—there is nothing to fear for anyone who is summoned from whichever of them it may be. Yet will there be someone who is called from all of them?” He replied:

“Yes, and I hope you will be one of them, Abū Bakr. Once they enter Paradise they will be directed to their homes, and they will recognize them even better than they recognized the dwellings they had in this world,” as will be clarified in the Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī (1).

Al-Ṭabarānī said: Ishāq ibn Ibrāhīm al-Dabarī narrated to us; from ʿAbd al-Razzāq; from Sufyān al-Thawrī; from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ziyād ibn Anʿum; from ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār; from Salmān al-Fārisī, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “No one will enter Paradise except by means of a pass that reads: In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Ever-Merciful. This is a writ from Allah for so-and-so, son of so-and-so: admit him into a lofty Garden whose clusters are close at hand.”

The ḥāfiẓ al-Ḍiyāʾ has likewise transmitted it through Sulaymān al-Taymī, from Abū ʿUthmān al-Nahdī, from Salmān al-Fārisī: that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “The believer will be given a pass on the Bridge that reads: In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Ever-Merciful. This is a writ from Allah, the Mighty, the Wise, for so-and-so, son of so-and-so: admit him into a lofty Garden whose clusters hang low.” (2)

Al-Tirmidhī recorded in his Jāmiʿ, on the authority of al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The watchword of the believer on the Bridge will be: ‘My Lord, grant safety! My Lord, grant safety!’” He then remarked: This is a gharīb narration (3).

In Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim it is reported: “and your Prophet will be saying: ‘My Lord, grant safety! My Lord, grant safety!’” (4).

It has already been stated that all the prophets will be saying this, and likewise all the angels. Moreover, it is established in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, through Qatādah, from Abū al-Mutawakkil al-Nājī, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “When the believers have been delivered from the Fire, they will be detained on a bridge between Paradise and Hell. There, the injustices that existed among them in this world will be requited; and once they have been cleansed and purified, permission will be granted for them to enter Paradise. One of them will know his dwelling in Paradise better than he knew his home in this world.” (5)

Al-Qurṭubī, in his Tadhkirah, discussed this ḥadith and regarded this bridge (qanṭarah) as a second Bridge reserved for the believers alone, from which no one falls into the Fire. I say: This takes place after they have passed beyond the Fire, so that bridge may be set up over another terrifying abyss known only to Allah, while we do not know it; and Allah knows best.

Ibn Abī al-Dunyā said: Suwayd ibn Saʿīd narrated to us; Ṣāliḥ ibn Mūsā narrated to us; from Layth; from ʿUthmān