will be punished as this man is punished, and no one will be bound as he is bound. It is evident that no one will be punished as this disbeliever is punished on that Day. The inhabitants of Hell will be afflicted with intense thirst while standing for Judgment, and they will see the Fire as though it were a mirage. A mirage is what a person sees across the land on intensely hot summer days, imagining it to be water. Thirsty as they are, they will see the Fire as though it were a mirage and rush headlong toward it. They will hasten toward it seeking what? Something to drink. When they reach it, its gates will be opened, and its keepers will say to them: ﴿Did messengers not come to you from among yourselves, reciting the verses of your Lord to you and warning you of the meeting of this Day of yours?﴾ [al-Zumar: 71]. The proof has already been established against them, so the keepers rebuke them before they enter the Fire. Rebuke is torment of the heart and anguish of the soul even before they taste the pain of the Fire. Once in the Fire, the Almighty—Glorious is His Majesty—will rebuke them even more severely.

They will say: ﴿Our Lord, our wretchedness overcame us, and we were a people astray. Our Lord, bring us out of it; then, if we return, we will indeed be wrongdoers.﴾ Allah Most High, the Most Merciful of those who show mercy, will say: ﴿Remain despised therein, and do not speak to Me.﴾ [al-Mu’minūn: 106–108]. What humiliation could be more profound than this? ﴿Remain despised therein, and do not speak to Me,﴾ says the Most Merciful of those who show mercy. Who, then, will have mercy on them after the Most Merciful? They will have no one to show them mercy.

The Prophet—may Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace—informed us that the person receiving the lightest punishment among the inhabitants of Hell will wear two sandals that cause his brain to boil, yet he will think that no one is suffering a punishment more severe than his.(1) He will think himself the most severely punished of all, although his punishment is the lightest. He will be wearing two sandals that cause his brain to boil: the sandals are at the bottom of the body, while the brain is at its top. If the top of the body boils because of what is at its bottom, then everything in between will necessarily be affected even more severely—may Allah protect us and you from the Fire. ﴿On that Day, no one will be punished as he is punished, and no one will be bound as he is bound.﴾ For they—Allah protect us—will be bound: ﴿Then into