Conversations in Heaven and Hell - Part 1 of 4

Conversations in Heaven and Hell - Part 1 of 4

By Muhammad Alshareef

Opening Khutbah (Khutbah al-Hajah)

Introduction: The Story of Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her)

To begin inshallah ta'ala, there is an incident that happened with al-Qasim ibn Muhammad (may Allah have mercy on him), who is from the Tabi'een, and he used to visit Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), he would say salam to her, everyday he would pass by and say salam to her.

So he says that he went out one day, and he passed by Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), and he found her praying. It was like the duha time. And so he waited for her, she was reciting Quran and she was praying, and so he said to himself that, because she was taking a long time, he said: let me go to the marketplace, do my business, and then come back.

And then by that time she would have finished her salah. So he went to the marketplace, basically spent the day, came back, and she was still in the same rak'ah, she was still in the same rak'ah, reciting the same verse, again and again and again.

The verse that she was reciting, she said, this verse is in Surat al-Tur, where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says:

And they will approach one another, inquiring of each other. They will say, "Indeed, we were previously among our people fearful [of displeasing Allah]. So Allah conferred favor upon us and protected us from the punishment of the Scorching Fire. Indeed, we used to supplicate Him before. Indeed, it is He who is the Beneficent, the Merciful."

And she kept reciting this again and again and again, and she was crying.

Dear brothers and sisters, these verses, they're speaking about the people of Jannah. And Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), in her hope to be amongst the people of Jannah, she placed herself in the footsteps of the

people of Jannah. And of course we know that she's from the people of Jannah.

And she put the words that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala said that the people of Jannah would say. And she recited them again and again and again. The verses meaning, that إِنَّا كُنَّا قَبْلُ فِي أَهْلِنَا مُشْفِقِينَ - That when the people of Jannah will enter Jannah, they'll meet with each other.

And they'll discuss in their happiness. And they will say to one another: إِنَّا كُنَّا قَبْلُ فِي أَهْلِنَا مُشْفِقِينَ - That before time, before, we used to live in fear. We used to live in fear of the punishment of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.

This is how we spent our lives, in fear of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And of course, in the hope and mercy of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala فَمَنَّ اللَّهُ عَلَيْنَا - And so Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala was gracious upon us.

وَوَقَانَا عَذَابَ السَّمُومِ - That Allah was gracious upon us. And protected us and saved us from the poisonous punishment. إِنَّا كُنَّا مِن قَبْلُ نَدْعُوهُ - That we used to make dua to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala during our lives.

These are the words of the people of Jannah.

Lesson One: Put Yourself in the First Person

And so right from the beginning, tonight inshallah ta'ala we're going to speak about conversations that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala mentions to us. That the people of Jannah will say and have.

And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala also tells us conversations and statements from the people of Hellfire. So lesson number one, right from the beginning, is that I want you to put yourself into the footsteps of the person who's going to say this. Put yourself into the footsteps and put these words on your tongue in this dunya.

And feel what it feels like. And taste what it tastes like to say these words. And now it's beautiful that every time a verse of Paradise comes up that we put those words on our mouth.

And when we speak about Hellfire we immediately think of some kuffar walking in the streets. Somebody else. And let me tell you, it's a reminder for myself, a reminder for you that you will not care about those people on the Day of Judgment.

You will care about yourself. And so rather you taste the pain of these words in this life so that inshallah ta'ala you will never have to say them in the hereafter. So that the words of the people of Jannah are the words that you say inshallah ta'ala.

Alright, so putting yourself into the first person, putting yourself into the shoes of the person who's making the statement and taking the statement on your tongue. So every time the verse is mentioned, imagine yourself saying this.

Why This Topic?

The reason that I chose this topic - when I was memorizing Qur'an when I was very young there was a verse in

the Qur'an that always captured my attention. And it's a verse where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in Surah Ibrahim:

Quran 14:22

That Shaytan will say when the affair is over. And basically I thought to myself, this is a conference that's going to take place in Hellfire. In Jahannam.

How many people are going to be attending that conference? How many people? Billions and trillions of people are going to be at that conference. Everybody's going to be listening. Who is the main speaker? Shaytan is the main speaker.

And they're all in Hellfire. وَقَالَ الشَّيْطَانُ لَمَّا قُضِيَ الْأَمْرُ - And this is Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gives us the speech of Shaytan here in this dunya, you can read it in the Qur'an. This is what Shaytan is going to say once the affair is over.

Everybody's going to be gathered in Hellfire. They're going to be listening to Shaytan to make his statement.

And we'll be talking about that inshallah ta'ala.

And so I thought to myself, if you've heard me in the Perished Nations lecture, we were speaking about often repeated topics and lessons that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala repeats throughout the Qur'an. If Allah repeats it so many times, then it's incumbent upon us to pay attention to those. And so these conversations that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala mentions in the Qur'an, it's mentioned again and again and again.

