In Islam, Jahannam () is the place of punishment for evildoers in the Akhirah / afterlife, or hell. This notion is an integral part of Islamic theologyThomassen, "Islamic Hell", Numen, 56, 2009: p.401 and has occupied an important place in Muslim belief.Lange, "Introducing Hell in Islamic Studies", 2016: p.3 The concept is often called by the proper name "Jahannam", but other names refer to hell and these are also often used as the names of different levels of hell. The term "Jahannam" itself is used not only for hell in general but (in one interpretation) for the uppermost layer of hell.
The importance of hell in Islamic doctrine is that it is an essential element of the Day of Judgment, which is one of the six articles of faith "by which the Muslim faith is traditionally defined".
In mainstream Islam, punishment and suffering in hell is physical, psychological, and spiritual, and varies according to the sins of the condemned person.Tom Fulks, Heresy? The Five Lost Commandments, Strategic Book Publishing 2010 p. 74 Its pain and horror as described in the Qur'an juxtaposes the pleasure and delights of Jannah (heaven).Thomassen, "Islamic Hell", Numen, 56, 2009: p.405Smith & Haddad, Islamic Understanding, 1981: p.86 Muslim scholars disagree over whether hell will last for eternity, or whether God's mercy will lead to its eventual elimination.
The common belief among Muslims holds that Jahannam coexists with the temporal world, just as Jannah does (rather than being created after Judgment Day). Hell is described physically in different ways in different sources within Islamic literature. It is enormous in size, and located below Paradise. It has seven levels, each one more severe than the one above it,Q.15:44 but it is also said to be a huge pit the resurrected walk over on the bridge of As-Sirāt.Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, k. al-riqāq 52; Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ, k. al-īmān 299; quoted in |Lange, "Introducing Hell in Islamic Studies", 2016: p.12 It is said to have mountains, rivers, valleys and "even oceans" filled with disgusting fluids; and also to be able to walk (controlled by reins), and to ask questions, much like a sentient being.
Etymology, other names, and accounts
In the Hebrew Bible, Gei-Hinnom or Gei-ben-Hinnom, the "Valley [of the Son] of Hinnom" is an accursed Valley in Jerusalem where child sacrifices took place. In the canonical Gospels, Jesus talks about Gehenna as a place "where the worm never dies and the fire is never quenched" (Mark 9:48). In the apocryphal book of 4 Ezra, written around the 2nd century BCE, Gehinnom appears as a transcendental place of punishment. This change comes to completion in the Babylonian Talmud, written around 500 CE.
It can be thought that the narrative of hell in Islam is largely shaped by the offerings of human sacrifices by passing it over fire or burning it to Molech, which the Tanakh describes as taking place in the Gehenna (Jeremiah 7; 32–35). While the Gehenna gives its name to Hell,Richard P. Taylor (2000). Death and the Afterlife: A Cultural Encyclopedia. "JAHANNAM From the Hebrew ge-hinnom, which refers to a valley outside Jerusalem, Jahannam is the Islamic word for hell." the fire used for the offerings turns into Hellfire, and Molech turns into Malik, the guardian of Hell in the Qur'anic narrative. (Q.43:77)
Other names for Jahannam include "the fire" (, al-nar), "blazing fire" (, jaheem), "that which breaks to pieces" ( hutamah), "the abyss" (, haawiyah), "the blaze" (, sa’eer), and "place of burning" ( Saqar), which are also often used as the names of different gates to hell.
There are many traditions on the location of paradise and hell, but not all of them "are easily pictured or indeed mutually reconcilable".Lange, "Introducing Hell in Islamic Studies", 2016: p.131 For example, some describe hell as in the lowest earth, while one scholar (Al-Majlisī) describes hell as "surrounding" the earth.Lange, "Introducing Hell in Islamic Studies", 2016: p.131, note 79 Islamic scholars speculated on where the entrance to hell might be located. Some thought the sea was the top level,Qurtubi, Tadhkira, ii, 101, 105Suyūṭī, Budūr, 411 or that the sulphurous well in Hadramawt (in present-day Yemen), allegedly haunted by the souls of the wicked, was the entrance to the underworld. Others considered the entrance in the valley of Hinnom (surrounding the Old City of Jerusalem). In a Persian work, the entry to hell is located in a gorge called Wadi Jahannam (in present-day Afghanistan).
Sources Different sources used by (or related to) Islam give different descriptions of hell, its torments, location, inhabitants and their sins, etc.
Qur'anic descriptions
According to Einar Thomassen, much of how Muslims picture and think about Jahannam comes from the Qur'an. He found nearly 500 references to Jahannam in it, using a variety of names.Thomassen, "Islamic Hell", Numen, 56, 2009: p.402 The following is an example of the Qur'anic verses about Hell:
Surely the day of decision is (a day) appointed: The day on which the trumpet shall be blown so you shall come forth in hosts, And the heaven shall be opened so that it shall be all openings, And the mountains shall be moved off so that they shall remain a mere semblance. Surely hell lies in wait, A place of resort for the inordinate, Living therein for ages. They shall not taste therein cool nor drink But boiling water and filth, as a corresponding recompense. Surely they did not feared the account, and they rejected Our messages as lies. And We have recorded everything in a book, So taste! For We will not increase you in anything except torment. (Q.78:17–30)Shakir translation, quoted in
Among the different terms and phrases mentioned above that refer to hell in the Qur'an, Fire (nār) is used 125 times, Hell (jahannam) 77 times, and Blazing Fire (jaḥīm) 26 times. One collectionSmith & Haddad, Islamic Understanding, 1981: p.85-86 of descriptions of hell found in the Qur'an include "rather specific indications of the tortures of the Fire": flames that crackle and roar; fierce, boiling waters, scorching wind, and black smoke, roaring and boiling as if it would burst with rage. Hell is described as being located below Paradise,verse 7:50 states "The companions of the Fire will call to the Companions of the Garden: 'Pour down to us water or anything that God doth provide'". having seven gates and "for every gate there shall be a specific party" of sinners (Q.15:43–44).Thomassen, "Islamic Hell", Numen, 56, 2009: p.407 The Qur'an also mentions wrongdoers having "degrees (or ranks) according to their deeds", (which some scholars believe refers to the "specific parties" at each of the gates); and of there being "seven heavens ˹in layers˺, and likewise for the earth" (Q.65:12), (though this doesn't indicate that the seven layers of earth are hell). The one mention of levels of hell is that hypocrites will be found in its very bottom.
