and the reports concerning intercession and the eventual release of the people of tawḥīd (monotheism) (1). The two of them—together with others—said what they said about the Fire coming to an end.

Al-Baghawī relates the following:
Al-Suddī narrated—through Murrah, from ʿAbd Allah—that he said,
“If the people of Hell knew that their stay in the Fire would last only as long as the number of pebbles on earth, they would rejoice.” (2)

Numerous reports from the early generations establish that a ḥiqb has a fixed measure; the plural, aḥqāb, is derived from ḥiqb. Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted—through ʿAṭiyyah—from Ibn ʿAbbās concerning the Almighty’s words
“abiding therein for aḥqāb” (3)
that he said, “for years.” (4)

Abū Ṣāliḥ al-Sammān, on the authority of Abū Hurayrah, also commented on the verse
“abiding therein for aḥqāb” (5)
and said, “A ḥiqb is eighty years; a year is three hundred and sixty days, and each day is like a thousand of the years you count (6)—one such day equals the whole span of this world.”

Ibn Abī Ḥātim further reported that ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, Hilāl al-Hijrī, al-Ḍaḥḥāk, Dhiḳwān, al-Ḥasan, Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, Qatādah, and ʿAmr ibn Maymūn all said: “A ḥiqb is eighty years.” (7)

And Hishām narrated from al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī that, when he was asked about the verse
“abiding therein for aḥqāb,”
he replied, “Allah knows best what the aḥqāb are.” (8) “No number is mentioned there other than eternity, yet it has reached us that…”