and strayed from sound guidance, disobeyed his Master, and followed his own whims, will find no route across the Bridge, will not be guided to safe passage, and will fall headlong into Hell. All people will be halted upon the Bridge and questioned about their deeds: the truthful will be asked about their truthfulness, while the pretenders and hypocrites will be tested and exposed. Some will enter Paradise without any reckoning; others will be called to an easy account, treated with gentleness and pardon; yet others will be subjected to a harsh reckoning, with probing scrutiny and exacting review. Thereafter the unbelievers will be dragged to the Fire of Hell, finding no escape, while the people of Paradise are admitted and the disobedient among the believers are ordered toward the Fire. Anyone who receives the intercession of the prophets, the scholars, or the noble saints will be pardoned; whoever has no intercessor will be punished in proportion to his sin and tormented according to his crime, and then, if his faith has remained intact, will be admitted to Paradise.
Tenth Principle: Concerning the Messenger of Allah ﷺ
When God Most High decreed this arrangement—creating man, his states, his acquisitions, and his deeds, some of which lead to felicity and some to misery—and when man, left to himself, was incapable of discerning this, God, by virtue of His bounty, mercy, generosity, and grace, created angels and sent them to certain individuals whom He had, from pre-eternity, destined for happiness: these are the prophets, peace be upon them. He dispatched them to humanity so that they might clarify the paths of bliss and wretchedness, leaving people with no argument against God. Last of all He sent our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ as a bearer of glad tidings and a warner, elevating his prophethood to the pinnacle of perfection, such that no further increase was possible. For this reason He made him the Seal of the Prophets—there is no prophet after him—and commanded human beings and jinn alike to obey and follow him. He made him the master of the first and the last and granted his Companions the rank of being the finest among all who have ever accompanied a prophet, may God’s blessings be upon them all.