scabies, so that one of them will scratch his own skin until the very bone is laid bare. Then it is said to him, “So-and-so, does this hurt you?” He answers, “Yes.” It is then said, “That is because you used to hurt the believers.” (1)

Al-Tirmidhi relates, on the authority of Abū Saʿīd, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“If anyone asks Allah for Paradise three times, Paradise says, ‘O Allah, admit him to Paradise,’ and if anyone seeks refuge from the Fire three times, the Fire says, ‘O Allah, grant him refuge from the Fire.’” (2)

Al-Bayhaqī reports—from Abū Saʿīd, or from Ibn Ḥujayrah (3) the Elder, through Abū Hurayrah—that one of the two narrated to him from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who said:
“On a fiercely hot day Allah turns His hearing and His sight toward the dwellers of heaven and earth. When a servant says, ‘There is no god but Allah—how intense is the heat of this day! O Allah, shelter me from the heat of the Fire of Jahannam,’ Allah says to Jahannam, ‘One of My servants has sought My protection from you, and I bear witness before you that I have granted him refuge.’ And on an extremely cold day Allah turns His hearing and His sight toward the dwellers of heaven and earth. When a servant says, ‘There is no god but Allah—how bitter is the cold of this day! O Allah, protect me from the zamharīr of Jahannam,’ Allah, Exalted is He, says to Jahannam, ‘One of My servants has sought My protection from your zamharīr, and I bear witness before you that I have granted him refuge.’” They asked, “What is the zamharīr of Jahannam?” He replied, “The disbeliever is cast into it, and—because of the intense cold—his parts are torn apart, one from another.” (4)(5)

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Al-Qurṭubī said: The scholars assert that the highest tier is Jahannam itself; it is reserved for the sinners from the community of Muhammad ﷺ. Eventually it will be emptied of its inhabitants, the winds will clap its doors shut, and not a single member of Muhammad’s community will remain there, though some sinners of the previous monotheistic nations will have shared it with them. He continued: next comes Lazā, then al-Ḥuṭamah, then al-Saʿīr, then Saqar, then al-Jaḥīm, and finally al-Hāwiyah.

Al-Ḍaḥḥāk said: In the uppermost tier are the people of Muhammad, in the second the Christians, in the third the Jews, in the fourth the Sabaeans, in the fifth the Magians, in the sixth the pagan Arabs, and in the seventh the hypocrites.

I say: Establishing these levels, their dwellers, and the exclusive assignment of each group to a given tier requires an authentic chain of transmission back to the infallible Prophet who