Encyclopedia of Prophetic Hadiths

"When Allah created Paradise and Hellfire, He sent Jibrīl (Gabriel) (peace be upon him) to Paradise, saying: 'Look at it and at what I have prepared in it for its inhabitants.' So, he looked at it, returned, and said: 'By Your Honor, no one will hear of it except that he will enter it.' Then, He gave the order for it to be surrounded with hardships. He said: 'Return to it and look at it, and at what I have prepared in it for its inhabitants.' So, he returned to it and found it surrounded with hardships. He said: 'By Your Honor, I fear that no one will enter it.' He said: 'Go to Hellfire and look at it and at what I have prepared in it for its inhabitants.' So, he looked at it and found that its parts are piling up one over another. Then, he returned and said: 'By Your Honor, none will enter it.' He gave the order for it to be surrounded with desires. Then, He said: 'Return and look at it.' He looked at it and found it surrounded with desires. He returned and said: 'By Your Honor, I fear that no one will be saved from it except that he will enter it.'"

"In Paradise, there are a hundred degrees; the distance between each two degrees is like the distance between the heavens and the earth. The highest of them in degree is Al-Firdaws, and from it flow the four rivers of Paradise, and above it is the Throne. So when you ask Allah, ask Him for Al-Firdaws."

One day, the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) gave us an eloquent admonition that caused hearts to become afraid and eyes to shed tears. Someone then said: O Messenger of Allah, this is the admonition of someone who will soon part; so, advise us. He said: "I advise you to fear Allah and to hear and obey, even if an Abyssinian slave. You will see after me great discord. So, hold fast to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the rightly guided Caliphs. Bite onto it with the molar teeth. Beware of newly invented matters (in religion), for every newly invented matter is misguidance."

I heard the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) say: "Allah Almighty said: 'O son of Adam, so long as you call upon Me and ask of Me, I shall forgive you for what you have done, and I shall not mind. O son of Adam, were your sins to reach the clouds of the sky and were you then to ask forgiveness of Me, I shall forgive you. O son of Adam, were you to come to Me with sins nearly as great as the earth and were you then to meet Me, ascribing no partner to Me, I shall bring you forgiveness nearly as great as it is.'"

"Whoever gives respite to an insolvent person or remits part of his debt, Allah will shade him on the Day of Judgment in the shade of His Throne, on a day when there will be no shade but His shade."

"Lo! Soon a Hadīth from me will be conveyed to a man, while he is reclining on his couch, and he says: ‘Between us and you is Allah’s Book. So, whatever we find in it that is lawful, we consider lawful, and whatever we find in it that is unlawful, we consider unlawful.’ Indeed, whatever the Messenger of Allah made unlawful, it is the same as what Allah made unlawful."

When the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) set out for Hunayn, he passed by a tree of the polytheists called Dhāt Anwāt, upon which they used to hang their weapons. They said: O Messenger of Allah, make for us a Dhāt Anwāt just as they have a Dhāt Anwāt. Thereupon, the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Glory be to Allah! This is like what the Children of Israel said to Mūsa (Moses): {Make for us a god just as they have gods.} [Sūrat al-A'rāf: 138] By the One in Whose Hand my soul is, you will follow the ways of those before you."

"The covenant between us and them is prayer; so, whoever abandons it has disbelieved."