in a state other than this; for Iblīs had once been in the company of the angels, and Hārūt and Mārūt were themselves angels.”

The Prophet ﷺ continued to weep—and so did Gabriel—until they were both called: “O Muḥammad, and you, Gabriel: Allah has guaranteed that neither of you will ever disobey Him.”

Gabriel then ascended, and the Prophet ﷺ went out. Passing by a group of his Companions who were talking and laughing, he said:

“Do you laugh while Jahannam lies behind you? Were you to know what I know, you would laugh little and weep much, and you would climb the heights crying out to Allah Most High.”

Allah then revealed to him: “O Muḥammad, I have sent you as a bearer of glad tidings.” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ therefore said:

“Rejoice, keep straight, and aim as close to the mark as you can.”

Al-Ḍiyāʾ said: Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Qāsim—meaning Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl—remarked, “This ḥadith is ḥasan, and its chain is sound.” (1)

Al-Bukhārī said: Ibrāhīm ibn Ḥamzah narrated to us; Ibn Abī Ḥāzim and al-Darāwardī narrated to us, from Yazīd, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khabbāb, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was reminded of his uncle Abū Ṭālib. He said:

“Perhaps my intercession will benefit him on the Day of Resurrection, so that he will be placed in a shallow pool of Fire reaching his ankles, from which the very core of his brain will boil.”

Muslim likewise transmitted it through Yazīd ibn al-Hād (2) with the same wording (3).

Muslim also said: Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah narrated to us; Yaḥyā ibn Abī Bukayr (4) narrated to us; Zuhayr ibn Muḥammad narrated to us, from Suhayl ibn Abī Ṣāliḥ, from al-Nuʿmān ibn Abī ʿAyyāsh, from Abū Saʿīd, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“The least-punished inhabitant of the Fire is a man who wears two sandals of fire; because of the heat of his sandals, his brain boils.” (5) (6)

Aḥmad said: Ḥasan and ʿAffān narrated to us; both said: Ḥammād ibn Salamah narrated to us, from Saʿīd al-Jurayrī, from Abū Naḍrah, from Abū Saʿīd, who said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ declared:

“The one who suffers the lightest torment in the Fire is a man whose feet are shod with two sandals; from them his brain boils …” Aḥmad recorded the remainder of the ḥadith in full. (7)

Al-Bukhārī further said: Muḥammad ibn Bashshār narrated to us; Ghundar narrated to us; Shuʿbah narrated to us; I heard Abū Isḥāq, who heard al-Nuʿmān, who heard the Prophet ﷺ say:

“The most lightly punished of the people of the Fire on the Day of Resurrection will be a man in whose soles a live coal is placed; from it his brain will boil.”

Muslim also recorded it on the authority of Shuʿbah. (8)