Al Naḥl

فَادْخُلُوا أَبْوَابَ جَهَنَّمَ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا فَلَبِئْسَ مَثْوَي الْمُتَكَبّـِرينَ

29. “Therefore, enter through the gates of Hell, to abide therein. Thus, indeed, evil is the abode of the arrogant.”

Then, enter Hell through its gates where you will always be staying. Note what an awful place is the residence of the arrogant people. They have not voluntarily entered the inferno! On the contrary, they have been made enter into it. There are seven gates for the Hell according to the text of the Qur’an, each of which belongs to one category of the seven categories in the Hell. The Qur’an says:

“It has seven gates, for every gate there shall be a (separate) party of them assigned.” ¹

This verse does not signify that they can enter through whichever gate they choose. On the contrary, it means that every class of those sinners can enter through one of the gates according to their intensity of: paganism, disbelief or profanity, opposition or hostility, their intensity of being misled, seductive ability, and oppression as well as the like of them. For example: the Jews will enter through one gate while the Christians enter through another gate; the pagans enter through their own particular gate-way whereas the dissidents have their own gate; so on and so forth. The gateway of the seventh floor belongs to the hypocrites and those who were unjust unto the Ahl-ul-Bayt of the Messenger (S).

The hell is incidentally the dark prison of Allah in which all kinds of punishments for chastising the evil doers are found, including: Fire, yoke, chains, vertical means of stabbing, lashes, ‘Hamim’ (boiling drink), Ghassaq (pus), Zaqqūm (bitter drink), and the like. May Allah keep us away from these means of torture and punishment, and let us enter His Garden of Eden, Paradise; Amen.

Footnotes

1. 1. Surah Al-Hijr, No. 15, verse 44