Jahannam: meaning, descriptions and context

What is Jahannam in Islam?

Jahannam is the Arabic word our translation of the Quran renders as "hell". Al-Hijr 15:42 to 43 is about those who follow Iblis, and has "hell will be the promised place". The Quran also speaks of "the Fire", and two verses use the same words for it: Al-Baqarah 2:24 and At-Tahrim 66:6 both speak of a Fire whose fuel is men and stones.

Belief in the Last Day is one of the six articles of faith in the hadith of Jibril, the angel Gabriel, peace be upon him (Sahih Muslim 8, graded sahih). This page keeps to what the Quran and the hadith say about the Fire. Where a commentator explains a verse or a hadith, the sentence names the commentator and the work. Mercy and seeking refuge are in the same sources and are on this page too. It makes no statement about any person or group.

7AuthenticSahih Muslim 8

Which Quranic words are in the commentators' list of seven?

The commentators' list of seven levels (below) uses seven Arabic words, and each occurs in a verse of the Quran. The Quran does not itself call them a set of seven. The table gives each word as Tanzil writes it in one verse, and what that verse says in our translation. Our translation renders the words in different ways, and for Al-Hawiyah (101:9) the English does not show the word, so the Arabic column is the guide.

In An-Nisa 4:55 the Arabic ends with both words, bi-jahannama sa'ira. Al-Hijr 15:44 gives a number for the gates and names none of them.

What does the Quran say about Jahannam?

Three passages, in the translation's words.

The verse gives a number and a portion for each gate. It does not describe the gates.

Al-Baqarah 2:24 has the same words about the fuel. This verse is addressed to the believers.

Verse 31 continues: "We have appointed only angels to be wardens of the Fire". It goes on about the number and also says: "None knows the hosts of your Lord except Him."

What do the hadith say about Jahannam?

Authentic reports describe the heat of the Fire and the fall of a stone into it in plain terms, and this page adds nothing to them.

The heat

Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, reported that the Prophet said "your fire" is one part of seventy parts of the fire of Jahannam. Someone said it would have been enough. The Prophet replied that the fire of Jahannam exceeds it by sixty-nine parts, each like the heat of your fire. This is Sahih al-Bukhari 3265, graded sahih.

1AuthenticSahih al-Bukhari 3265

Sahih Muslim 2843, also graded sahih, has "this fire of yours, which the son of Adam kindles", "the heat of Jahannam" in place of "the fire of Jahannam", and "they said" in place of "someone said".

2AuthenticSahih Muslim 2843

The stone

In Sahih Muslim 2844, graded sahih, Abu Hurayrah said they were with the Prophet when he heard a thud. The Prophet asked whether they knew what it was, and they said Allah and His Messenger know best. He said it was a stone thrown into the Fire seventy years before (the Arabic counts autumns, kharif), falling in it until now it reached its bottom. The Arabic word here is al-nar, "the Fire", not Jahannam. This page draws no measure of depth from the report.

3AuthenticSahih Muslim 2844

Does Jahannam have seven levels?

The Quran says seven gates (Al-Hijr 15:44, above). That is the count of gates: the verse names none of them and does not use the word levels. The rest is reported in commentary.

Al-Tabari (died 310 AH), in Jami' al-Bayan, says Jahannam has seven tiers (atbaq) 9. Ibn Kathir (died 774 AH), in his Tafsir, reports the words of 'Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, that its gates are seven, one above another, and Ikrimah's that "seven gates" means seven tiers 8. Al-Qurtubi (died 671 AH), in al-Jami' li-Ahkam al-Qur'an, glosses the gates as tiers, one above another 10.

The same three works give a list of seven names. These are reports from early authorities, reported by later scholars, not hadith of the Prophet. The orders, as each work gives them:

After quoting the report in the last row, al-Qurtubi gives the order in the row above it as what most scholars hold 10. In our search of dorar.net, we found no hadith of the Prophet that lists these seven names as levels 11. The same search found a narration of Ibn Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, with the number seven and no names for the levels; its graders differ, and this page does not use it.

What do the sources say about mercy and seeking refuge?

Beside the descriptions, the Quran gives a command: At-Tahrim 66:6 says "Ward off from yourselves and your families a Fire". It also says this, in Az-Zumar 39:53:

How this verse relates to other verses on forgiveness is outside this page.

The Prophet said that when Allah created creation, He wrote in His Book: "My mercy overcomes My anger." This is Sahih Muslim 2751, graded sahih.

4AuthenticSahih Muslim 2751

Sahih al-Bukhari 3194, also graded sahih, has "has overcome" in place of "overcomes", and its opening verb differs from Muslim's "created".

5AuthenticSahih al-Bukhari 3194

The Quran also records supplications to be kept from the Fire: "guard us from the doom of Fire" (Al-Baqarah 2:201) and "Our Lord! Avert from us the doom of hell" (Al-Furqan 25:65). Abu Hurayrah reported that the Prophet said that when any of you says the tashahhud (the testimony recited while seated in prayer), he should seek refuge with Allah from four things, the first being the punishment of Jahannam. This is Sahih Muslim 588a, graded sahih.

6AuthenticSahih Muslim 588a

The tashahhud has its own page, Tashahhud and Attahiyat. The Durood Ibrahim page also prints this report in Arabic.