ALLAH’S FIRE IS FIERY (I)

Never! He will certainly be thrown into hutama (the crushing fire). And what may let you know what the crushing fire is? It is Allah’s kindled fire, that will peep into the hearts. It will be closed on them. In outstretched columns. (Q 104: 4-9).

This is the punishment set aside for the class of unbelievers who backbite, hurl insults and anyone who accumulates wealth without giving out the poor due. Such people will be accomodated in hutama which is a fire that belongs to Allah.

Hutama is just one of the seven levels of hell fire with which Allah will punish sinners on the day of judgement. According to Ibn Juraij, the levels of hell are Jahannam, which is the topmost, just below it is Ladha, followed by Hutama, Sa’ir, Saqar, Jahim  and Hawiya in that order. These levels are referred to as gates elsewhere meaning that each level has a gate through which will enter a specific class of sinners.  Narrating the convesation that took place between Allah and Iblis after the latter refused to follow the devine instruction to prostrate to Adam (alaihissalam), Allah says:

Verily my servants are such that you have no power over them except those of the deviators who will follow you. And hellfire  is the promised place for them all. It has seven gates. For each gate there is a group apportioned from them. (Q15: 42-44)

As to which group of sinners will occupy which level of Allah’s fire, it is agreed by all scholars that Muslim sinners will be on the topmost level which is the least horrific. The least of them in punishment is the one whose feet shall be barely touching fire but whose brain shall be boiling from the heat. The hypocrites will occupy the lowest stratum. (Q4:145). The five levels in between shall be occupied by different categories of non-believers.

Since hell fire is beyond human reach, the only single way of getting its description is divine revelation. The nature of Allah’s fire including its fuel, different types of punishment, the level of heat, nature of chains, size, food and drinks of its inmates have all been described in the Qur’an and Sunnah.

The fuel of hell fire is human beings and stones. Allah says, “…guard yourselves against fire, the fuel of which will be men and stones. It has been prepared for disbelievers” (Q2:24). In another verse Allah says, “O you who believe, save yourselves and your families from a fire, the fuel of which is human beings and stones, appointed on which are angels, stern and severe, who do not disobey Allah in what He orders them and do whatever they are ordered to do.

Different types of punishments have been reported in the Hadith by Samurah bn Jundub (May Allah be pleased with him) who said: The Messenger of Allah (PBUH) very often used to ask his Companions, "Do any one of you has seen a dream?'' So dreams would be narrated to him by those whom Allah willed to relate. One day he (PBUH) said, "Last night I had a vision in which two men (angels) came to me and woke me up and said to me, `Proceed!' I set out with them and we came across a man lying down, and behold, another man was standing over his head, holding a big rock. Behold, he was throwing the rock at the man's head, smashing it. When he struck him, the stone rolled away and he went after it to get it, and no sooner had he returned to this man, his head was healed and restored to its former condition. The thrower (of the rock) then did the same as he had done before. I said to my two companions, `Subhan-Allah! Who are these?' They said: `Proceed, proceed.' So we proceeded and came to a man lying in a prone position and another man standing over his head with an iron hook, and behold, he would put the hook in one side of the man's mouth and tear off that side of his face to the back (of the neck), and similarly tear his nose from front to back, and his eyes from front to back. Then he turned to the other side of the man's face and did just as he has done with the first side. He had hardly completed that (second) side when the first returned to its normal state. I said to my two companions, `Subhan-Allah! Who are these?' They said, `Proceed, proceed.' So we proceeded and came across something like a Tannur (a kind of baking oven, a pit usually clay-lined for baking bread).'' I (the narrator) think the Prophet (PBUH) said, "In that oven there was much noise and voices.'' The Prophet (PBUH) added, "We looked into it and found naked men and women, and behold, a flame of fire was reaching to them from underneath, and when it reached them they cried loudly. I asked, `Who are these?' They said to me, `Proceed, proceed.' And so we proceeded and came across a river.'' I (the narrator) think he said, "-- red like blood.'' The Prophet (PBUH) added, "And behold, in the river there was a man swimming, and on the bank there was a man who had collected many stones. Behold, while the other man was swimming, he went near him. The former opened his mouth and the latter (on the bank) threw a stone into his mouth whereupon he went swimming again. Then again he (the former) returned to him (the latter), and every time the former returned, he opened his mouth, and the latter threw a stone into his mouth, (and so on) the performance was repeated. I asked my two companions, `Who are these?' They replied, `Proceed, proceed.' And we proceeded till we came to a man with a repulsive appearance, the most repulsive appearance you ever saw a man having! Beside him there was a fire, and he was kindling it and running around it. I asked my two companions, `Who is this (man).' They said to me, `Proceed, proceed!' So we proceeded till we reached a garden of deep green dense vegetation, having all sorts of spring colours. In the midst of the garden there was a very tall man, and I could hardly see his head because of his great height, and around him there were children in such a large number as I have never seen! I said to my two companions, `Who is this?' They replied, `Proceed, proceed.' So we proceeded till we came to a majestic, huge garden, greater and better than any garden I have ever seen! My two companions said to me, `Ascend up' and I ascended up.'' The Prophet (PBUH) added, "So we ascended till we reached a city built of gold and silver bricks, and we went to its gate and asked (the gatekeeper) to open the gate, and it was opened; and we entered the city and found in it men with one side of their bodies as handsome as the most handsome person you have ever seen, and the other side as ugly as the ugliest person you have ever seen! My two companions ordered those men to throw themselves into the river. Behold, there was a river flowing across (the city), and its water was like milk in whiteness. Those men went and threw themselves in it and then returned to us after the ugliness (of their bodies) had disappeared, and they came in the best shape.'' The Prophet (PBUH) further added, "My two companions said to me: `This place is the `Adn Jannah, and that is your place.' I raised up my sight, and behold, there I saw a palace like a white cloud! My two companions said to me, `That palace is your place,' I said to them, `May Allah bless you both! Let me enter it.' They replied, `As for now, you will not enter it, but you shall enter it (one day).' I said to them, `I have seen many wonders tonight. What does all that mean which I have seen?' They replied, `We will inform you: As for the first man you came upon, whose head was being smashed with the rock, he is the symbol of the one who studies the Qur'an and then neither recites it nor acts on its orders, and sleeps, neglecting the enjoined prayers. As for the man you came upon, whose sides of mouth, nostrils and eyes were torn off from front to back, he is the symbol of the man who goes out of his house in the morning and tells lies that are spread all over the world. And those naked men and women whom you saw in a construction resembling an oven, they are the adulterers and the adulteresses. And the man who was given a stone to swallow is the eater of Ar-Riba (usury), and the bad-looking man whom you saw near the fire, kindling it and going around it, is Malik, the gatekeeper of Hell, and the tall man you saw in the garden is (Prophet) Abraham, and the children around him are those who died upon Al-Fitrah (the Islamic Faith of Monotheism).''' The narrator added: Some Muslims asked the Prophet (PBUH) , "O Messenger of Allah! What about the children of Al-Mushrikun (i.e., polytheists, pagans, idolaters, and disbelievers in the Oneness of Allah and in His Messenger Muhammad (PBUH))?'' The Prophet (PBUH) replied, "And also the children of Al-Mushrikun.'' The Prophet (PBUH) added: "My two companions added, `The men you saw half handsome and half ugly were these people who had mixed an act that was good with another that was bad, but Allah forgave them'.'' (Bukhari)