Hell: Made Ready For The Unbelievers

For as many beauties and blessings as there are in the heaven, there is an equal amount of ugliness and torment in hell. The gulf that exists between believers and deniers in this world will reach its widest point in the hereafter. Those who denied or refused to submit to Allah, Who created them, gave them life and sent down His religion will be punished by eternal torment, unless Allah wills otherwise. Allah describes those who merit hell as follows in the Qur'an:

"If anyone contends with the Messenger even after guidance has been plainly conveyed to him, and follows a path other than that becoming to men of Faith, We shall leave him in the path he has chosen, and consign him to hell: an evil refuge." (Surat An-Nisa: 115)

Avoid those who take their religion to be mere play and amusement, and are deceived by the life of this world. But proclaim to them this truth: that every soul delivers itself to ruin by its own acts: it will find for itself no protector or intercessor except Allah: it may offer every ransom, (or reparation), but none will be accepted: such is the end of those who deliver themselves to ruin by their own acts: they shall have only boiling water to drink and shall be sternly punished: for they persisted in rejecting Allah." (Surat Al-An'am: 70)

"And there are those who bury gold and silver and do not spend it in the way of Allah: announce to them a most grievous penalty. The Day will come when heat will be produced out of that wealth in the fire of hell, and their foreheads, their flanks, and their backs, will be branded with it. They will be told: This is the treasure which you buried for yourselves: taste you then, the treasures you buried'" (Surat At-Tawba: 34-35)

"When it is said to them, 'Fear Allah', they are led by arrogance to more crime. Hell shall be enough for them, an evil bed indeed to lie on!" (Surat Al-Baqara: 206)

In addition, there is the following hadith of our Prophet (saas) as a blessing from Allah:

The Prophet (saas) said: “He with the slightest speck of faith will be saved from the fire.” Abu Said says: “Whoever doubts (that he really said this) should read the following verse: “Allah does not wrong anyone by so much as the smallest speck...” (Surat an-Nisa, 40) (Tirmidhi, Sfatu Cehennem 10, (2601)

The common characteristic of unbelievers who deserve to be cast into hell is their rejection of religion when they have been invited to accept it:

"The Trumpet will be sounded, and all who are in the heavens and on the earth will swoon, except such as it will please Allah to exempt. Then a second trumpet will be sounded, when, behold, they will rise and look around them!

And the earth will shine with the Glory of its Lord: the Record of Deeds will be laid open; the prophets and the witnesses will be brought forward and all shall be judged with fairness; and they will not be wronged in the least.

And every soul will be paid back in full according to its Deeds; and Allah knows best all that they do.

The unbelievers will be led to hell in hordes. When they arrive there its gates will be opened. And its keepers will say, 'Did not messengers come to you from among yourselves, proclaiming to you the revelations of your Lord, and fore warning you of the Meeting of this Day? The answer will be: 'True' And thus the promised scourge will smite the unbelievers! They will be told: 'Enter you the gates of hell, to dwell therein forever: and evil is this Abode of the Arrogant!'" (Surat Az-Zumar: 68-72)

Those in the Fire will say to the custodians of hell,'Call on your Lord to make the punishment less for us for just one day.' They will ask, 'Did your Messengers not bring you the Clear Signs?' They will answer, 'Yes.'They will say, 'Then you call!'But the calling of the kafirun only goes astray. (Surah Ghafir: 49-50)

Some of those who will go to hell are those who never thought about Allah's wrath in this world. It is revealed in verses that:

"Do but consider those who have been given a portion of the Book? They are invited to accept the Book of Allah, to settle their disputes, but some of them turn back and decline the arbitration. This is because they say: 'The Fire shall not touch us except for a few days; In their religion they are deceived by their own lies. But how will they fare when We gather them together upon a day about which there is no doubt, and each soul will be given just what it has earned, without favor or injustice?" (Surah Al 'Imran: 23-25)

In other verses of the Qur'an Allah explains the horror in hell as follows:

"No good friend will ask about his friend even though they can see each other. To redeem himself from the Penalty of that Day, the sinner will gladly sacrifice his children,

His wife and his brother,

His kindred who sheltered him,

And all the people on earth, – if that could deliver him:

By no means! For the Fire of hell

Shall pluck out his being right from the skull!

It shall claim all those who turn their backs and turn away their faces from the Right,

And collect wealth and hide it covetously!" (Surat Al-Ma'arij: 10-18)

"They shall groan with anguish and be bereft of heaving," (Surat Al-Anbiya: 100)

"In front of such a one is hell, and he is given, for drink, boiling fetid water.

In gulps he will sip it, but never will he be near swallowing it: death will come to him from every quarter, yet will he not die. Harrowing torment awaits him." (Surah Ibrahim: 16-17)

"And you will see the sinners on that day bound together in fetters;

Their garments of liquid pitch, and their faces covered with Fire." (Surah Ibrahim: 49-50)

Truly, the tree of Zaqqum

Will be the food of the sinful,

Like molten brass; it will boil in their insides,

Like the boiling of scalding water.

A voice will cry: "Seize him and drag him into the midst of the Blazing Fire!

Then pour over his head the Penalty of Boiling Water,

'Taste this! Truly you were mighty and full of honor!'" (Surat Ad-Dukhan: 43-49)

All those descriptions devised for heaven and hell are absolute facts. Allah, Who has created the world and the life in this world, has revealed the Qur'an and has let us know that He will also create the afterlife. Even if a denier is unwilling to see these absolute facts, he will still be confronted by them. One great Islamic scholar describes a person who does not think about the hereafter as an ostrich. With his head buried in the sand he is unable to see around him, and thinks that he therefore cannot be seen. The fact is, however, that Allah sees what everyone does, without exception. Those who deviate onto the path of denial by being called on to live by religious moral values but refuse to do so become deserving of hell. Verses about such people read:

The question asked of the people of hell will be: "Did not messengers come to you from among yourselves, reciting to you the revelations of your Lord, and warning you of the Meeting of this Day?" (Surat Az-Zumar: 71)

And for those who have rejected the invitation, there will be a "grievous penalty":

"So he gave nothing in charity, nor did he pray!

But on the contrary, he rejected Truth and turned away!

And then went off to his family, swaggering.

Well have you deserved this doom

Well have you deserved it." (Surat Al-Qiyama: 31-35)

What we are doing in this book is to remind and warn people, through Allah's verses, that everyone will have to confront the Day of Judgment.