Tafseer of Mary · Maryam · 19:71
And there is none of you except he will come to it. This is upon your Lord an inevitability decreed.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The Exalted says: there is none of you, O people, but he will enter Hell (jahannam) — it was, O Muhammad, an irrevocably decreed judgment of your Lord that she be entered; this He decreed and made obligatory in the Mother of the Book (umm al-kitāb).
The scholars differed concerning the meaning of the entering (al-wurūd) which Allah mentions in this place. Some of them said: it means entering in.
* Mention of who said that:
Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Ibn ʿUyayna informed us, on the authority of ʿAmr: he said: someone who had heard Ibn ʿAbbās disputing with Nāfiʿ ibn al-Azraq informed me — Ibn ʿAbbās said: al-wurūd means entering in; Nāfiʿ said: no. Then Ibn ʿAbbās recited: إِنَّكُمْ وَمَا تَعْبُدُونَ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ حَصَبُ جَهَنَّمَ أَنْتُمْ لَهَا وَارِدُونَ (you and what you worship besides Allah are the fuel of Hell — you are the ones who enter her): is that entering or not? And يَقْدُمُ قَوْمَهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ فَأَوْرَدَهُمُ النَّارَ وَبِئْسَ الْوِرْدُ الْمَوْرُودُ (he goes before his people on the Day of Resurrection and leads them into the Fire — a wretched place to be led to!): is that entering or not? As for you and me — we shall enter it; but look then whether we shall come out of it or not. And I do not see that Allah will bring you out because of your denial. He said: Nāfiʿ laughed.
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ: he said: Abū Rāshid al-Ḥarūrī mentioned this, and al-Ḥarūrī said: they will not hear its faint sound. Ibn ʿAbbās said: woe to you, are you mad? Where is His word: يَقْدُمُ قَوْمَهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ فَأَوْرَدَهُمُ النَّارَ وَبِئْسَ الْوِرْدُ الْمَوْرُودُ and وَنَسُوقُ الْمُجْرِمِينَ إِلَى جَهَنَّمَ وِرْدًا (We drive the criminals to Hell like a herd), and His word وَإِنْ مِنْكُمْ إِلا وَارِدُهَا ? By Allah — the supplication of those who came before was: "O Allah, bring me out of the Fire unharmed, and make me enter the Garden victorious."
Ibn Jurayj said: the entering which Allah mentions in the Qurʾān means entering in — every righteous one and every sinner shall surely enter it. There are in the Qurʾān four mentions of this entering: فَأَوْرَدَهُمُ النَّارَ and حَصَبُ جَهَنَّمَ أَنْتُمْ لَهَا وَارِدُونَ and وَنَسُوقُ الْمُجْرِمِينَ إِلَى جَهَنَّمَ وِرْدًا and His word وَإِنْ مِنْكُمْ إِلا وَارِدُهَا .
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās — concerning His word وَإِنْ مِنْكُمْ إِلا وَارِدُهَا كَانَ عَلَى رَبِّكَ حَتْمًا مَقْضِيًّا : he means: both the righteous one and the sinner. Have you not heard what Allah the Exalted said about Pharaoh: يَقْدُمُ قَوْمَهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ فَأَوْرَدَهُمُ النَّارَ وَبِئْسَ الْوِرْدُ الْمَوْرُودُ ? And He said: وَنَسُوقُ الْمُجْرِمِينَ إِلَى جَهَنَّمَ وِرْدًا . Thus He named the entering of the Fire as entering in — and it is not departure (ṣudūr).
Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿArafa related to us, saying: Marwān ibn Muʿāwiya related to us, on the authority of Bakkār ibn Abī Marwān, on the authority of Khālid ibn Maʿdān: he said: the people of the Garden, after they had entered the Garden, said: "Did not our Lord promise us the entering of the Fire?" It was said: "You passed by it while it was extinguished." Ibn ʿArafa said: Marwān ibn Muʿāwiya said: Bakkār ibn Abī Marwān said — or he said: frozen.
Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Marḥūm ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, saying: Abū ʿImrān al-Jawnī related to me, on the authority of Abū Khālid: he said: one day the earth will be fire — what have you prepared for that? He said: that is the word of Allah: وَإِنْ مِنْكُمْ إِلا وَارِدُهَا كَانَ عَلَى رَبِّكَ حَتْمًا مَقْضِيًّا * ثُمَّ نُنَجِّي الَّذِينَ اتَّقَوْا وَنَذَرُ الظَّالِمِينَ فِيهَا جِثِيًّا .
Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to us, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of al-Jurayrī, on the authority of Abū al-Sulayl, on the authority of Ghunaym ibn Qays: he said: they mentioned the entering of the Fire, and Kaʿb said: "The Fire clings to the people like the surface of fat, until the feet of all creatures stand upon it — the righteous and the sinners alike — and then a herald calls out: Hold fast your companions, and let my companions go! Then every friend of the Fire is dragged into it — and it knows them better than a man knows his own child — and the believers come out with their bodies bedewed." Kaʿb also said: the distance between the shoulders of one of her guardians is a year's journey; each of them has a staff with two prongs with which he gives a single thrust and casts thereby seven hundred thousand people into the Fire.
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ibn Yamān related to us, on the authority of Mālik ibn Mighwal, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq: he said: Abū Maysara, when he went to bed, used to say: "O, would that my mother had not borne me!" — and then he wept. He was asked: "Why do you weep, O Abū Maysara?" He said: "We have been told that we shall enter it, but we have not been told that we shall depart from it."
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ḥakkām related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl, on the authority of Qays: he said: ʿAbdullāh ibn Rawāḥa wept in his illness, and his wife wept. He said: "Why do you weep?" She said: "I saw you weeping and so I wept too." Ibn Rawāḥa said: "I am certain that I shall enter the Fire, but I do not know whether I shall be saved from it or not."
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Abū ʿAmr Dāwūd ibn al-Zabraqān related to us: I heard al-Suddī mention, on the authority of Murra al-Hamdānī, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd — concerning وَإِنْ مِنْكُمْ إِلا وَارِدُهَا : he said: he shall enter it.
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word وَإِنْ مِنْكُمْ إِلا وَارِدُهَا : he said: he shall enter it.
Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, on the authority of Ibn ʿUyayna, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, on the authority of Qays ibn Abī Ḥāzim: he said: ʿAbdullāh ibn Rawāḥa was lying with his head in the lap of his wife and wept; his wife wept with him. He said: "Why do you weep?" She said: "I saw you weeping and so I wept too." He said: "I thought of the word of Allah وَإِنْ مِنْكُمْ إِلا وَارِدُهَا — and I do not know whether I shall be saved from it or not."
Others said: rather it is the passing (al-marr) by the Fire.
* Mention of who said that:
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda — concerning وَإِنْ مِنْكُمْ إِلا وَارِدُهَا : he means: Hell (jahannam) — the people pass by her.
Al-Ḥasan related to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word وَإِنْ مِنْكُمْ إِلا وَارِدُهَا : he said: it is the passing by her.
Khallād ibn Aslam related to us, saying: al-Naḍr informed us, saying: Isrāʾīl informed us, saying: Abū Isḥāq informed us, on the authority of Abū al-Aḥwaṣ, on the authority of ʿAbdullāh, concerning His word وَإِنْ مِنْكُمْ إِلا وَارِدُهَا : he said: the Bridge (al-ṣirāṭ) lies over Hell (jahannam) like the blade of a sword — the first group passes over like lightning, the second like the wind, the third like the noblest horses, and the fourth like the noblest beasts of burden — and they pass over while the angels say: "O Allah, preserve, preserve!"
Others said: the entering (al-wurūd) is indeed entering in, but it means the disbelievers and not the believers.