And sometimes the thing that's mentioned again and again is the same thing that's mentioned again and again. This statement will happen. And so we have to either hope for it or protect ourselves from that accordingly inshallah ta'ala and take heed.

The Angels' Question to the People of Hellfire

One of the lessons that we'll be learning inshallah ta'ala is about the angels. Every time someone comes into hellfire, the angels say to them:

Didn't a warner come to you?

And I thought to myself that the angels will keep saying and we know what the angels are going to say. How many people are going to be entered into hellfire? And yet every group that comes, the angels will say the same thing to them.

Didn't a warner come to you? And I thought to myself, how stupid the person who goes to hellfire must be. It's like the angels are saying to them: you're so dumb. How many times was this told to you? Didn't someone tell

you?

And when they feel the punishment of hellfire, didn't someone tell you there would be a hellfire? Didn't somebody tell you? And yet why are we still disobeying Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala? And how many chances do we get? And yet the people still disobey Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.

And so here tonight insha'Allah ta'ala, it's like there's no excuse after this. When the person subhanAllah, you imagine that on the day of judgment, when you're about to say something, you would be like: I remember reading this in the dunya. That the day would come when I would say this.

Or someone in hellfire saying, that when they're in hellfire: Oh my Lord, return me back to the dunya. How foolish they're gonna be and how stupid they're gonna feel. When they say that, knowing that in the dunya they read that one day they would be saying this.

That when they're thrown into hellfire, they would say: Oh my Lord, take us back. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala also tells us about the people who enter jannah. There was a person who called his people to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.

And the people, they killed this person. And so Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala mentions him in Surah Yasin. Where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says:

It was said, "Enter Paradise." He said, "I wish my people could know of how my Lord has forgiven me and placed me among the honored."

When he's entered into jannah, he says: I wish my people knew. I wish I could tell them. The subsequent generations that would come up. The men and the women.

If only I could tell my people how amazing it is when Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala forgives a person. How amazing it is when a person is so noble and is placed in such a high and lofty status. If only my people would know - and Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala took his words and put it in Surah Yasin.

Put it in the Quran so that we would know the statements of the people of jannah and the statements of the people of hellfire.

Categories of Conversations

In studying this topic, it's a very interesting topic, very beautiful topic. And it's not always, and I'm gonna give you different categories. Not all the categories we're gonna be discussing tonight, inshallah ta'ala. But I've listed it in this lecture according to different categories.

Category 1: Angels with People of Jannah and Hellfire

The first category is the angels' conversation with the people of jannah and the angels' conversation in comparison with the people of hellfire. Okay, so conversations between the mala'ika and ahlul jannah and ahlul nar. Okay, so that's one category.

Category 2: Family Conversations

Secondly, a category of the conversations of ahlul jannah, the people of jannah with their family members. And the conversations of the people of hellfire with their family members.

Category 3: Among Themselves

The third category is the conversation of the people of jannah, may Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala make us amongst them, their conversations with the other people of jannah. Right? So it's like, you're there for all eternity, what are you gonna talk about? Beautiful things that they talk about.

And the conversations of the people of hellfire amongst themselves. The conversation of the people of hellfire conversing with the people of hellfire.

You know, in these categories, there's still a couple more categories, but it's interesting, a lot of times you have this question when the non-muslims ask or soon to be muslims ask, they say jannah, it seems like everything is jannah is always talking about things that are, you know, exclusive to men.

Right? Oh, men will have wives, like that's it. There's nothing else in the Quran that speaks about jannah. And usually this is a misunderstanding.

Actually one of the amazing things when you read the Quran is that it's not just about, and of course that's included, right? About jannah and the na'im, but one of the amazing blessings in life is having good companionship, and having intellectual conversations. And so Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala even shows us that that's part of the blessing of jannah, is the companionships, and the intellectual conversations that take place. And inshallah ta'ala we're going to be touching upon that.

Ahlul jannah, the people of jannah with jannah, and the people of hellfire with hellfire. And it's actually interesting that the people of hellfire, it is intellectual conversations as well. It's very deep.

The problem is that they weren't that intelligent during the dunya. In hellfire they're very intelligent. They realize, they believe, yes this is hellfire, all of this. They're very intelligent in hellfire when it's too late.

Category 4: People of Jannah with People of Hellfire

The next category is the people of jannah speaking with the people of hellfire. The people of jannah speaking with the people of hellfire, and vice versa, is people of hellfire conversing with the people of jannah, as Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala mentions in the Quran.

Category 5: Internal Dialogue

The next category after that is the people of jannah, how they speak to themselves. Their internal dialogue.

Internal dialogue, in fact, that's probably the person you speak with the most in your life, is yourself.

Inside your mind, all your thoughts and so on, you're constantly asking questions, answering questions, making statements, conversing with yourself, and so you'll see the internal dialogue of the people of jannah with themselves, what they'll be saying to themselves, and the internal dialogue of the people of hellfire, what they'll be saying to themselves.

