Likewise, in an authentic hadith, he said:

“By Him in whose hand is my soul, no one who pledged allegiance beneath the tree will enter the Fire.

Hafsah said: I said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, does Allah not say: “There is not one of you who will not come to it” [Maryam: 71]?’

He replied, ‘Have you not heard Him say: “Then We will save those who feared Allah and leave the wrongdoers in it on their knees” [Maryam: 72]?’”

The authentic hadith narrated by Jābir and others explains that coming to it means crossing the bridge over Hell. Clearly, if he had told them that all creation would cross the bridge and come to the Fire in this sense, his statement to them that a particular person would not enter the Fire would not contradict that crossing. This is why he said to her, “Have you not heard Him say: ‘Then We will save those who feared Allah’?” He thus explained to her that coming to it does not contradict the assurance he had given that they would not enter it. Those whom Allah saved after coming to it—which means crossing over it—did not enter the Fire.

The expressions “coming to” and “entering” may be ambiguous. Someone who steps onto the roof of a house may be said to have entered the house and come to it, while someone who passes over its roof without remaining there may be said not to have entered it.

Thus, if it is said, “So-and-so came to this wretched place, then Allah saved him from it,” and also, “Allah did not cause him to enter it,” both statements would be true, with no contradiction between them.

And His words, exalted is He: “There is not one of you who will not come to it; this is, for your Lord, a binding decree