the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say:

“The fragrance of Paradise can be detected from a distance of one hundred years.” (1)

Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūbah also narrated from Qatādah the wording:

“Five hundred years.”

The same was reported by Ḥammād ibn Salamah from Yūnus ibn ʿUbayd, from al-Ḥasan. (2)

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Nuʿaym al-Aṣbahānī recorded in his book “Ṣifat al-Jannah,” through the chain of al-Rabīʿ ibn Badr ʿUlailah—who is weak—from Hārūn ibn Riʾāb, from Mujāhid, from Abū Hurayrah, in a marfūʿ narration:

“The scent of Paradise is perceived from a distance of five hundred years.” (3)

Mālik related—through Muslim ibn Abī Maryam, from Abū Ṣāliḥ, from Abū Hurayrah—that he said:

“Women who are clothed yet naked, deviating and leading others astray, shall neither enter Paradise nor smell its fragrance, even though its fragrance can be detected from a distance of five hundred years.”

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū ʿUmar Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr remarked: “ʿAbd Allāh ibn Nāfiʿ al-Ṣāʿigh transmitted it from Mālik and raised it to the Prophet ﷺ.” (4)

Al-Ṭabarānī said: “Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥaḍramī narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad (5) ibn Ṭarīf narrated to us; my father narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Kathīr narrated to us; Jābir al-Juʿfī narrated to me, from Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī, from Jābir, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

‘The fragrance of Paradise can be detected from a distance of one thousand years; by Allah, it will not be detected by one who is undutiful to his parents or one who severs the ties of kinship.’” (6)

It is established in the two Ṣaḥīḥs that Anas ibn Mālik reported: Saʿd ibn Muʿādh passed by Anas ibn al-Naḍr on the Day of Uḥud, whereupon he (Anas) exclaimed, “O Saʿd! What a wondrous scent of Paradise! By Allah, I can smell it coming from (the direction of) Uḥud.” He then fought that day until he was killed; his body was unrecognizable due to the multitude of wounds, and only his sister al-Rubayyiʿ bint al-Naḍr identified him by his fingertips. On his body were found more than eighty sword-strokes, spear-thrusts, and arrow-wounds. (7) (May Allah be pleased with him.)

Thus Anas (8) perceived the fragrance of Paradise while still on earth, even though Paradise is above the heavens, at a distance of thousands of years—unless, of course, it had been brought near to the believers on that day; and Allah knows best.