Table of the Mecca Pilgrimage of 1880.
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Hughes, Thomas Patrick
“We will surely cast him into Saqar.
“And who shall teach thee what Saqar is?
“It leaveth nought, it spareth nought,
“Blackening the skin.
“Over it are nineteen angels.
“None but angels have we made guardians of the fire (aṣḥābu ʾn-nār): nor have we made this to be their number but to perplex the unbelievers, and that they who possess the Scriptures may be certain of the Truth, and that they who believe may increase their faith;
“And that they to whom the Scriptures have been given, and the believers, may not doubt;
“And that the infirm of heart and the unbelievers may say, What meaneth God by this parable?
“Thus God misleadeth whom He will, and whom He will He doth guide aright: and none knoweth the armies of thy Lord but Himself: and this is no other than a warning to mankind.”
“Hath the tidings of the day that shall overshadow reached thee?
“Downcast on that day shall be the countenances of some,
“Travailing and worn,
“Burnt at the scorching fire,
“Made to drink from a fountain fiercely boiling.
“No food shall they have but the fruit of ẓarīʿ (a bitter thorn),
“Which shall not fatten nor appease their hunger.”
“Hell (Jahannam) truly shall be a place of snares,
“The home of transgressors,
“To abide therein ages;
“No coolness shall they taste therein nor any drink,
“Save boiling water and running sores;
“Meet recompence!
“For they looked not forward to their account;
“And they gave the lie to our signs, charging them with falsehood;
“But we noted and wrote down all:
“ ‘Taste this then: and we will give you increase of nought but torment.’ ”
The above are all Madīnah Sūrahs composed in the earlier stage of Muḥammad’s mission. The allusions to hell in the Makkan Sūrahs are brief and are in every case directed against unbelievers in the Prophet’s mission, and not against sin; e.g. Sūrah ix. 69, “God hath promised to the hypocrites (i.e. dissemblers as far as Islām was concerned), men and women, and unto the unbelievers, hell-fire to dwell therein for ever.”
The teaching of Muḥammad in the Traditions is much more specific, but it is impossible to assign a date for these traditions, even assuming them to be authentic. They are given on the authority of al-Buk͟hārī and Muslim (Mishkāt, book xxiii. ch. xv.):—
“ ‘The fire of the world is one part of seventy parts of hell fire.’ It was said, ‘O Prophet of God! verily the fire of the world would be sufficient for punishing.’ The Prophet replied, ‘Hell-fire has been made more than the fire of the world by sixty-nine parts, every part of which is like the fire of the world.’ ”
“Verily, the easiest of the infernals in punishment, is he who shall have both his shoes and thongs of them of fire, by which the brains of his head boil, like the boiling of a copper furnace; and he will not suppose that anyone is more severely punished than himself; whilst verily, he is the least so.”
“On the Day of Resurrection, the most luxurious of the world will be brought, and dipped once into the fire; after that it will be said, ‘O child of Adam, did you ever see any good, or did comfort ever pass by you in the world?’ He will say, ‘I swear by God I never saw any good, nor did comfort ever come near me.’ And a man of the severest distresses and troubles in the world will be brought into paradise; and it will be said to him, ‘O son of Adam, did you ever see any trouble, and did distress ever come to you in the world?’ And he will say, ‘I swear by God, O my Lord, I never suffered troubles in the world, nor did I ever see hardship.’ ”
“There are some of the infernals that will be taken by the fire up to their ankles, and some up to their knees, and some up to their waist, and some up to their necks.”
“Hell-fire burnt a thousand years so that it became red, and burnt another thousand years till it became white; after that it burnt a thousand years till it became black; then hell fire is black and dark, and never has any light.”
“Verily, hot water will be poured upon the heads of the infernals, and will penetrate into their bellies, and will cut to pieces everything within them; so that they will come out at their feet; and this is the meaning of the word of God, ‘Boiling water shall be poured on their heads, and everything in their bellies shall be dissolved thereby,’ after that, they will be made as they were.”
“The infernals shall be drenched with yellow water, draught after draught, and it will be brought to their mouths and they will be disgusted at it; and when very near, it will scorch their faces, and when they drink it it will tear their entrails to pieces. God says, ‘They who must dwell for ever in hell-fire, will have the boiling water given them to drink which shall burst their bowels’; and God will say, ‘If the infidels complain of thirst, they shall be assisted with water like molten copper, which will fry their faces; it will be a shocking beverage.’ ”
For most of these circumstances relating to hell and the state of the damned, Muḥammad was in all probability indebted to the Jews and, in part, to the Magians, both of whom agree in making seven distinct apartments in hell. (Nishmat hayim, f. 32; Gemar. Arubin, f. 19; Zohar. ad. Exod. xxvi. 2, &c. and Hyde, de Rel. Vet. Pers., p. 245), though they vary in other particulars.
The former place an angel as a guard over each of these infernal apartments, and suppose he will intercede for the miserable wretches there imprisoned, who will openly acknowledge the justice of God in their condemnation. (Midrash, Yalkut Shemuni, pt. 11, f. 116.) They also teach that the wicked will suffer a diversity of punishments, and that by intolerable cold (Zohar. ad. Exod. xix.) as well as heat, and that their faces shall become black (Yalkut Shemuni, ubi sup. f. 86); and believe those of their own religion shall also be punished in hell hereafter according to their crimes (for they hold that few or none will be found exactly righteous as to deserve no punishment at all), but will soon be delivered thence, when they shall be sufficiently purged from their sins by their father Abraham, or at the intercession of him or some other of the prophets. (Nishmat hayim, f. 82; Gemar. Arubin, f. 19.)
The Magians allow but one angel to preside over all the seven hells, who is named by them Vanānd Yezād, and, as they teach, assigns punishments proportionate to each person’s crimes, restraining also the tyranny and excessive cruelty of the devil, who would, if left to himself, torment the damned beyond their sentence. (Hyde, de Rel. Vet. Pers. p. 182.) Those of this religion do also mention and describe various kinds of torments wherewith the wicked will be punished in the next life; among which, though they reckon extreme cold to be one, yet they do not admit fire, out of respect, as it seems, to that element, which they take to be the representation of the divine nature, and therefore they rather choose to describe the damned souls as suffering by other kinds of punishment, such as an intolerable stink, the stinging and biting of serpents and wild beasts, the cutting and tearing of the flesh by the devils, excessive hunger and thirst, and the like. (See Eundem, ibid., p. 399; Sale’s Pre. Dis.)