Category 6: Allah Speaking with People of Jannah and Hellfire

And finally, and these last categories inshallah ta'ala will be in our part two, and that is the conversation of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala with the people of hellfire, and the conversation of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala with the people of jannah.

The Role of Angels in Human Life

And so to begin inshallah ta'ala with the first category, and that is with the malaika. The malaika, and it's a beautiful topic in of itself, the malaika, they are a part of the human being's life from the beginning to the end. There's no part of your life except that the angels are part of it.

From the moment your soul was breathed into the janeen, into the embryo, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala sent an angel to breathe the soul, correct? And throughout your life you had an angel on your right, an angel on your left, and they're writing down your good deed right now inshallah ta'ala, that you came to this lecture, and they're writing it down.

And the angels are in sakinah, and when a person does bad, angels still writing it down, doing tawbah, when a person goes for jummah, when a person dies, the extraction of the soul, taking the soul to paradise. The angels are consistently a part of the human being's life.

And so Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala mentions to us conversations that the angels, when the person dies, that's when you begin to speak directly with the angels.

Angels Dragging People to Hellfire

Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, and I'm not gonna separate these - in here are all the verses that speak about jannah, here are all the verses that speak about hellfire, I'm going to interchange them. Right, so one verse about hellfire, one about paradise.

And so the first of these verses is the angels dragging the people of hellfire to hellfire. Now, there's verses that speak about how they're being dragged and the horror of that day, and we're not really getting into that, that's another topic as well, but we're focusing instead on what are the angels saying to them.

It almost bursts with rage. Every time a company is thrown into it, its keepers ask them, "Did there not come to you a warner?" They will say, "Yes, a warner had come to us, but we denied and said, 'Allah has not sent down anything. You are not but in great error." And they will say, "If only we had been listening or reasoning, we would not be among the companions of the Blaze."

If you've ever been on a rollercoaster - A rollercoaster, you can hear it from far away. It's like screaming, it's almost like a beast. And sometimes they name the rollercoaster that, a beast. And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says that hellfire with all its intensity has a sound to it that you could die from the sound.

Everything about hellfire, every sense, you could die from it. It's a punishment in of itself. It's almost bursting in its fury. And then the angels of hellfire - You're talking about the gatekeepers of hellfire. They say to the people:

كُلَّمَا أُلْقِيَ فِيهَا فَوْجٌ سَأَلَهُمْ خَزَنَتُهَا

Every time a group of the people of hellfire come, another group is coming. It's like the angels are like smacking them and saying to them: Didn't a warner come to you?

أَلَمْ يَأْتِكُمْ نَذِيرٌ

And I thought to myself that there's so many verses in the Qur'an that bring up this point. And I'll mention some other ones in Surah Az-Zumar. The same thing happens - that didn't a warner come to you? Didn't someone remind you? Didn't someone come to you? Again and again and again.

And then they respond:

قَالُوا بَلَى

Yes, someone did come. And like I said, it's almost like every time you see someone that was so stupid and so foolish and so dumb, and then it's almost like they have a dunce cap on. How could you be so dumb? How could you be so dumb? Didn't a warner come to you? Didn't somebody tell you about this? Why did you have to arrive here?

And so their response is:

قَالُوا بَلَىٰ قَدْ جَاءَنَا نَذِيرٌ

SubhanAllah, I remember there was once when I was younger we went to a Muslim camp. And at this camp all the youth would ask the sheikh that had come - they'd always ask him questions about things that were haram. Is it permissible to go to dances? No, sorry. Is it not permissible to go to dances? The answer is yes. Is this haram? Yes. Is this haram? Yes.

And I remember one brother saying - I remember this very clearly, he said: Why is it that everything is haram?

Why is everything haram? And I remember the speaker didn't know how to answer that. And I learned much later that we only ask about things we know are haram.

Why do people always ask about the mortgage issue? Because they know it's haram. They just keep asking it again and again and again. They know it's haram. Nobody asks the sheikh: Is it permissible to eat bananas? Does anybody ask the sheikh that? Because they know it's halal. Allah made it halal, nobody asks that.

Everybody asks: is it permissible to go to the prom or the dance? Is it permissible to drink? And all these things, haram, haram, haram. And so on. And then you think to yourself: Not the whole Muslim community is here at a lecture like this. Even online people listening to this. Not the whole Muslim ummah is going to be listening to these lectures.

So did a warner come to them or not? Every Salatul Jumu'ah. Correct? Every Salatul Jumu'ah. Even let's say for you, someone will say we didn't know that we had to do this. How is that? Some people they live in a Muslim country and they'll say we never knew we had to pray five times a day. How is that possible? That you never heard that?

The thing is that yes it was heard, but it never entered the heart. It was heard but it just went from one ear and maybe it never even went inside. The wax blocked it and it just went and kept outside.

