From Abū Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of Abū Hurayrah, who said:
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ once went out to visit a man among his Companions who was suffering from fever, and I accompanied him. He then said,
“Allah, Exalted is He, says: ‘It is My Fire; I unleash it upon My believing servant so that it will be his portion of the Fire in the Hereafter.’”
This isnād is ḥasan. (1)
Imām Aḥmad said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrated to us, from Isrāʾīl, from al-Suddī, from Murrah, from ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd, concerning the verse, “And there is none of you but will pass over it” [Maryam 19:71]. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “All people will come to [the Fire]; then they will depart from it in accordance with their deeds.” Al-Tirmidhī likewise related it from the ḥadith of Isrāʾīl, from al-Suddī, with this chain as a marfūʿ report, and he also related it from the ḥadith of Shuʿbah, from al-Suddī, with this chain but as a mawqūf report. (2)
Asbāṭ transmitted it from al-Suddī, from Murrah, from Ibn Masʿūd, who said:
“All people will come to the ṣirāṭ; their coming is their standing around the Fire. They will then leave the ṣirāṭ according to their deeds. Some will pass like a flash of lightning, some like the wind, some like birds, some like the finest horses, some like the finest camels, and some will run as a man runs—until the last of them to cross will be a man whose light reaches only the place of his big toes. He will traverse it tottering, while the ṣirāṭ is slippery and treacherous; upon it are thorns like the thorns of the qatād shrub, and on either side are angels with hooks of fire, snatching people away …” He mentioned the rest of the ḥadith. It has corroborating reports in what has preceded and in what will follow, if Allah wills.
Sufyān al-Thawrī narrated from Salamah ibn Kuhayl, from Abū al-Zaʿrāʾ, from Ibn Masʿūd, who said:
“Allah will order that the ṣirāṭ be stretched over Hell, and people will cross it according to their deeds: the first of them like a lightning flash, then like the wind, then like the swiftest of beasts, and so on, until a man crosses at a brisk run, then another walks, and the last of them crawls on his belly. He will then say, ‘My Lord, why did You delay me?’ and He will say, ‘I did not delay you; it was your deed that delayed you.’”
A similar report is related through another chain from Ibn Masʿūd as a marfūʿ narration (3), but the mawqūf version is more authentic; Allah knows best.
Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Naṣr al-Wāʾilī said in his book al-Ibānah: “Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥajjāj informed us; Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Rabaʿī narrated to us; ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn, Abū ʿUbayd (4), narrated to us; Zakariyyā ibn Yaḥyā, Abū al-Sukayn, narrated to us; ʿAbdullāh ibn Ṣāliḥ narrated to us; Abū Hammām al-Qurashī narrated to us, from Sulaymān ibn al-Mughīrah, from …”