Mukhtasar Muslim

Sayyiduna Abu Sa'id Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Those people who are the inhabitants of Hell (i.e., those who are to remain there forever, such as disbelievers and polytheists), they will neither die nor live. But some people who will enter Hell due to their sins, Allah Almighty will cause them to die until they become burnt and turn into coal. Then permission for intercession will be granted for them, and they will be brought forth in groups and spread out on the rivers of Paradise, and it will be commanded: O people of Paradise! Pour water over them. Then they will grow just as a seed grows in the soil that is brought by flowing water. (Upon hearing this) a person said: O Messenger of Allah! (It seems) you have lived in the wilderness (that is why you know that the seed grows well in the soil gathered by the flow of water).

Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) and Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas’ud (may Allah be pleased with them both) narrate that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: The last person to enter Paradise will be a man who will walk, then stumble and fall, and the fire of Hell will keep burning him. When he crosses Hell, he will turn back and look at it and say, “Blessed is the One Who has saved me from you (Hell). Surely, what Allah has given me, He has not given to anyone among the earlier or later people.” Then a tree will be shown to him, and he will say, “O Lord, bring me near to this tree so that I may be in its shade and drink its water.” Allah will say, “O son of Adam! If I grant you this request, will you ask for anything else?” He will say, “No, O my Lord!” and will promise that he will not ask for anything else. And Allah will accept his excuse because he will see such a blessing that he cannot be patient over it (that is, man is impatient; when he is afflicted with hardship and sees comfort, he cannot help but desire it). Eventually, Allah will bring him near to that tree, and he will remain in its shade and drink its water. Then another tree, better than the first, will be shown to him. He will say, “O Lord, bring me near to this tree so that I may be in its shade and drink its water, and I will not ask for anything else.” Allah will say, “O son of Adam! Did you not promise that you would not ask for anything else? And if I bring you near to this tree, will you not ask for more?” He will agree, “No, I will not ask for anything else.” Allah will excuse him because he cannot be patient over the blessing he sees. Then Allah will bring him near to that tree, and he will remain in its shade and drink its water. Then a tree will be shown to him that will be at the gate of Paradise and will be better than the previous two trees. He will say, “O my Lord! Bring me near to this tree so that I may remain in its shade and drink its water; now I will not ask for anything else.” Allah will say, “O son of Adam! Did you not admit that you would not ask for anything else?” He will say, “Indeed, I admitted, but now fulfill this request of mine, and I will not ask for anything else.” Allah will excuse him because he will see such blessings that he cannot be patient over them. Eventually, Allah will bring him near to that tree. When he reaches that tree, he will hear the voices of the people of Paradise and will say, “O my Lord! Admit me into Paradise.” Allah will say, “O son of Adam! What will satisfy you? (That is, when will your desire end, and when will you stop asking repeatedly?) Are you pleased if I give you as much as the whole world and as much again?” He will say, “O my Lord! Are You mocking me while You are the Lord of all the worlds?” Then Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas’ud (may Allah be pleased with him) began to laugh and said to the people, “Do you not ask me why I am laughing?” The people asked, “Why are you laughing?” He said, “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) also laughed in the same way (after narrating this hadith).” The people asked, “O Messenger of Allah! Why do you laugh?” He replied, “I laugh because of the Lord of the worlds laughing. When that servant will say, ‘Are You mocking me while You are the Lord of all the worlds?’ the Lord will laugh (at his naivety and foolishness), and Allah will say, ‘I am not mocking you (mockery does not befit Me; it befits the servants), rather I can do whatever I wish.’”

Abu al-Zubair narrated from Sayyiduna Jabir bin Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) that Sayyiduna Jabir bin Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) was asked about the state in which people will come on the Day of Resurrection. He said: We will come on the Day of Resurrection in this way, meaning above all people. Then all the nations will be called with their idols and deities—first one nation, then another nation. After that, our Lord will come and say: Whom are you waiting for? (That is, addressing the Ummah of Muhammad, peace be upon him.) They will say: We are waiting for our Lord. Allah Almighty will say: I am your Master. They will say: When we see You, then (we will know). Then Allah will appear to them smiling and will walk with them, and all the people will be behind Him, and every person, whether he is a hypocrite or a believer, will be given a light. The people will be with Him, and on the bridge over Hell there will be hooks and thorns, which will seize whomsoever Allah wills. After that, the light of the hypocrites will be extinguished, and the believers will be saved. So the first group of believers (that will be) their faces will be like the full moon of the fourteenth night (and that group) will be of seventy thousand people, for whom there will be no reckoning. After them, the next group will be like a shining star. Then the next group will be less than them, until the time of intercession comes, and people will intercede, and from Hell will be taken out even that person who said La ilaha illallah and in whose heart there was even a grain's worth of goodness and virtue. These people will be placed in the courtyards of Paradise, and the people of Paradise will sprinkle water on them, (by which) they will grow just as a plant grows in the flow of water. And all their burning and pain will be gone. Then they will ask Allah, and each one will be given as much as the whole world, rather, ten times more than that.

It is narrated from Yazid bin Suhaib Faqir who says: A certain belief of the Khawarij had taken root in my heart (and that was that one who commits a major sin will remain in Hell forever, and whoever enters Hell will never come out of it). So, with a large group, we set out with the intention of performing Hajj. After that, we would spread the doctrine of the Khawarij. When we reached Madinah, we saw that Sayyiduna Jabir bin Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) was sitting by a pillar, narrating the hadiths of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) to the people. Suddenly, he mentioned the people of Hell, so I said, "O Companion of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)! What hadith are you narrating? Allah Almighty says: 'Our Lord! Whomever You admit to the Fire, You have surely disgraced him' (Aal-e-Imran: 192), and also, 'Whenever they wish to get out from it, they will be returned to it' (As-Sajda: 20). And now, what are you saying?" He said, "Have you read the Qur'an?" I said, "Yes." He then said, "Have you heard of the rank of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) (i.e., the rank that Allah Almighty will grant him on the Day of Resurrection)?" I said, "Yes, I have heard." He said, "This is for Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), because of which Allah Almighty will take out from Hell whomever He wills." Then he described the state of the Bridge (Sirat) and how people will cross over it, and I fear that I may not remember it exactly, but he said that some people, after entering Hell, will be taken out from it, and they will come out like ebony wood (blackened and burnt). Then they will go to a river in Paradise, bathe there, and come out as white as paper. Hearing this, we returned and said, "Woe to you! Does this old man lie against the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)?" (i.e., he never lies, so your doctrine is wrong). And all of us abandoned our doctrine except for one person. Or as Abu Nu'aim Fadl bin Dukayn (the teacher of Imam Muslim's teacher) narrated.

Narrated from Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: Four men will be taken out from Hell and will be presented before Allah, the Blessed and Exalted. One of them will look towards Hell and say, "O my Lord! When You have saved me from this (Hell), then do not send me back into it." Allah, the Exalted, will grant him salvation from Hell.