Didn't a warner come to you? And something as simple as Jumu'ah prayer. Every Jumu'ah prayer the people are getting the message: Establish your Salat, pay the zakah, fast in Ramadan, go for Hajj. All these statements are being said again and again and again. Didn't a warner come to you?

They say بَلَى قَدْ جَاءَنَا نَذِيرٌ - Yes the warner did come. But this is the situation. Because so many times people hear a khutbah and hear the message yet they don't follow it. Yes we did hear the message and someone did tell us.

فَكَذَّبْنَا - But we called them a liar. They're lying. فَكَذَّبْنَا - This is not true. It's not really happening.

وَقُلْنَا مَا نَزَّلَ اللَّهُ مِن شَيْءٍ - And Allah didn't reveal anything. There's no message. It's all coincidence. I'm in doubt. I don't know. Is this really the truth or not? This is their excuse.

Yes the messenger did come to them. Yes they were warned. But they just kept falling back on: I'm not quite sure. So let me just continue living my life of disobedience to Allah.

Didn't the warner come to them? Yes he came. And every time a group comes to hellfire, they're gonna get the same question: Didn't a warner come to you? Didn't somebody tell you?

Just imagine the thing that you're doing haram or I'm doing haram. Let's put ourselves into that haram position. That moment when we're doing haram. And ask yourself: Didn't somebody tell you that this was haram? And of course if you know it's haram, somebody told you.

أَلَمْ يَأْتِكُمْ نَذِيرٌ؟ قَالُوا بَلَىٰ

Somebody did come and somebody did tell us.

Angels Greeting the People of Paradise

Now on the opposite side, the angels greeting the people of paradise. Because the angels just like they'll be dragging people to hellfire, they will be escorting ahlul jannah, the people of jannah to jannah. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala make us part of that entourage.

It's an entourage with the people of jannah. And it's an entourage that's being guided and taken, escorted by the angels of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And that's a punishment and a reward in of itself. The gatekeepers of hellfire look different than the gatekeepers of paradise.

Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says - this is in Surah Ar-Ra'd - where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says: Wal malaika - that the garden of Eden, Jannatu Adn, Jannatu Adn yadkhulunaha. That the garden of Eden, the everlasting garden. A garden.

And in this dunya, every time you see a beautiful garden, you can't live in the garden. If you live in the garden, there's snakes, there's worms, there's bugs. You can't lie down anywhere. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says: Jannatu Adn - that the Adn is the garden that you're going to be living in this beauty.

Subhanallah, even if you look at the most amazing resorts in the world, what they do to make it so beautiful is they basically make a floor to ceiling wall, a glass, so that you can be amongst the elements without suffering the harms of the elements. In jannah you will be fully immersed in all those elements with the rivers flowing from underneath.

Yadkhulunaha - They will enter it. And a lot of times people think of entering jannah by themselves. But it's not by yourselves. In sha Allah ta'ala, you're going to be entering with your wives, with your children, with your family members. Waman salaha - Those who are righteous from their parents and their spouses and their children.

Wal malaika yadkhuluna alayhim min kulli baab - And the angels shall enter on them from every gate. These are the gatekeepers of jannah.

سَلَامٌ عَلَيْكُم بِمَا صَبَرْتُمْ

Peace be upon you for what you patiently endured.

And now سَلَامٌ عَلَيْكُم - we say Assalamu Alaykum right? This statement of salam. You'll actually see that everywhere in jannah. And it comes up in different categories. Ahlul jannah with ahlul jannah, with each other, they're saying إِلَّا قِيلًا سَلَامًا سَلَامًا - Amongst themselves they're saying: We're in peace. And the other person is saying in back: We're in peace. In peace. Everywhere in jannah is peace and serenity.

And the angels in jannah, when the people of jannah enter, this is the statement:

سَلَامٌ عَلَيْكُم بِمَا صَبَرْتُمْ

Because of your patience in the dunya. Because of your sabr, that there's peace upon you now. And what an amazing, what a beautiful everlasting abode that this is your home.

People of Hellfire Calling Upon the Gatekeepers

Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala tells us - they're actually verses where the people of hellfire, they call upon Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. But here this, and that inshallah ta'ala, that will be like in our part 2. But here the angels of hellfire, when the people of hellfire lose hope in calling upon Allah because Allah is not answering them.

They forgot Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in the dunya. They didn't call upon Allah in the dunya. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala protect us. And so in the hereafter they're trying to call to Allah. But Allah is not answering them.

And so when they lose hope in that, and I thought to myself, subhanallah you know how when someone goes to jail, sometimes there will be a criminal that has actually done the crime. And everyone will try everything that they can do to try to get this criminal out. They're like: what loopholes are there? Who can we speak to? What lawyers, how can we appeal?

A person they can never - you know just accept. They just don't. Nobody goes to jail and just says: Okay I'm it, I'm not gonna try, I'm not gonna fight it.

