said: “When the people of Paradise have entered Paradise and the people of Hell have entered Hell, death will be brought, led by the neck, and stationed on the wall between the people of Paradise and the people of Hell. Then it will be called out, ‘O people of Paradise!’ They will look out fearfully. Then it will be called out, ‘O people of Hell!’ They will look out joyfully, hoping for intercession. The people of Paradise and the people of Hell will be asked, ‘Do you recognize this?’ Both groups will say, ‘We recognize it: this is death, which was assigned to us.’ It will then be laid down and slaughtered on the wall. Then it will be proclaimed, ‘O people of Paradise, eternity with no death! O people of Hell, eternity with no death!’” Reported by al-Nasā’ī and al-Tirmidhī, who said: “A sound, authentic hadith.”

This ram, its being laid down and slaughtered, and both groups witnessing this are all real, not imaginary or figurative. Some have made a grave error on this point, saying: “Death is an accident, and an accident cannot take bodily form, let alone be slaughtered.”

This is incorrect. Allah, glorified be He, brings forth from death the form of a ram that is slaughtered, just as He brings forth from deeds forms through which the person who performed them is rewarded or punished. Allah Most High brings forth bodies from accidents, making those accidents their constituent material. He also brings forth accidents from bodies, just as He brings forth accidents from accidents and bodies from bodies.

All four possibilities lie within the power of the Lord Most High. None entails the coexistence of two contradictories or anything impossible. Nor is there any need for the strained explanation offered by those who say that it is the Angel of Death who is slaughtered. All this amounts to an invalid attempt to correct Allah and His Messenger, and a false interpretation warranted by neither reason nor revelation. It stems from a poor understanding of what the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) intended by his words. Thus, the person making this claim supposed that the wording of the hadith meant that the accident itself would be slaughtered.

Another person mistakenly supposed that the accident would cease to exist and disappear, and that a body would take its place and be slaughtered. Neither group arrived at the explanation we have given: that Allah, glorified be He, brings forth bodies from accidents and makes those accidents their constituent material. Thus, it is authentically reported that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said: “Al-Baqarah and Āl ‘Imrān will come on the Day of Resurrection as though they were two clouds”—and the hadith continues.

This, then, is the recitation from which