* Mention of who said that:
Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Abū Dāwūd related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, saying: ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Sāʾib informed me, on the authority of a man who heard Ibn ʿAbbās reciting وَإِنْ مِنْكُمْ إِلا وَارِدُهَا — he means: the disbelievers; he said: no believer enters it.
Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: ʿAmr ibn al-Walīd al-Shannī related to us: I heard ʿIkrima say concerning وَإِنْ مِنْكُمْ إِلا وَارِدُهَا : he means: the disbelievers.
Others said: the entering is general for every believer and disbeliever — but the entering of the believer is the passing by, and the entering of the disbeliever is the entering in.
* Mention of who said that:
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word وَإِنْ مِنْكُمْ إِلا وَارِدُهَا : the entering of the Muslims is the crossing of the Bridge over her midst, and the entering of the polytheists (mushrikīn) is that they enter into her. He said: the Prophet ﷺ said: "Those who fall — men and women — will be numerous on that day; along both sides of the Bridge stand two rows of angels, and their supplication on that day is: O Allah, preserve!"
Others said: the entering of the believer is the fever and the illnesses that afflict him in the worldly life.
* Mention of who said that:
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ibn Yamān related to us, on the authority of ʿUthmān ibn al-Aswad, on the authority of Mujāhid: he said: fever is every believer's portion of the Fire — and he recited thereafter وَإِنْ مِنْكُمْ إِلا وَارِدُهَا .
ʿImrān ibn Bakkār al-Kalāʿī related to me, saying: Abū al-Mughīra related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd ibn Tamīm related to us, saying: Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUbaydullāh related to us, on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of Abū Hurayra: he said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ went to visit a man among his companions who had a fever — and I was with him. Then he said: "Allah says: This is My Fire; I make it afflict My believing servant so that it may be his portion of the Fire in the Hereafter."
Others said: all of them enter it, but then the believers depart from it through their deeds.
* Mention of who said that:
Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Shuʿba: he said: al-Suddī related to me, on the authority of Murra, on the authority of ʿAbdullāh — concerning وَإِنْ مِنْكُمْ إِلا وَارِدُهَا : he said: they enter it, but then depart from it through their deeds.
Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, on the authority of Murra, on the authority of ʿAbdullāh — to the same effect.
Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd al-Muḥāribī related to me, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Malik, on the authority of ʿUbaydullāh, on the authority of Mujāhid: he said: I was with Ibn ʿAbbās when a man came to him called Abū Rāshid — that is Nāfiʿ ibn al-Azraq. He said to him: "O Ibn ʿAbbās, what do you think of the word of Allah وَإِنْ مِنْكُمْ إِلا وَارِدُهَا كَانَ عَلَى رَبِّكَ حَتْمًا مَقْضِيًّا ?" He said: "As for you and me, O Abū Rāshid — we shall enter it; but look then whether we depart from it or not."
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: Ibn Jurayj related to us, saying: Abū al-Zubayr informed us that he had heard Jābir ibn ʿAbdullāh being asked about the entering, and he said: "We shall be on the Day of Resurrection upon a high position above the people, and the nations are summoned with their idols and what they used to worship — one after another — and they go up to them and follow them. Every hypocrite (munāfiq) and believer will be given a light, and a darkness covers them — and then they follow it. On the Bridge of Hell are hooks that take whom Allah wills, and the light of the hypocrite is extinguished, while the believers are saved. The first group passes like the full moon, and seventy thousand people are admitted without reckoning; then those who follow them like the light of a star in the sky, and so on. Then intercession (shafāʿa) is granted, and they intercede; whoever has said Lā ilāha illā Allāh — even if his heart contains only the weight of a barley grain of good — is brought out of the Fire. Then they are directed to the Garden, and the people of the Garden pour water over them and they grow up like the herbage in the silt of a flood. Then they ask, and they are given the world and ten times as much."
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn al-Mubārak, on the authority of al-Ḥasan: he said: a man said to his brother: "Has it reached you that you will enter the Fire?" He said: "Yes." He said: "And has it reached you that you will depart from it?" He said: "No." He said: "Then why do you laugh?" He said: and he was never again seen laughing until he met Allah.