So the people of hellfire, they're trying everything possible to get out. What can we do to get out? Who can we go to? Who can we speak to? How can we discuss this?

So they call upon Allah. When they lose hope of that - and again we'll detail it and what they're calling to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and their promises they're trying to make. But then they start calling the gatekeepers of hellfire.

And now if there is ever of the most toughest, most angriest, most meanest of the creation of Allah, it is the gatekeepers of hellfire. And they're trying to seek mercy from them.

And so Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in the Qur'an:

وَقَالَ الَّذِينَ فِي النَّارِ لِخَزَنَةِ جَهَنَّمَ ادْعُوا رَبَّكُمْ يُخَفِّفْ عَنَّا يَوْمًا مِّنَ الْعَذَابِ

Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says:

وَقَالَ الَّذِينَ فِي النَّارِ لِخَزَنَةِ جَهَنَّمَ

And those in the Fire will say to the keepers of Hell. These are the ones that Allah instructed to maintain forever hellfire. And they're calling them like they're trying to get some, you know, trying to get some mercy from them.

This is their statement to them:

ادْعُوا رَبَّكُمْ

They say to them: You make dua to Allah. Make dua to your Lord. They've lost hope in making dua to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So they're telling the angel: Listen, angel, you make dua. To whom? They don't even say (ادْعُوا رَبَّنَا - They lost hope even in calling Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala their Lord. They said:

ادْعُوا رَبَّكُمْ

Make dua to your Lord. For what? What do you think they're asking for? In fact, they asked Allah - their dua earlier was to destroy us. Let this punishment end. But unfortunately that would be mercy. That's mercy. That's what they were hoping for. The atheist - that's the atheist best case scenario - is that there's no hereafter. That's the atheist best case. That's the better hope - that there's nothing in the hereafter. That's the only way he's gonna survive.

The person who disbelieved in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala - that's the only thing. So they've lost hope. Even asking for this. So they say:

Call your Lord to lighten, to lighten the punishment. So they're not - they don't even hope for the punishment to stop. Because it's not stopping. And they don't even hope for that. Their standards are so low. They're like, they're saying: Just lighten the punishment.

For how long do you want the punishment lightened? They've lost hope of even lightening the punishment forever. They say:

We just want one day break. It's not even a break. Just the intensity turned down for one day. That's all we're asking for. Call your Lord and ask Him if He'll lighten one day.

And so the angels say back to them:

Quran 40:50

And this is even you see in the tafsir like when do the angels respond to them? After thousands and thousands of years. They actually get a response. Nobody's answering. There's nobody like standing there that they're talking to. And so when the angels finally speak to them, it's again, they said this to them already: Didn't the messenger come to you? Didn't somebody tell you this was haram?

Didn't the messengers come to you with the clear signs? You clearly knew that there was a hellfire. You clearly knew what you had to do. Didn't the messengers come?

What can they say in response? There is no answer except yes. And so the angels say in response, they say: then make dua. Make dua as much as you want.

But the dua of the kafir is nothing but a stray. And it's just gone. It means nothing. And the punishment continues.

Calling Upon Malik, the Chief of the Gatekeepers

نَسْأَلُ اللهَ الْعَافِيَةَ

They call out:

Quran 43:77

And they will call, "O Malik! Let your Lord put an end to us."

Malik is the chief of the gatekeepers of hellfire. In the verses before when they had higher standards, they were hoping for - they say: may your lord destroy us and finish us off.

Quran 43:77

And Malik says to them in response: No, you're going to stay. You're going to continue. And it continues.

Quran 43:78

When Malik says to them:

You're going to stay. That the haq was brought to you. You got messengers came to you. The reminders came to you. Allah put an internal GPS - your heart, your qalb - that told you that when you were doing something right or when you're doing something wrong. It told you that this was wrong. It kept telling you: this was wrong. This was wrong.

And so you disbelieved. You just shut it off. You're trying to shut it off. But you couldn't do it.

That Allah didn't reveal anything. Everything subhanAllah will be refused to them. Everything will be refused. Whether they ask to be obliterated, whether they ask to come out of hellfire.

The Dragging to Hellfire

If they ask - and this is more the conversation that they're calling upon Allah - and this is subhanAllah, you'll see that this is the beginning of their standard. When they first go to hellfire and they see hellfire, they're asking Allah to send them back to the dunya. And what a joke that is. That they're saying: Oh, now that we've seen hellfire, give us another chance. Okay, now we know that this hellfire - send us back.

And that's earlier they were asking for that. They lost hope of ever going back to the dunya. They lost hope of calling upon Allah Subhanallah. They lost hope of being just obliterated so that there's nothing left. And they've lost hope of even the punishment of hellfire being lightened for even a part of a day.

Allah Subhanallah Ta'ala says in the Qur'an in Surah Az-Zumar:

That the people of hellfire will be dragged to hellfire in groups.

