- Abu Zayd Usama ibn Zayd ibn Haritha—may Allah be pleased with them both—reported: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say, “A man will be brought on the Day of Resurrection and thrown into the Fire. His entrails will spill out and he will circle around them just as a donkey circles around a millstone. The people of Hell will gather around him and ask, ‘So-and-so, what is the matter with you? Were you not the one who used to command what is right and forbid what is wrong?’ He will reply, ‘Indeed, I used to command what is right yet I did not do it myself, and I forbade what is wrong yet I did it myself.’” Agreed upon.
His words “tandalaqu” (with an undotted dāl) mean “they spill out,” and “al-aqtāb” are the intestines; the singular is qitb.
Explanation
This ḥadith contains a stern warning against the person who enjoins righteousness without practicing it and forbids evil while falling into it himself—may Allah protect us.
He says, “A man will be brought on the Day of Resurrection,” that is, the angels will drag him forth, “and he will be flung into Hell”—not ushered in gently, but hurled the way a stone is cast into the sea. His entrails will burst forth from his belly because of the violence of that casting—may Allah protect us.
“He will circle around them just as a donkey circles around a millstone.” This comparison is meant to highlight the repulsiveness of his state. In the old mills, before modern machinery, two large stones were placed one atop the other with a hollowed space between them. An opening was made in the upper stone through which grain was poured, and inside it