what I have prepared in it for its inhabitants.”

He went back and found that it had been surrounded by hardships. He returned to Him and said, “By Your might, I fear that no one will enter it.”

He said, “Go to the Fire and look at it and at what I have prepared in it for its inhabitants.” He went and looked at it and at what had been prepared there for its inhabitants, and saw that it was piled up, one part over another. He returned and said, “By Your might, no one who hears of it will ever enter it.”

So He commanded that it be surrounded by desires; he returned and said, “By Your might, I fear that no one will escape it—everyone will enter it.” Ahmad alone transmitted this report, and its chain is sound. (1)

Ahmad also said: Ḥusayn narrated to us; al-Masʿūdī narrated to us, from Dāwūd ibn Yazīd, from his father, from Abu Hurayrah, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The two hollow organs that most often lead a person into the Fire are the genitals and the mouth; and what most often leads a person into Paradise is taqwā of Allah (mindfulness of Allah, Mighty and Majestic) and good character.” (2)

Section

The Fire has been surrounded by desires, and everything inside it is harm, punishment, and grief. Paradise has been surrounded and veiled by hardships, yet everything inside it consists of delights that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and that have never occurred to the heart of any human being, as we have mentioned in the definitive verses and sound narrations.

Among their everlasting bliss and continuous pleasure is a rapture the like of which ears have never heard, as Allah the Exalted says: “As for those who believed and did righteous deeds, they will be in a garden, rejoicing” (Surah al-Rum 30:15). Al-Awzaʿī, quoting Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr, said: “This is the listening (to melodious sounds) in Paradise.”

We have already cited what al-Tirmidhī transmitted from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq, from al-Nuʿmān ibn Saʿd, from ʿAlī, who said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ declared: “In Paradise there is indeed a gathering for the maidens with wide, lovely eyes; they raise voices in song the like of which no creature has ever heard.” He (al-Tirmidhī) added: In this regard there are also reports from Abu Hurayrah, Abu Saʿīd, and Anas. (3)

I say: The same has likewise been narrated in the hadiths of ʿAbd Allah ibn Abī Awfā, Ibn ʿUmar, and Abu Umāmah.