are stacked one above another; Abū Shihāb illustrated this by counting on his fingers, saying: “This one will be filled, then this one, then this one.” (1)
Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿīd al-Jawharī told me; Ḥajjāj narrated to us; Ibn Jurayj, commenting on the verse, “It has seven gates” (Q 15:44), said: “The first is Jahannam, then Lazā, then al-Ḥuṭamah, then as-Saʿīr, then Saqar, then al-Jaḥīm—in which Abū Jahl is confined—and finally al-Hāwiyah.
Allah the Exalted says: “O you who believe, guard yourselves and your families against a Fire whose fuel is people and stones; over it are angels, stern and mighty” (Q 66:6). Stern means harsh in disposition, mighty in physique. “They do not disobey Allah in what He commands them” – that is, by their very resolve and intention they have no wish whatsoever to oppose Him, neither outwardly nor inwardly – “and they do whatever they are commanded.” Their actions are not self-willed or freely chosen; they proceed solely from Allah’s command. Indeed, they possess the strength to translate resolve into deed: true determination, momentous acts, formidable power, and awe-inspiring might.
He, Most High, also says: “Over it are nineteen (30), and We have appointed none but angels as wardens of the Fire, and We have made their number only a trial for those who disbelieve” (Q 74:30-31) – a test and an examination. These nineteen are like commanders who have helpers and followers beneath them.
We have transmitted regarding His words, “Seize him and shackle him” (Q 69:30), that when the Lord, majestic is He, utters this command, seventy thousand of the zabāniyah hasten to carry it out.
Allah, Exalted is He, further says: “On that Day none will punish as He punishes (25), and none will bind as He binds (26)” (Q 89:25-26).
Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Ḍiyāʾ related—through Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān ibn Abī Dāwūd, from his father, from Yazīd al-Baṣrī, from al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, from Anas—in a marfūʿ report:
“By Him in whose hand is my soul, the angels of Jahannam were created one thousand years before Jahannam itself was created; each day they increase in strength upon their strength until they seize their captive by the forelock and the feet.” (2)
[Concerning the surādīq of the Fire—its surrounding rampart—and the maces, shackles, chains, and fetters it contains. May Allah, exalted is He, protect us all from them.]
Allah the Most High says: “Indeed, We have prepared for the wrongdoers a Fire whose encircling wall will hem them in. If they beg for relief, they will be relieved with water like molten brass that scalds the faces—what a wretched drink and what an evil resting place!” (Q 18:29)
And He says: “It will be closed in on them (8) within outstretched columns” (Q 104:8-9). Muʾṣadah here means sealed shut.
Ibn Mardūyah also transmitted this in his Tafsīr through the chain of Sharīk, from ʿĀṣim, from Abū Ṣāliḥ, from