Earlier we quoted the hadith whose soundness is unanimously accepted, transmitted through Abū al-Zinād from al-Aʿraj, from Abū Hurayrah, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Paradise is surrounded by hardships, and Hellfire is surrounded by lusts.” (1)

We also mentioned the narration conveyed by Ḥammād ibn Salamah, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, from Abū Salamah, from Abū Hurayrah—raised to the Prophet—in which he said: “When Allah created Paradise He said to Gabriel, ‘Go and look at it,’” and He said the same with regard to the Fire. (2)

Likewise, there is the other report: “When Allah created Paradise, He said to it, ‘Speak!’ So it said, qad aflaḥa al-muʾminūn (Successful indeed are the believers).” (3)

In the Two Ṣaḥīḥs it is related from Abū Hurayrah—and, in Muslim, from Abū Saʿīd—that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Paradise and the Fire argued with one another…”—the ḥadith. (4)

Both Ṣaḥīḥs also record, on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar, in a marfūʿ narration: “Fever comes from the heat of Hell.” (5)

And in the Two Ṣaḥīḥs, from Abū Dharr, marfūʿ: “When the heat is intense, postpone the prayer until it cools down, for the severity of the heat is from the scorching of Hell.” (6)

Again, in the Two Ṣaḥīḥs, from Abū Hurayrah: “When the month of Ramaḍān arrives, the gates of Paradise are opened, the gates of Hell are shut, and the devils are chained.” (7)

We have already pointed out, in the ḥadiths of the Night Journey, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ saw Paradise and Hell on that very night. (8) Allah, Exalted is He, says: “And indeed he saw him on another descent, by the Lote-tree of the utmost boundary (Sidrat al-Muntahā), near it is the Garden of Refuge (Jannat al-Maʾwā).” (al-Najm 13-15) He also described Sidrat al-Muntahā, saying that four rivers spring from its base—two visible and two hidden—and mentioned that the two hidden rivers are in Paradise. (9)

In the Two Ṣaḥīḥs it is reported: “Then I was admitted into Paradise, and there were vaulted pavilions of pearls, and its soil was musk.” (11)

And in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, in the narration of Qatādah from Anas, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “While I was walking in Paradise, I came upon a river whose banks were domes of hollow pearls. I asked, ‘What is this, O Gabriel?’ He replied, ‘This is al-Kawthar which your Lord has granted you.’” (12)