Yūnus related to us, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith informed us that Bukayr had related to him that he had said to Busr ibn Saʿīd: So-and-so says that the entering of the Fire is the standing over her. Busr said: As for Abū Hurayra — I heard him say: On the Day of Resurrection the people are gathered; a herald calls out: Let every people join what it used to worship! Then this people rises up by the stone, this people by the horse, this people by the wood — until those who worshipped Allah remain. Then Allah appears to them, and when they see Him, they rise before Him; He takes them and leads them over the Bridge (al-ṣirāṭ); on the Bridge are hooks. Then intercession (shafāʿa) is permitted, and the people pass while the prophets say: O Allah, preserve, preserve! Bukayr said: Ibn ʿAmīra used to say: Then there is the one who is saved as a Muslim, and the one who goes plunging into Hell, and the one who is wounded — then saved.
And the most correct of these opinions is the opinion of him who said: all of them enter it, but the believers depart from it thereafter and Allah saves them, while the disbelievers sink down into it. Their entering is what the reports about the Messenger of Allah ﷺ mention in great numbers, namely that they pass over the Bridge (al-ṣirāṭ) which is stretched over the back of Hell (jahannam) — and (the outcome is): the one who is saved as a Muslim, and the one who is cast into it.
* Mention of the reports related from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ concerning this:
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ibn Idrīs related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Abū Sufyān, on the authority of Jābir, on the authority of Umm Mubashshir the wife of Zayd ibn Ḥāritha: she said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said while he was with Ḥafṣa: "No one who witnessed Badr and al-Ḥudaybiyya will enter the Fire." Ḥafṣa said: "O Messenger of Allah, does not Allah say وَإِنْ مِنْكُمْ إِلا وَارِدُهَا ?" The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "And then? ثُمَّ نُنَجِّي الَّذِينَ اتَّقَوْا (then We save those who were God-fearing)."
Al-Ḥasan ibn Mudrik related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Ḥammād related to us, saying: Abū ʿAwāna related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Abū Sufyān, on the authority of Jābir, on the authority of Umm Mubashshir, on the authority of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ — to the same effect.
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Abū Muʿāwiya related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Abū Sufyān, on the authority of Jābir, on the authority of Umm Mubashshir, on the authority of Ḥafṣa: she said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "I hope that no one who witnessed Badr and al-Ḥudaybiyya will enter the Fire." She said: "O Messenger of Allah, does not Allah say وَإِنْ مِنْكُمْ إِلا وَارِدُهَا ?" He said: "Have you not heard how He says: ثُمَّ نُنَجِّي الَّذِينَ اتَّقَوْا وَنَذَرُ الظَّالِمِينَ فِيهَا جِثِيًّا ?"
Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to us, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq: he said: ʿUbaydullāh ibn al-Mughīra ibn Muʿayqib related to me, on the authority of Sulaymān ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd al-Itwārī — one of the Banū Layth, who was in the care of Abū Saʿīd: he said: I heard Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī say: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: "The Bridge (al-ṣirāṭ) is stretched over the midst of Hell (jahannam); upon her are thorns like the thorns of the saʿdān. Then the people pass over it — the one who is saved as a Muslim and the one who is wounded by it, then saved; and the one who is held back on it and the one who is hurled into it — until Allah is finished with the judgment over the servants. Then the believers notice that men who were together with them in the worldly life, who performed their prayer, paid their alms (zakāh), fasted their fast, made their pilgrimage (ḥajj) and fought their fighting (ghazwah), are missing. They say: O our Lord, servants of Your servants were with us in the worldly life; they performed our prayer, paid our zakāh, fasted our fast, made our ḥajj and fought our fighting — but we do not see them. He says: Go to the Fire and bring out of it whomever you find of them in it. They find them afflicted by the Fire according to the measure of their deeds — some the Fire afflicts up to their feet, some up to the middle of their shins, some up to their knees, some up to their chest, some up to their neck — but the faces are not covered. They pull them out and cast them into the water of life. It was asked: O Messenger of Allah, what is the water of life? He said: The water with which the people of the Garden wash themselves. They grow as herbage grows in the silt of a flood. Then the prophets intercede for everyone who sincerely testified that there is no god but Allah; they pull them out. Then Allah turns with His mercy to whoever is in it, and He leaves in it no servant who has in his heart the weight of a mustard seed of faith (īmān) without bringing him out of it."
