the subject of hell and its torments is completely absent from public discourse
in the west but it remains a central feature of the teaching of islam and is to be found in the
christian gospels , in the new testament and in the jewish talmud although it's
not really there in the old testament as christians call it
a recent work called the study quran explores some of these issues . this is a new translation
and commentary the editor-in-chief is syed Hussein Nasser who is an iranian chap who is a
professor in america and quite a distinguished advocate of traditionalist islamic teaching .
at the back of this commentary are some marvelous essays by distinguished scholars one of them is
by sheikh hamza yusuf called death dying and the afterlife in the quran . and there's a section there
entitled hell and its torments which i just want to share with you i think it's a marvelous piece
of writing and at the end of this video if i have time i will just mention very briefly some of the
criticisms that have been made of the study quran by muslim scholars particularly coming from a
more conservative sunni position and i'll link to a book review of this in the description
below . so sheikh hamza yusuf says : the quran is replete with descriptions of the terror of the
afterlife and the torments of hell unlike the torah or even the new testament which contains
comparatively little detail of the afterlife the quran provides vivid images of the horrors
that await ingrates and deniers as in 3220 and as for those who are iniquitous their refuge is the
fire whenever they desire to go forth they're from they are returned unto it and it is said unto them
taste the punishment of the fire that you used to deny and we make them taste the
lesser punishment before the greater punishment that they might turn back
hell is reflected in the hellish experiences we endure in this world the temporary torments
of this world are reminders of the permanent ones awaiting the unrepentant among us in the
next world . the purpose of these reminders is to engender a profound sense of vigilance in this
life . the unrelenting evils are warded off with taqwa often translated piety duty or reverence or
conscientiousness whose cultivation is a central moral theme in the quran the root meaning is to
ward off evil and as employed in the quran it also indicates fear respect and reverence for god the
first injunction in the quran is o mankind worship your lord who created you and those who were
before you that happily you may be reverent to 21 that is people of taqwa . in the quranic ethos fear
of hell is cultivated in conjunction with hope for paradise the conscious awareness of god's possible
punishment engenders in this world an ore that can help one to live a morally scrupulous life but the
quran describes human beings as weak by nature 4 28 this weakness leads to sin and sin without
repentance leads to hell thus another major theme of the quran is repentance before death
the quran hints that if people simply follow the inclinations of their carnal soul al-nafs and
refuse to submit to god and his law hell would be their natural destiny the prophet stated
guard yourselves against the fire even with the charity of half a date and if you do not find
even that then with good words the concept that the inferno is the natural destination of those
who do not accept divine guidance is rooted in the quranic understanding of freedom of choice . human
beings are free to choose but embedded in the arabic word for choice is goodness iktiya means
choice but also it literally means to choose good , to relinquish conscious choice is to capitulate
to the instinctive tendencies of the bestial or lower self . alluding to this fact the prophet said :
hell is surrounded by desirous things and paradise by things that are disliked
fallen people cut off from their original and primordial nature or
fitra will naturally gravitate towards what is harmful but by
exercising choice correctly they're inclined to do good and thus pave a path to paradise
hence to choose freedom by choosing what god has world for his creatures is to choose paradise
however those who reject this choice are seen as ingrates who refuse god's greatest gift free will
the ability to choose god freely as opposed to relinquishing that choice and turning one's back
on god as stated in 2 2 5 6 : there is no coercion in religion sound judgment has become clear from
error . and in 18:29 : so whosoever will let him believe and whosoever will let him disbelieve
in other words if left to our own devices we simply follow the roads to hell
but we must choose to turn back through repentance the arabic word for repentance
is tauba which literally means to turn around . the prophets are those who have been placed upon
our path as warners , they call to us and exclaim : stop , turn around you are heading the wrong way .