Until they come to it and the gates of hellfire are open. And for those who memorize Surah Az-Zumar, you'll know, especially if you're reading to a sheikh - it says: until they come to it. And the gates of hellfire are open. And there's no واو right there.

And then the next verse - like I said if you memorize Surah Az-Zumar, you'll know that the next verse, it comes حَتَّى إِذَا جَاءُوهَا - when it talks about the people of hellfire فُتِحَتْ أَبْوَابُهَا so there's a واو that speaks about the people of hellfire.

And there is - there's a واو that speaks about the people of Jannah. But there's no واو, the letter واو, the Arabic letter واو that speaks about the people of hellfire.

And so one sheikh beautifully described this and he said like: Hellfire, the gates opening, there is no prelude to the gates opening. Meaning that it opens as a shock.

If you've ever been on these rides at like an amusement park, you know these horror rides where you go in like a wheelbarrow and you're driving around and all of a sudden something opens and you drop. Usually they can't do that, make you drop like that. But they'll open something like - the horror is the shock. Correct, you know what I'm saying?

So in hellfire, in hellfire what happens is that when they come to the hellfire حَتَّى إِذَا جَاءُوهَا - that's all. And then the doors open and they fall into hellfire.

And then the خَزَنَةٌ the gatekeepers of hellfire say to them:

Didn't messengers come to you before? Didn't they mention the verses, didn't they remind you of this day? And the people will say yes.

The Gates of Jannah Opening Slowly

And so in the other verse after that, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says:

Those who are conscious of Allah - in groups they're going to be escorted to Jannah. There's a واو before فُتِحَتْ And so the gates of Jannah, they open slowly. They open slowly.

And as the people come closer to Jannah, Jannah actually comes closer to the people. And the Jannah that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has prepared for the believers, the gates open up slowly, slowly, slowly, intensifying the love and the desire for the people of Jannah to enter Jannah.

And Jannah is alive. As you see that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala - there are hadith where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is speaking to Jannah and speaking to Hellfire. Jannah loves the believers. And so just like the believers love to enter Jannah, Jannah loves for the believers to enter it.

And there's a beautiful hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ said about the fragrance of Jannah: And verily that the fragrance of Jannah can be smelt from a distance of 500 years. From a distance of 500 years. Now if you're 500 years away from Jannah and you can still smell Jannah, then what about when you're right in front of the doors of Jannah?

Subhanallah in preparing this lecture, the Prophet ﷺ spoke about one of the women of Jannah. And the Prophet ﷺ said that if she smiled at the earth, the whole earth would be filled of a beautiful fragrance just by her smile.

And I said: wow.

Because subhanallah it's summertime now and sometimes you open your window and people smoke outside, right? They smoke outside. They're not the people of Hellfire inshallah ta'ala, different opinion about smoking. But I think to myself: When you open the window, subhanallah, the air is polluted by them being outside. And I think to myself: How can you pollute the atmosphere that you can smell smoke coming into your house even though the person is outside in the open air? They've polluted the whole atmosphere just by what they're doing. The action that they're doing.

So I saw this hadith that the whole earth would be filled with a beautiful fragrance from her smile. And the shine from her would eclipse the sun and the moon just from her smile. Imagine being in proximity.

And I know sisters are like: Oh what about us, the sisters are talking about. Yeah sister, any description of a woman of Jannah is obviously a description of you and much more than that. Right, that you would be much more than that. These are the women of Jannah. How about the believing women?

But because of their patience they entered into Jannah. And so there is no - as the Prophet - this woman said to the Prophet, or the Prophet said to her that no old people will enter into paradise. Old women don't go to Jannah. And she became very sad and distressed at this. And she was very old and she said: Ya Rasulullah, how can this be?

And the Prophet said that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala would turn back all her youthfulness. So in Jannah it's complete youthfulness for all of eternity. All of eternity.

The Angels' Greeting at the Gates of Jannah

What will the angels say to the people when they enter Jannah? This is in Surah Zumar:

This is the statement. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala make your ears hear that statement.

That peace be upon you. Peace in everything that the word peace means. You know in life we're always going like: Okay, peace, right? Are you people bumper stickers, peace, peace. What does real peace mean? Real peace is when a person enters Jannah. That's real peace.

And then the angels say to them:

طِبْتُمْ is a very interesting word. It's translated, I have one in the translation, it says: you have become pure. The angels say to the people as they enter Jannah:

You've become pure. So enter it and you will enter it forever. Enter into Jannah forever and ever for all of eternity.

Ibn Qayyim on Purity

And so this statement Ibn Qayyim says in Zad al-Ma'ad - he has a whole section on it about the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ which he says:

(Sahih Muslim 1015)

That Allah is طَيِّب is pure and only accepts that which is pure.

