghislin, which is only mentioned once ;
- zaqqum'' is mentioned three times.
Hadith
In book 87 Hadith 155, "Interpretation of Dreams" of Sahih al-Bukhari, Muhammad talked of angels each with "a mace of iron" who guarded hell, and then expanded on the Quran's discourse describing Jahannam by recounting it as a place that
"was built inside like a well and it had side posts like those of a well, and beside each post there was an angel carrying an iron mace. I saw therein many people hanging upside down with iron chains, and I recognized therein some men from the Quraish".
Some prominent people in, or destined to arrive in, hell mentioned in the Hadith and Quran are: Fir'awn, the wives of Nuh and Lut, and Abu Lahab and his wife.
According to Muhammad, the majority of the inhabitants of hell will be women, due to an inclination for gossip, conjecture and idle chatter. However, other hadith imply that the majority of people in paradise will be women. Al-Qurtubi reconciled the hadith that stated that the majority of the inhabitants of Jahannam would be women by suggesting that many of the women that will form the majority in Hell will be among the sinners that would stay there merely temporarily and would then be brought out of Hell into Paradise; thereafter the majority of the people of Paradise would be women.
Other people mentioned in Hadith include, but are not limited to, the mighty, the proud and the haughty.
According to one hadith, out of every one thousand people entering into the afterlife, nine hundred and ninety-nine of them will end up in the fire. There are a few scholarly interpretations of this Hadith. One view is that the idea of these Hadiths is to, rather than state a particular number, convey the notion that there will be a large disparity between the number of nonbelivers and believers who enter Jahannam.
Sahih Muslim quotes Muhammad as saying that suicides would reside in Jahannam forever.
According to Hadith collector Muwatta Imam Malik, Muhammad said: "Truly a man utters words to which he attaches no importance, and by them he falls into the fire of Jahannam."
Al-Bukhari in book 72:834 added to the list of dwellers in Jahannam: "The people who will receive the severest punishment from Allah will be the picture makers". Use of utensils made of precious metals could also land its users in Jahannam: "A person who drinks from a silver vessel brings the fire of Jahannam into his belly". As could starving a cat to death: "A woman was tortured and was put in Hell because of a cat which she had kept locked till it died of hunger."
At least one hadith indicates the importance of faith in avoiding hell, stating: "... no one will enter Hell in whose heart is an atom's weight of faith.”
The Hadiths introduce punishments, reasons and revelations not mentioned in the Quran. In both Quranic verses and hadiths, "the Fire" is "a gruesome place of punishment that is always contrasted with Jannah, "the Garden". Whatever characteristic "the Garden offered, the Fire usually offered the opposite conditions." Several hadith describes a part of hell that is extremely cold rather than hot, known as Zamhareer.
According to Bukhari, lips are cut by scissors. Other traditions added flogging. A Uighur manuscript also mentions drowning, stoning and falling from heights. Based on hadiths, the sinners are thought to carry signs in accordance with their sins.
Eschatological manuals
In addition to the Quran and hadith are "Eschatological manuals". These were written after the other two sources and developed descriptions of Jahannam "in more deliberate ways". While the Quran and hadith tend to describe punishments that nonbelievers are forced to give themselves, the manuals illustrate external and more dramatic punishment, through devils, scorpions, and snakes.Manuals dedicated solely to the subject of Jahannam include Ibn Abi al-Dunya's Sifat al-nar, and al-Maqdisi's Dhikr al-nar. Other manuals—such as texts by al-Ghazali and the 12th-century scholar Qadi Ayyad -- "dramatise life in the Fire", and present "new punishments, different types of sinners, and the appearance of a multitude of devils," to exhort the faithful to piety. His hell has a structure with a specific place for each type of sinners.
, ca. 1238. Shown are the 'Arsh, pulpits for the righteous, seven rows of angels, Gabriel, A'raf, the Pond of Abundance, al-Maqam al-Mahmud, Mizan, As-Sirāt, Jahannam and Marj al-Jannat.
Al Ghazali, in his book The Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife, describes and discusses the "wrongdoer" and graphic, sometimes violent scenes of Jahannam.
According to theologian Al-Ghazali, Afterlife will start with the "Day of the Arising" and a trumpet blast which will wake the dead from their graves. "The Perspiration"
—when all created beings, including men, angels, jinn, devils and animals gather and sweat unshaded from the sun—will follow. Sinners and nonbelievers will suffer and sweat longer on this day, which lasts for "50,000 years". God will judge each soul, accept no excuses, and examine every act and intention—no matter how small. It is believed those whose good deeds outweigh the bad will be assigned to Jannah, and those whose bad deeds outweigh the good to Jahannam. Finally the souls will traverse over hellfire via the bridge of sirat. For sinners, it is believed the bridge will be thinner than hair and sharper than the sharpest sword, impossible to walk on without falling below to arrive at their destination.