they also give good news concerning the road that leads to god for many who fail to turn around in
this world purgatory and even hell will be places of purification this choice to return
freely to god by acting as his vice regents and caretakers in this worldly abode is related to the
sacred trust that even the mountains refused to bear see 59 21. the experience of hell is neither
one of life which is essentially enjoyable nor one of death which is desirably avoidable in this life
yet yearned for in hell for one neither dies nor therein nor lives 87 13. the physical sufferings
of hell are the exteriorization of the inner reality of all who deny
the blessing of existence by denying the creator and sustainer of those blessings thus the quran
repeatedly asks : so which of your lord's boons do you deny 55 13 onwards . the portals of hell
like paradise hell is described as having portals or gates and verily hell shall be their trist
altogether seven gates it has for each gate is appointed a separate portion of them 15:43.
the prophet stated : surely hell has seven gates one of them is reserved for those who draw a sword
against my community . the names of hell : hell is called by many names in the quran
the most common is simply the fire which occurs over a hundred times the next most common names
are hell and the hell fire occurring 77 and 66 26 times respectively alongside these two terms five
other names are prominent the blaze , the flame , the furnace , the roasting fire and the abyss
according to al ghazali the seven portals and seven names represent the seven sinful members of
the body through which people are led to the fire the tongue eyes mouth ears stomach hands and feet
the sins of hell of all the sins those of the tongue are the most damning
the prophet replied to a man's question about whether people would be taken
to account for their words
does anything cast people into hell on their faces other than the harvest of their tongues ?
the quran promises hell for several pacific offenses if those sins were not forgiven
through the seeking of repentance breaking god's covenant usury and economic exploitation
murder , embezzling the wealth of orphans , military desertion from a muslim army
and hoarding wealth but of all the sins mentioned the one unpardonable sin is that of idolatry once
knowledge of god's unity has been made clear so do not set up equals unto god knowingly
2 22 and truly god forgives not that any partner be ascribed unto him 4 48. however the meaning of
idolatry is far from simply worshiping idols the sin that is unpardonable is denying god's reality
which is essentialized in his absolute unity and power nothing beside god
has ultimate power he alone is uniquely independent all else is utterly dependent upon god
and to assert otherwise is to a fall into idolatry for the mystics the great idol
is the carnal self al-nafs which claims to exist independently of the divine there is also the
idolatry of making the service greater than god which occurs in self-absolutising religion when
people aggregate to themselves the mind of god and force their misguided conclusions
on others as if they were gods with the right to choose for example who lives and who dies
it is human beings who create idols and what they manufacture is an unpardonable sin in islam
do you worship that which you carve while god created you and that which you
make 37.95 the qualities of self-absolutizing idolaters are enumerated throughout the quran as
the qualities that lead to hell puffed up pride derision denial ingratitude cruelty zealotry
ignorant impotence vain gloriousness wantonness and envy the prophet said :
can i not tell you the qualities of the people of hell . the people of hell are every arrogant
pridefield rude and cruel tyrant . now i'll leave that section there because i just want to fit in
the very last paragraph which is actually quite interesting women and the hellfire a
common misconception amongst some muslims is that the majority of the inhabitants of hell are women
this arises from an often quoted hadith : i looked into hell and saw that the
majority of its inhabitants are women but another hadith almost universally ignored
states : i entered paradise and found that the majority of its inheritance inhabitants were women
so no contradiction exists for instance we could consider the former to refer to the
initial inhabitants and the latter to paradise once people had been purified and prepared for it
it should also be noted that historically women have comprised the majority of the world's
population . interesting comment there . so that's " the study quran " and i said i would mention a
few criticisms of it . there's a review on the internet let me just find it , the studycrown a
review published in 2015 by mobine vade you had the pleasure of having coffee with in chicago
a couple of years ago and he writes in the conclusion and i'll link to this the study
quran has regrettable instances in which it has departed from consensus namely with respect to
arajam that's rham and soteriological pluralism in both cases traditional theological methodologies
have been jettisoned in favor of extenuating considerations and questionable heuristics that
contradict normative orthodox religious teachings despite these legitimate and important concerns
i think we should all agree that policy makers non-muslims interested in islam
muslims distant from their faith and universities making use of the study quran
is preferable to the overwhelming majority of content related to the quran today in that vein
we are certainly in its author's debt may god renumerate their efforts efforts abundantly
and guide them and us to what pleases him amen and god knows best . so i'll link to that
review which is actually very very good and i personally appreciate it and agree with
the criticism that he makes of the study quran despite its many merits . until next time