Abu Dāwūd transmitted—through the route of Abū Zurʿah ibn ʿAmr ibn Jarīr, from ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him), from the Prophet ﷺ—who said:

“Among Allah’s servants are people who are neither prophets nor martyrs, yet the prophets and martyrs will envy them on the Day of Resurrection for the closeness they enjoy with Allah.”

They asked, “Messenger of Allah, tell us who they are.”

He replied:

“They are people who loved one another by the spirit of Allah, without any blood kinship between them and without exchanging wealth. By Allah, their faces will surely shine with light, and they will be seated upon thrones of light. They will not fear when people are afraid, nor will they grieve when people grieve.” He then recited: “Unquestionably, the friends of Allah—no fear shall come upon them, nor shall they grieve (62); those who believed and were mindful of Him (63); for them are glad tidings in the life of this world and in the Hereafter. There is no changing the words of Allah; that is the supreme success (64)” (Sūrah Yūnus). (1)

Ibn Abī al-Dunyā narrated from one of the early generations—al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī—that he said: When Allah, Exalted is He, says to the angels, “Seize him and shackle him,” seventy thousand angels rush toward him. The chain is passed through his mouth until it emerges from his backside, and he is threaded onto it like beads on a string. He is then plunged into the Fire once, whereupon he comes out as rattling bones; those bones are then stoked in the Fire, after which he is restored fresh and whole.

Some of them said: When Allah says, “Seize him,” more angels than the numbers of the tribes of Rabīʿah and Muḍar rush toward him.

And it is related from Muʿtamar ibn Sulaymān, from his father, that he said: Nothing will be left without cursing him. He will plead, “Will you not have mercy on me?” and it will be said to him, “How could I show you mercy when the Most Merciful of the merciful did not show you mercy?!”

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Ibn Mājah said in the Book of Heart-Softening Narrations of his Sunan, under the heading “What is hoped for of Allah’s mercy on the Day of Resurrection”: Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah narrated to us; Yazīd ibn Hārūn narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Malik narrated to us, from ʿAṭāʾ, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet ﷺ, who said:

“Allah has one hundred mercies. He has allocated one mercy among all creatures—through it they show mercy to one another, show affection to one another, and even a wild beast shows tenderness toward its young. He has held back ninety-nine mercies with which He will show mercy to His servants on the Day of Resurrection.”

Muslim also transmitted it from Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Numayr, from his father, from ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Abī Sulaymān, from ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet ﷺ, with similar wording. (2)