According to Leor Halevi, between the moment of death and the time of their burial ceremony, "the spirit of a deceased Muslim takes a quick journey to Heaven and Hell, where it beholds visions of the bliss and torture awaiting humanity at the end of days".
In 'The Soul's Journey After Death, Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya, a theologian in the 14th century, writes explicitly of punishments faced by sinners and unbelievers in Jahannam. These are directly related to the wrongdoer's earthly transgressions.
Concepts of Jahannam
Jahanam is depicted as an abyss with scorching winds and the As-Sirat bridge above. Its gates are guardianed by Maalik and his subordinated angels. From the depth of Jahannam grows Zaqqum a tree with fruits looking like the heads of demons. Sinners will be tormented by the Zabaniyya. and talk of a road that leads to hell.Locating hell
Traditionally, the layers of hell were thought of corresponding with the layers of earth. Scholars thought about different ideas, where the entrance to hell could be located. Some believed the sulphourus well in Hadramawt, allegedly haunted by the souls of the wicked, to be the entrance to the underworld. Others considered the entrance in the valley of Hinnom. In a Persian work, the entry to hell is located in a gorge called Wadi Jahannam in Afghanistan.Eternal or temporary
Several verses in the Quran mention the eternal nature of hell or both heaven and hell., the damned will linger in hell for ages. Two verses in the Quran emphasize that consignment to hell is horrible and eternal — but include the caveat "except as God wills it". Some scholars considered this an escape from the eternity of hell. Quran suggests that Jahannam will be destroyed some day, so that its inhabitants may either be rehabilitated or cease to exist. The concept of hell's annihilation is referred to as fanāʾ al-nār.
The Ulama were not in agreement on whether abodes in hell last forever or not. Egyptian Hanafi author al-Tahawi writes that God punishes the sinners in proportions to their offense in accordance with his justice, afterwards release them in accordance with his mercy. Ahmad ibn Hanbal argues, the eternity of hell and paradise are proven by the Quran, although earths and heavens will perish. For Muʿtazilis, the eternity of paradise and hell posed a major problem, since they regard solely God as eternal. Ibn Taymiyya, during his lifetime controversial, but important scholar in contemporary scholarship, argued for a limited abode in hell, based on the Quran and God's attribute of mercy.
The common belief among Muslims is that duration in hell is temporary for Muslims but not for others, thus combining the concept of an eternal hell with that of the Christian Catholic concept of purgatory.
Sentience
Some scholars like al-Ghazali and the thirteenth-century Muslim scholar Al-Qurtubi describe hell as a gigantic sentient being, rather than a place. In Paradise and Hell-fire in Imam al Qurtubi, Qurtubi writes, "On the Day of Judgment, hell will be brought with seventy thousand reins. A single rein will be held by seventy thousand angels...". Based on verse 67:7 and verse 50:30 Jahannam inhales and has "breaths". Islamicity notes "the animalistic nature" of "The Fire" in Quranic verse 25:12: "When the Hellfire sees them from a distant place, they will hear its fury and roaring". According to a hadith, God will ask Jahannam, if it is full and Jahannam answers: "Are there any more ?"Traditional position
Jahannam is traditionally divided into seven stages. According to one common tradition the layers of hell are:- A fire for sinners among the Muslims
- Inferno interim for the sinner among the Christians
- Provisional destination for sinners among the Jewish
- The burning fire for renegades
- A place for witches and fortunetellers
- Furnace for the disbelievers
- A bottomless abyss for hypocrites, like the Pharaoh and people who disbelieves after Isa's table or Muslims who are outwardly believers but inwardly infidels.
- A dim, inhabited by mankind and jinn.
- Basit, the prison of winds, from where the winds come from.
- Thaqil, the antechamber of hell, in which dwell men with the mouth of a dog, the ears of a goat and the cloven hoof of an ox.
- Batih, a valley through which flows a stream of boiling sulphur to torment the wicked. The dweller in this valley have no eyes and in place of feet, have wings.
- Hayn, in which serpents of enormous size devour the infidels.
- Masika/Sijjin, the office where sins are recorded and where souls are tormented by scorpions of the size of mules.
- As-Saqar and Athara the home of Iblis, who is chained in the midst of the rebel angels, his hand fastened one in front of and the other behind him, except when set free by God to chastise his demons.