Oh you know for example: Can I do hajj with haram money? Can I build a masjid with riba, with interest? Can I do this action, pray and hopefully some woman will see me and she'll want to marry me? Allah is is pure, and only accepts those things that are done purely for the sake of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.

And so if a person commits sins in the dunya, then what purifies them? What purifies them? What makes them طَيِّب

تَطْهِيرُ بِتَوْبَةٍ

And for example Umrah - a performance of Umrah. The Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari 1773)

That the Umrah, performing Umrah to the next Umrah is a purification for that which comes between them.

And so many things the Prophet ﷺ said: Whoever says this dua, the reward, you know, their sins are forgiven and so on. All these different things that we have, the blessings of Allah, in order that we would become pure.

But let's say a person's طَهَارَة - they don't do enough طَهَارَة in this dunya. In the hereafter they might be forgiven by Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and then they'll have the طَهَارَة in the hereafter. And enter into Jannah.

Or if they're a Muslim they might still enter Hellfire. And if they enter Hellfire - may Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala protect us - it's because they're still not yet طَيِّب They're still not طَيِّب Because nobody enters Jannah except that they're طَيِّب

And so the Hellfire, the time that they would spend in Hellfire is to purify them. It's so that when they come out and they're washed, that the fire of Hellfire punish them. And even in this dunya, the sicknesses that we go through and the things that harm us and the sadnesses, when we're patient to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, all of that is a purification. So that the angels, when the person enters Hellfire, they say:

سَلَامٌ عَلَيْكُمْ طِبْتُمْ

You've become pure.

فَادْخُلُوهَا خَالِدِينَ

Into Paradise forever.

The People of Jannah Speaking to Each Other

وَقَالُوا

And so the people of Jannah, this is actually their statement. And I include statements like this. They're saying these statements to themselves and to each other:

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي صَدَقَنَا وَعْدَهُ

All praise is to Allah. All thanks is to Allah. الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ

And so you'll see this statement recurring again and again and again in the Quran. This is the statement of the people of Jannah: الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ

In one of the verses they say:

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي أَذْهَبَ عَنَّا الْحَزَنَ

In this verse Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says that they will say, but that's the statement: الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ - We made it!

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي صَدَقَنَا وَعْدَهُ - That he fulfilled his promise to us. Didn't Allah promise you? Didn't the messengers come to you? Yeah they came. And we believed in them. And that's what you'll see in the statements that they say to each other. They're like: الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ

When they're talking with each other, that the messengers came and alhamdulillah we believed them. الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ So and so, this guy over here, we didn't believe in him. This guy used to tell us: Don't go to the masjid, don't believe in Allah, don't follow the prophet, don't do this. الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ We didn't believe him. الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ We called him a liar.

And that's their statement with each other. And we'll get to it inshallah ta'ala.

فَنِعْمَ أَجْرُ الْعَامِلِينَ

And what an excellent reward for those who work righteousness.

Abu Hurayrah's Narration: The Announcement in Jannah

أَبُو هُرَيْرَةَ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ تَعَالَىٰ عَنْهُ

He narrated the prophet - when the people of Jannah enter Jannah:

يَا أَهْلَ الْجَنَّةِ إِنَّ لَكُمْ أَن تَصِحُوا فَلَا تَسْقَمُوا أَبَدًا

Subhanallah this is something, you know, when you visualize your goals and imagine when the people enter Jannah. The first thing that happens - I remember once there was a relative of mine, young relative of mine. And

we had a barbecue. And this young relative of mine, he loved the barbecue so much. It was so yummy and so delicious. And I remember him saying to my father and saying to my mother, he said like: جدًا - Can we eat this food tomorrow?

Before he even ate the food today. And subhanallah that he knows that in this dunya, yes, there is blessings but it doesn't last forever. Right, how long is the barbecue? A couple of hours, two hours, three hours. How long is your meal going to go, three hours? That's why people over eat. Because they want to continue the na'im. Right, but they can't continue. When the body says we've had enough. This is the dunya, you can't keep doing this.

So in Jannah, in Jannah what will happen is someone will call out and say:

يَا أَهْلَ الْجَنَّةِ

Oh people of Jannah!

إِنَّ لَكُمْ أَن تَصِحُوا فَلَا تَسْتَمُوا أَبَدًا

That you're going to be healthy for all eternity and you will never become sick. So sickness, forget about that. There's no sickness for you. And so you're saying to yourself, yeah, you can just imagine everybody celebrating that, right?

And then the statement is, you know, like: Oh people of Jannah, guess what? Bonus number two. That's not part of the hadith, right? That's my own.

وَإِنَّ لَكُمْ أَن تَحْيَوْا فَلَا تَمُوتُوا أَبَدًا

And you're going to be alive forever. You'll never die.

And now, when a person is going - even in this dunya, subhanallah, if you put someone in a retirement home and say: You're going to be here forever. This is punishment. Right? This is in the dunya. In the dunya, it's almost like you're going to be here forever. They're like: no, this is, you know, what are we going to do forever? We're going to watch movies again and again and again forever? This isn't the life.