According to Thomassen, those specifically mentioned in the Qur'an as being punished in hell are "most typically" disbelievers (kāfirūn). These include people who lived during Muhammad's time, the polytheists (mushrikūn), or enemies of Muhammad who worshiped idols (Q.10:24), and the "losers", or enemies of Muhammad who died in war against him (Q.21:70), as well as broad categories of sinners: the apostates (murtaddūn; Q.3:86–87), hypocrites (munafiqūn; Q.4:140), self-content (Q.10:7–8, 17:18),Thomassen, "Islamic Hell", Numen, 56, 2009: p.404, those who deny the divine origin of the Qur'an (Q.74:16–26), and those who deny the coming of Judgement Day (Q.25:11–14).
In addition are those who have committed serious criminal offenses against other human beings: the murder of a believer (Q.4:93, 3:21), usury (Q.2:275), devouring the property of an orphan (Q.4:10), and slander (Q.104), particularly of a chaste woman (Q.24:23).
Some prominent people mentioned in hadith and the Qur'an as in Hell or destined to go there include Pharaoh (Firʿawn; the pharaoh of The Exodus; Q:10:90-92), the wives of Noah and Lot (Q:66–10), and Abu Lahab and his wife, who were contemporaries and enemies of Muhammad (Q:111). Ibn Hisham, Translated by Guillaume, A. (1955). The Life of Muhammad p. 707. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Punishments Hell's inhabitants sigh and wail, get new skins when their old ones completely fall off, drink festering water and though death appears on all sides they cannot die. They are linked together in chains of 70 cubits, wear pitch for clothing and have their faces covered, hear roaring and boiling,Quran 67:7 and their remorseful admissions of wrongdoing and pleading for forgiveness are in vain. Inmates have chains around their necks (Q.13:5, 36:8, 76:4, etc.), are tethered by hooks of iron (Q.22:21), and are guarded by merciless angels (zabāniyyah; Q.66:6, 96:18).
Its inmates will be thirsty and hungry. Their fluids will include scalding water (Q.6:70), melted brass, and/or be bitterly cold, "unclean, full of pus".Gwynne, Rosalind W. 2002. "Hell and Hellfire." Encyclopaedia of the Quran, 2: :416a Three different unique sources of food are mentioned: Ḍari, a dry desert plant that is full of thorns and neither nourishes nor avails against hunger (Q88:8-9); Ghislin, which is only mentioned once (in Q69:36, which states that it is the only nourishment in hell); Heads of devils hanging from the tree of Zaqqum that "springs out of the bottom of Hell". (Zaqqum are mentioned three or four times: Q.17:60 (as the "cursed tree"), Q.37:62-67, Q.44:43, Q.56:52.)
Psychological torments are humiliation (Q.3:178) and listening to "sighs and sobs". (Q.11:106). There are at least a couple of indications that physical rather than "spiritual or psychological" punishment predominates in hell according to scholars Smith and Haddad. For example, the Quran notes that inmates of hell will be denied the pleasure of "gazing on the face of God", but nowhere does it state "that this loss contributed to the agony" the inmates experience. While the Quran describes the regret the inmates express for the deeds that put them in hell, it is "for the consequences" of the deeds "rather than for the actual commission of them".Smith & Haddad, Islamic Understanding, 1981: p.66
In Hadith There are "scores" of narrations or "short narratives traced back to the Prophet or his Companions" that "greatly elaborate" on the Quranic image of hell.Lange, "Introducing Hell in Islamic Studies", 2016: p.6
Organization, size, and guards Similarly to how the Qur'an speaks of the seven gates of hell, "relatively early" narrations attest that hell has seven levels. This interpretation became "widespread" in Islam. The bridge (ṣirāṭ) over hell that all resurrected souls must cross is mentioned in several narrations.
One hadith describes hell as so deep that if a stone were thrown into it, it would fall for 70 years before reaching the bottom. Another states that the breadth of each of Hell's walls is equivalent to a distance covered by a walking journey of 40 years. According to another source (Qurṭubī) it takes "500 years" to get from one of its levels to another.Qurṭubī, Tadhkira, 93; quoted in Lange, "Introducing Hell in Islamic Studies", 2016: p.14
Hell has seventy thousand valleys, each with "seventy thousand ravines, inhabited by seventy thousand serpents and scorpions".Ghazālī, Iḥyāʾ, v.157, trans. Winter p.221-2; quoted in Lange, "Introducing Hell in Islamic Studies", 2016: p.14
According to one hadith, out of every one thousand people entering into the afterlife, nine hundred and ninety-nine of them will end up in hell. (Volume 4, Book 55, Hadith number 567) (According to at least one scholarly salafi interpretation, the hadith expresses the large disparity between the number of saved and damned rather than a specific literal ratio.)