He replied, “You are one of them.” Another man then said, “Messenger of Allah, pray that I, too, be among them.” The Prophet answered, “ʿUkāshah has beaten you to it.”

Thābit ibn Qays—may Allah be pleased with him—had a naturally loud voice. When the verse was revealed, “O believers, do not raise your voices above the voice of the Prophet, nor speak to him loudly as you do to one another, lest your deeds come to nothing while you are unaware” (Q 49:2), he became terrified. He shut himself up in his house, weeping, afraid that his deeds had been nullified because of his loud speech. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, noticed his absence and sent someone to summon him. After Thābit explained his fear, the Prophet said to him, “Rather, you will live honorably, you will die a martyr, and you will enter Paradise.”

Hence, everyone whom the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, testified is in Paradise, we likewise affirm to be in Paradise, and everyone whom he testified is in the Fire, we likewise affirm to be in the Fire. The Prophet did in fact bear witness that certain people are in the Fire, and the Quran gives the same verdict about Abū Lahab, the Prophet’s own uncle: “He will burn in a Fire of blazing flames, and so will his wife, the carrier of firewood—around her neck is a rope of twisted fiber” (Q 111:3-5).

The Prophet also informed us that his uncle Abū Ṭālib will be in a shallow part of the Fire, wearing two sandals from which his brains will boil—Allah’s refuge is sought.