But in Jannah they're having so much fun that you're going to live forever. They're like: yes, this is not going to end!

Third thing:

وَإِنَّ لَكُمْ أَن تَشِبُّوا فَلَا تَهْرَمُوا أَبَدًا

يَا أَهْلَ الْجَنَّةِ

That you're going to be youthful and you're never going to grow old. And there forever. But eventually they'll get old and they won't be able to enjoy it the way that they enjoyed it when they were young. And so it'll be called out to them: That you're going to be young forever and you will never get old. Yes, right?

And the fourth thing:

وَإِنَّ لَكُمْ أَن تَنْعَمُوا فَلَا تَبْأَسُوا أَبَدًا

There will never come a time where you become bored with Jannah. There will never become a time like that. Because in this dunya we can't comprehend that. No matter what a person gets in the dunya, you can only have so much of the things in the dunya. You can only sit at the beach - how long can you sit at the beach for? You can sit at the beach for maybe one day, two days, three days. And then you're like: I gotta go do something. Right?

And that's why people die soon after retirement. Because they're like: what am I going to do with my life? And then they just - not that they kill themselves, but just the depression and so on and so forth. It's like: what am I going to do with my life now?

But this isn't Jannah. And this is the way it is.

Family Members in Jannah

The next category is I set up this category and I actually didn't find too many examples for it. I didn't find too many examples for it. Of course when a person enters into Jannah, this next category is the people of Jannah speaking with their family members. And the people of Hellfire speaking with their family members.

Of course there are verses where people of Jannah are entered into Jannah with their family members. Such as the verse where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says:

ادْخُلُوا الْجَنَّةَ أَنتُمْ وَأَزْوَاجُكُمْ تُحْبَرُونَ

Enter into paradise you and your wives. So now, and here's a good point for all those sisters that are worried about, you know, women in Jannah and so on and so forth. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is saying: enter into Jannah, you and your spouses.

So that means if you're married, you're going to get into Jannah and you'll be married inshallah ta'ala. Whether you're married or not, but you're going to be entered into Jannah with your righteous spouse inshallah ta'ala.

And also here's a special point for those who are worried about Jannah. Right أَزْوَاج, أَزْوَاجُكُمْ in Arabic means your spouse and it actually applies to male and female. So whenever it mentions in the Quran أَزْوَاجُكُمْ - your spouse, it doesn't mean your wives. It means your mate. Right? And that could be male or female.

So a woman reading this verse could be: enter into paradise you and your husband. And someone, a male reading this verse would say: Enter into Jannah you and your wife. The Arabic word carries both of those meanings.

So Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in one of the verses speaks about when the person gets the book with their right hand. And it's interesting, this is in Surah At-Tur, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala contrasts between the person who gets the book in their right hand and the person who gets the book in their left hand.

The person who gets their book in their right hand, they want their family members and they want their mother and their family members to find out about the book. And the person who gets the book in their left hand, they don't want anybody to know.

So in fact I actually didn't find any verses of the people of Hellfire speaking with their family members. They're on their own. There's no family members for them.

And so Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala speaks first about the people who get the book with their right hand. If you get your book in your right hand, and imagine that this is the book that has all your deeds. Just by virtue of you getting it in your right hand, you know you've passed. And if you get it in your left hand, you know you've failed. You don't even have to look into it.

And so Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in the Quran:

فَأَمَّا مَنْ أُوتِيَ كِتَابَهُ بِيَمِينِهِ

I haven't even translated it. You can kind of guess what the words mean. Can you guess what it means? Because even in the Arabic language, just the the the prolongation. It's like: whoa!

When you pass your exam, when you pass your exams, you're like, let's say the biggest exam that you take, the MCAT exams. The biggest exam. Some of us understand this, some of us don't understand it. When you pass your MCAT exams, what do you do when you go home to your mom?

Mom! I passed my exam!

What if you went to hellfire after that? Who cares about that? Who cares about that test? Nothing in this dunya matters unless your intentions are for the sake of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Who cares about these exams in the dunya if a person fails the exam in the hereafter? Who cares?

Subhanallah in Surah al-Fajr where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says about the people of hellfire, this is what they say to themselves:

يَقُولُ يَا لَيْتَنِي قَدَّمْتُ لِحَيَاتِي

(Quran 89:24)

They say: if only I'd prepared for my life.

And all these exams that we talk about, these exams in the dunya - the MCAT, LSAT, this exam, that exam - we think that it's preparing for our life. But it's not preparing for our life. It's preparing specifically for our dunya and the material side of our dunya.

As for preparation of our life, that is in praying fajr and praying dhuhr and praying asr and praying maghrib and praying isha. And doing that till the day you die sincerely for the sake of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Your belief in Allah, your zakah, your siyam, your hajj. That is preparing for your life.