He will say, “My Lord…,” and he will keep imploring Allah until Allah says to him, “Perhaps, if I grant you this, you will ask Me for something else?” He replies, “No—by Your might!” and he gives his Lord whatever pledges and covenants Allah wills. Allah then brings him up to the gate of Paradise. When he stands at the gate, Paradise is flung open (1) before him and he sees the bliss and joy inside. He remains silent for as long as Allah wills, and then he says, “My Lord, admit me into Paradise.”

Allah the Exalted says, “Did you not give your pledges and covenants that you would not ask Me for anything beyond what I had already granted? Woe to you, son of Adam—how treacherous you are!” He answers, “My Lord, do not let me be the most miserable of Your creation.” He continues to supplicate to Allah the Exalted until Allah laughs at him; and when Allah laughs at him, He says, “Enter Paradise.”

When he enters it, Allah says to him, “Wish.” So he asks and wishes, and Allah keeps prompting him, reminding him of this and that, until his wishes come to an end. Then Allah says, “That is yours, and the like of it along with it.”

ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yazīd said: Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī was with Abū Hurayrah and did not object to any part of his narration—until Abū Hurayrah related that Allah—Exalted is He—said to that man, “and the like of it along with it.” Abū Saʿīd said, “and ten times its like along with it, O Abū Hurayrah.” Abū Hurayrah replied, “I memorized only his statement: ‘That is yours, and the like of it along with it.’” Abū Saʿīd said, “I testify that I heard from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: ‘That is yours and ten times its like.’”

Abū Hurayrah added, “That man is the last of the people of Paradise to enter Paradise.”

This is Muslim’s wording. He also transmitted it through the chain of ʿAbd al-Razzāq, from Maʿmar, from Hammām, from Abū Hurayrah (2). He then cited the ḥadith via ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār and others from Abū Saʿīd, giving it in full with a similar wording, in which it states that he is granted that and ten times its like. In some versions it says that he moves from the Fire to the gate of Paradise in three stages, sitting beneath a tree at each stage, each tree more beautiful than the one before it (3).

Muslim likewise narrated it from Ibn Masʿūd, and in that version also occurs the phrase “and ten times its like,” just as Abū Saʿīd preserved it. Allah—glorified and exalted be He—is greater, more generous, more compassionate, and more merciful.

Al-Bukhārī likewise recorded it from Ibn Masʿūd, saying: ʿUthmān ibn Abī Shaybah narrated to us; Jarīr narrated to us, from Manṣūr, from Ibrāhīm, from ʿUbaydah, from ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “I certainly know the last of the people of the Fire to come out of it, and the last of the people of Paradise to enter it: a man who will crawl out of the Fire, whereupon Allah will say to him, ‘Go…’”