The learned Imām Ibn al-Qayyim relates:

“I once asked Shaykh al-Islām—may Allah sanctify his soul—about this question, and he said to me, ‘It is a weighty, momentous matter,’ yet he offered no answer. A while later I came upon, in the Tafsīr of ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Kashshī, several reports that point to the extinction of Hell. I therefore sent the Shaykh a letter—he was then in his last teaching session—having marked that very passage. I told the messenger: ‘Say to him, “This point is perplexing to him; he cannot grasp its meaning.”’ It was then that the Shaykh, may Allah’s mercy be upon him, penned his famous treatise in reply.” ⦗1⦘

Fifth: The inclination that some have inferred from that treatise is not prominent in the Shaykh’s well-known works. What is widely recognized in those writings is his exposition and defense of the creed of Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah, including his refutation of the Jahmiyyah and the Muʿtazilah who claim that Paradise and Hell will both come to an end. The esteemed scholar Muḥammad Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Albānī traced everything related to this issue and mentioned it in the introduction to his critical edition of the book “Rafʿ al-Astār li-Ibṭāl Adillati al-Qāʾilīn bi-Fanāʾ al-Nār.” ⦗2⦘

Sixth: It is also possible that the Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—refrained from stating any personal view on this matter because he remained upon the default position: the doctrine of Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah that Hell is everlasting and will not be annihilated. Therefore, there is no objection to attributing this epistle to him and publishing it, so that his stance on the issue may be presented in its true proportion—without excessive repudiation on the one hand, and without unwarranted affirmation on the other.