(20-09-2024, 04:13 PM)Hope Wrote: Where did Islam say hell is temporary?
Hadith and Quotes on Hell being Temporary
In Kanzul Ummal:
“Verily a day would come over hell when it will be like a field of corn that has dried up after flourishing for a while” (vol. vii, page 245);
“Verily a day would come over hell when there shall not be a single human being in it” (vol. vii, page 245).
Saying by Umar (ra) (Tafsir Fathul Byan, the Fathuo Bari, Durr-i Mansur and Hadil Arwah of Ibn-i-Qayyum) which runs thus:
“Even if the dwellers in hell may be numberless as the sand of the desert, surely a day would come when they will be taken out of it.”
A saying of Ibn-i-Masood is reported in connection with commentary upon a verse of the Holy Quran:
“a time would come upon hell when there shall not be a single person in it and this will be after they have dwelt therein for ahqib ” (years)
Musnad Ahmad:
“There will come on Hell a day when its shutters will strike against each other and there will be none in it. That will happen after the inmates of Hell will have lived in it for centuries.”
Tafsir-ul-Maalam-ul-Tanzil under verse Hud:107:
“A time will come when no one will be left in Hell; winds will blow and the windows and doors of Hell will make a rattling noise on account of the blowing winds.”
Sahih Bukhari 6571
"I know the person who will be the last to come out of the (Hell) Fire, and the last to enter Paradise. He will be a man who will come out of the (Hell) Fire crawling, and Allah will say to him, 'Go and enter Paradise.'
This Hadith talks about the last man coming out of hell. Interpreting this with the Hadiths above, it means that hell will eventually be empty of all people, not just Muslims.
Verses of the Quran
Quran 99:7:
Whoso does an atom’s weight of good will see it.
So hell will be like rehabilitation and it will burn off the sins of a person. Then they’ll be taken into heaven for the atoms worth of good that they have done.
Quran 11:107:
Abiding therein so long as the heavens and the earth endure, excepting what thy Lord may will. Surely, thy Lord does bring about what He pleases.
Quran 11:108:
But as for those who will prove fortunate, they shall be in Heaven; abiding therein so long as the heavens and the earth endure, excepting what thy Lord may will — a gift that shall not be cut off.
Allah contrasts heaven as a gift that shall not be cut off, with hell as abiding there until Allah wills and ending 11:108 with an empathetic tone of Allah, who will surely bring about what He pleases. If hell was forever Allah definitely would have said that this was a punishment that would not be cut off as He said for heaven in the next verse. However, Heaven and Hell are clearly contrasted here as Heaven being forever and Hell being temporary until Allah wills.
Quran 101:8-9:
As for him whose scales are light, Hell will be his mother.
So the analogy of a man inside hell is like a fetus inside a mother. A fetus does not stay there forever, once it is fully formed. Or it can refer to the way a mother brings up a child to eventually be able to live independently. The people in hell will remain there until they are purified of their evil deeds on Earth and their soul is fully formed again to get into heaven.
There is no doubt that the abiding of evil-doers in hell is mentioned in some verses of the Holy Quran to be for “abad ” which sometimes means prospective eternity, but ” abad” also signifies a long time. And there are numerous passages in the Holy Quran showing that those in hell shall ultimately be taken out. Thus, in Quran 6:129:
God said, Verily the fire is your resort to dwell therein unless thy Lord will it otherwise, verily, thy Lord is wise and knowing.