out of every hundred, ninety-nine—what, then, will be left of us?’
He answered:
‘My community, in comparison with the other nations, is like a single white hair on a black bull.’
Al-Bukhari also transmitted it—from Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd Allah, from his brother, from Sulaymān ibn Bilāl, from Thawr ibn Zayd al-Dīlī, from Sālim Abū al-Ghayth, the freedman of Ibn Mutiʿ, from Abū Hurayrah—that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
‘The first to be called on the Day of Resurrection will be Adam. His offspring will be shown to him and it will be said, “This is your father Adam.” He will reply, “Here I am at Your service and all good is in Your hands.” He will be told, “Bring forth the contingent for Hell from among your descendants…,” and he mentioned the rest of the report as above. (1)
Imam Aḥmad said: Wakīʿ narrated to us, from al-Aʿmash, from Abū Ṣāliḥ, from Abū Saʿīd who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
‘Allah will say on the Day of Resurrection: “O Adam, rise and dispatch the contingent for the Fire.” He will say, “Here I am at Your service and all good is in Your hands, my Lord—but what is the contingent for the Fire?” He will answer, “From every thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine.”’ He (the Prophet) added: ‘On that Day the suckling child will turn gray-haired—“and every pregnant female will miscarry, and you will see the people as though intoxicated, yet they are not intoxicated; rather, the punishment of Allah is severe” ⦗Al-Ḥajj 22:2⦘.
They will ask, “Which one of us will be that single person?” The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Nine hundred and ninety-nine will be from Yaʾjūj and Maʾjūj, and one from you.” The people exclaimed, “Allah is Most Great!” The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) continued: “By Allah, I hope that you will constitute one-quarter of the people of Paradise; by Allah, I hope that you will constitute one-third of the people of Paradise; by Allah, I hope that you will constitute one-half of the people of Paradise.” The people glorified Allah, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “You are, among mankind, only like a white hair on a black bull—or like a black hair on a white bull.”
Al-Bukhari related it through ʿUmar ibn Ḥafṣ ibn Ghiyyāth, from his father, from al-Aʿmash; Muslim likewise reported it from Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah, from Wakīʿ, and both of them produced it through additional routes from al-Aʿmash. (2)
In Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhari, through Bundār, from Ghundar, from Shuʿbah, from Abū Iṣḥāq, from ʿAmr ibn Maymūn, from ʿAbd Allah ibn Masʿūd, it is related that he said:
‘We were with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in a leather tent when he said, “Are you content to be one-quarter of the people of Paradise?” We replied, “Yes.” He said, “By the One in whose hand is the soul of Muhammad, I hope that you will be half of the people of Paradise; for no soul will enter Paradise except a Muslim soul. And as for you in the midst of the people of shirk, you are only like a single white hair on the hide of a black bull, or like a single black hair on the hide of a red bull.”’ (3)