Sufism
According to ibn 'Arabi, the Hell and the Heaven refer, in fact, to distance from, and proximity to, God, respectively. The Hell which is home to wrong-doers is their conception of their distance from God, and the painful punishment and humility is that of distance. Such a distance is caused by one's indulgence in their natural desires and the illusion of things other than God as existent. But such a distance is only illusory, since everything is a form of the degrees of the Divine Existence, and thus, everything other than God is but illusion. According to ibn 'Arabi, the Hell and the Heaven are psychological states of the soul manifestated after its separation from the body. In later centuries, Sufis did not even find it acceptable for one to ask for the Heaven in the hope of meeting God or to do good in fear of hell.
Ahmadiyya
According to Ahmadiyya Islam, afterlife places are images of man's own spiritual life during lifetime, the fire a manifestation of his sins. The main purpose of Jahannam is therefore regarded to purge man from his evil deeds. Punishment therefore exists for perpetual spiritual advancement of human. Muslims and Non-Muslims both may enter or avoid hell depending on their deeds.Comparison with other religions
Christianity
Bible
Some of the Quranic parables describing the sufferings in hell resemble those of the Christian New Testament.The Book of Revelation describes a "lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death", which most Christians believe to be a description of Hell, comparable to Jahannam as "the fire". While the Quran describes Jahannam as having seven levels, each for different sins, the Bible, speaks of the "lowest Hell ". It also refers to a "bottomless pit", comparable to the lowest layer of Jahannam in most Sunni traditions.
Christian popular culture
Like Hell often depicted in Christian culture in Islam, hell is the seat of the devil. Al-Tha'alibis in his Qisas Al-Anbiya and Al-Suyutis Al-Hay’a as-samya fi l-hay’a as-sunmya describe Iblis as chained to the bottom of hell, commanding his hosts of demons from there. Also in the poetries of Al-Ma'arri, Iblis is the king of Jahannam. These depictions of Iblis as lord of hell simultaneously chained at its very bottom influenced Dante's representation of Lucifer and gave rise to the Christian depiction of hell as the seat of the devil. Inferno by Dante also shares the Islamic idea of dividing hell into multiple "circles". According to the Divine Comedy, each layer corresponding to another sin with Satan inside a frozen area at the very bottom. As evident from late Ottoman poetry, the notion of Iblis ruling hell, remained in Islamic tradition until modern times. In one of Ğabdulla Tuqay's works, Iblis' current abode in hell is compared to working in factories during Industrial Revolution. When Iblis gets weary about hell, he remembers his time in heaven.One should note, even if Iblis is assumed as the temporary ruler of Jahannam, his reign depends on the power of God and hell is still a place of punishment even for the devil. As with Christian popular understanding of hell, ʿKitāb al-ʿAẓama, a popular cultural work, describes hell inhabited not only by the Zabaniyya, but also by devils, dwelling in the fourth layer of hell and rise from coffins to torture the sinners.
Christian Liberalism
In modern times some Christians and Christian denominations have rejected the concept of hell as a place of suffering and torment for sinners on the grounds that it is incompatible with a loving God. There are also symbolic and more merciful interpretations of hell among Muslims. Muslims Mouhanad Khorchide and Faheem Younus write that since the Quran states that God has "prescribed to himself mercy", and "... for him whose scales are light. Hell will be his mother," suffering in Jahannam is not a product of vengeance and punishment, but a temporary phenomenon as the sinner is "transformed" in the process of confronting the truth about themselves. The idea of annihilation of hell was already introduced earlier by traditionalistic scholars, such as Ibn Taimiyya.Judeo-Islamic sources
Arabic texts written by Jews in Judeo-Arabic script also feature descriptions of Jahannam. These seem to have been strongly influenced by the Islamic environment in which they were composed, and may be considered as holding many of the same concepts as those today identified with Islamic eschatology. A Judeo-Arabic version of a popular narrative known as The Story of the Skull offers a detailed picture of the concept of Jahannam. Here, Malak al-Mawt and a number of sixty angels seize the soul of the dead and begin torturing him with fire and iron hooks. Two black angels named Nākir and Nakīr strike the dead with a whip of fire and take him to the lowest level of Jahannam. Then, they order the Earth to swallow and crush the dead inside its womb, saying: "Seize him and take revenge, because he has stolen Allāh's wealth and worshipped others than Him". Following this, the dead is brought before the dais of God where a herald calls for throwing the dead into Jahannam. There he is put in shackles sixty cubits long and into a leather sackcloth full of snakes and scorpions.The Judeo-Arabic legend in question explains that the dead is set free from the painful perogatory after twenty-four years. In a final quote alluding to Isaiah 58.8, the narrative states that "nothing will help Man on the last day except good and loving actions, deeds of giving charity to widows, orphans, the poor and the unfortunate."
Some Jewish sources such as Jerahmeel provide descriptive detail of hell-like places, divided into multiple levels; usually Sheol, which is translated as a grave or pit, is the place where humans descend upon death.