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam related to me, saying: my father and Shuʿayb ibn al-Layth related to us, on the authority of al-Layth ibn Khālid, on the authority of Yazīd ibn Abī Hilāl, on the authority of Zayd ibn Aslam, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār, on the authority of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī — that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "The Bridge (al-jisr) is brought — that is, on the Day of Resurrection — and stretched over the midst of Hell (jahannam)." We asked: "O Messenger of Allah, what is the Bridge?" He said: "A smooth, slippery place, with hooks and claws and a flat thorny thing with a crooked little thorn that occurs in Najd and is called al-saʿdān. The believers pass over it like the blink of an eye and like lightning and like the wind and like the noblest horses and camels — then there is the one who is saved as a Muslim, the one who is wounded as a Muslim, and the one who is cast into Hell (jahannam). Then the last of them passes dragging — and you are not more vehement in pressing me for a right that is clear to you than the believers will be on that day before the Almighty when they see that they are saved while their brothers remain behind."
Aḥmad ibn ʿĪsā related to me, saying: Saʿīd ibn Kathīr ibn ʿUfayr related to us, saying: Ibn Lahīʿa related to us, on the authority of Abū al-Zubayr: he said: I asked Jābir ibn ʿAbdullāh about the entering, and he said: "I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: It is the entering in — they enter the Fire until they come out of it. The last who remains is a man on the Bridge who shuffles along; Allah causes a tree to rise up before him. He says: O Lord, bring me nearer. Allah brings him nearer. Then he says: O Lord, let me enter the Garden. He says: Ask. He asks. He says: That is for you, and ten times as much — or something like that. He says: O Lord, do You mock me? — and He laughs until His uvula and His molars become visible."
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Ayyūb informed me — and Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Zayd related to us, on the authority of Rishdīn — all on the authority of Ziyād ibn Fāʾid, on the authority of Sahl ibn Muʿādh, on the authority of his father, on the authority of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ — that he said: "Whoever, as a volunteer, guards the Muslims behind them in the way of Allah, without a ruler having compelled him to it, will not see the Fire with his own eyes except in fulfillment of the oath — for Allah the Exalted says: وَإِنْ مِنْكُمْ إِلا وَارِدُهَا ."
Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us: al-Zuhrī informed me, on the authority of Ibn al-Musayyab, on the authority of Abū Hurayra — that the Prophet ﷺ said: "Whoever has three children die before him — the Fire does not afflict him except in fulfillment of the oath" — that is: the entering.
As for His word كَانَ عَلَى رَبِّكَ حَتْمًا مَقْضِيًّا — the people of the tafsīr differed concerning its interpretation. Some of them said: the meaning is: it was with your Lord an executed judgment.
* Mention of who said that:
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us — and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us — all on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid — concerning His word حَتْمًا (irrevocable): he said: a judgment.
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj — concerning حَتْمًا مَقْضِيًّا : he said: a judgment.
Others said: rather the meaning is: it was with your Lord a binding oath.
* Mention of who said that:
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Abū ʿAmr Dāwūd ibn al-Zabraqān related to us: I heard al-Suddī mention, on the authority of Murra al-Hamdānī, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd — concerning كَانَ عَلَى رَبِّكَ حَتْمًا مَقْضِيًّا : he said: a binding oath.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda — concerning كَانَ عَلَى رَبِّكَ حَتْمًا مَقْضِيًّا : he says: a binding oath.
Abū Jaʿfar says: I have already expounded the matter.
