Those who are sent to Hell will stay there forever

According to Few Ahadiths, Muslims think that they will serve a certain amount of time in hell and will then be released and shifted to Paradise. If we authenticate it from Quran this is a false concept and is completely against the true teachings of Allah in the Qur'an.

"They say, 'The Fire will only touch us for a number of days.' Say, 'Have you made a contract with Allah - then Allah will not break His contract - or are you rather saying about Allah what you do not know?' No indeed! Those who accumulate bad actions and are surrounded by their mistakes, are the Companions of the Fire, remaining in it timelessly, forever." (Qur'an 2:80-81)

"...they say, ‘The Fire will only touch us for a limited number of days.’ The lies they have invented have led them astray in their own religion." (Qur'an 3:24)

Therefore, the Prophet could never have taught this.

"...If [the Prophet] had said anything against Us, We would certainly have seized his right hand and cut off his artery, and none of you could have defended him." (Qur'an 69:43-47)

Ignoring these verses in preference to alternative 'sayings' is a serious sin:

"These are Allah's Verses we are reciting to you to show the truth. In which narration (hadith حَدِيث) after Allah and His Verses do they believe in?" (Qur'an 45:6)

Understanding 6:128

"On the day He gathers everyone together [saying], ‘Company of jinn! You have seduced a great many humans,’ their adherents among mankind will say, ‘Lord, we have profited from one another, but now we have reached the appointed time You decreed for us.’ He will say, ‘Your home is the Fire, and there you shall remain eternally’- unless Allah wills otherwise." (Qur'an 6:128)

In this verse, Allah's decree is that these Hell-bound people are sent there forever, "eternally". However, "unless Allah wills otherwise" is not negating that, it is used as an expression to emphasise Allah's capability only to do otherwise, it is not retracting what has just been stated already about their stay in Hell forever.

There are certain Quranic styles and ways of expression unique to the Qur'an. One such style used are phrases like "except if He wills" / "except if He gives permission" / "unless He wills otherwise". In the Qur'an, often these expressions follow on from a definite statement. But they do not necessarily negate the initial statement. These expressions serve purely to emphasise on the fact that Allah has the capability to will it both ways - but His verdict on the matter is what has been mentioned initially. A few examples are as follows.

"[Prophet], We shall teach you [the Quran] and you will not forget — unless Allah wishes; He knows both what is open and what is hidden." (Qur'an 87:6-7)

Allah says to the prophet, "you will not forget" the Qur'an - that is His verdict in the verse. The following portion "unless Allah wishes" is there to show that Allah is capable of making him forget, if He so wills - not that He will make him forget. The prophet will not forget is the verdict - the point made using this Quranic style is that Allah is capable of doing all things.

"The Trumpet is blown and those in the heavens and those in the earth swoon away, except those Allah wills. Then it is blown a second time, at once they stand upright, looking on. And the earth shines with the Pure Light of its Lord; the Book is put in place; the prophets and witnesses are brought; it is decided between them with the truth; and they are not wronged. Every self is repaid in full for what it did. He knows best what they are doing." (Qur'an 39:68-70)

In this verse, everyone on earth is destroyed when the trumpet is first blown. And then on the second time they are raised up. The expression, "except those Allah wills" placed following the first sounding of the trumpet does not mean some people will be able to escape the deafening sound on that Day! Once again, we can see that it is the same Quranic style used in emphasising Allah's power and capability to choose what He wills to do. These phrases do not retract the statement made by Allah previous to them but rather only a Quranic style of expressing Allah's power.

With this Quranic wisdom, we can thus understand verse 6:128, when Allah will say on the Day of Judgement, "‘Your home is the Fire, and there you shall remain eternally", He is not taking these words back by saying "unless Allah wills otherwise".

Hadith:

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Volume 1, Book 2, Number 22: Narrated Abu Said Al-Khudri:
The Prophet said, "When the people of Paradise will enter Paradise and the people of Hell will go to Hell, Allah will order those who have had faith equal to the weight of a grain of mustard seed to be taken out from Hell. So they will be taken out but (by then) they will be blackened (charred). Then they will be put in the river of Haya' (rain) or Hayat (life) (the Narrator is in doubt as to which is the right term), and they will revive like a grain that grows near the bank of a flood channel. Don't you see that it comes out yellow and twisted"

Hadith are as Authentic as the Qur’an?

There are scholars who believe that the Hadith are as authentic as the Qur’an.

Here, it needs to be appreciated that besides investigating the chain of narration of a Hadith, the second thing which requires investigation is the text of a Hadith. Although scholars of Hadith have left no stone unturned in investigating the characters and biographies of the narrators and have spent a greater part of their lives in this research, yet like every human endeavour, the natural flaws which still exist in the narration of a Hadith requires that the following two things must always remain in consideration while investigating the text of a Hadith:

1. Nothing in it should be against the Qur’an and Sunnah

2. Nothing in it should be against established facts derived from knowledge and reason

The Qur’an, it has been alluded to earlier, is the mizan (the scale of truth) and the furqan (the distinguisher between truth and falsehood). It is like a guardian of every religious concept and it has been revealed as a barometer to judge between what is right and what is wrong. Thus no further explanation is required of the fact that if anything is against the Qur’an, then it must stand rejected.

Similar is the case of the Sunnah. Whatever religion has been received through it is as certain and authentic as the Qur’an, as has already been explained earlier. There is no difference between the level of authenticity of the two. Just as the Qur’an is validated thought the consensus of the ummah, the Sunnah is also determined from its consensus. Since this fact is an absolute reality about the Sunnah, thus if a Hadith is against the Sunnah and if there is no way out to resolve a conflict between the two, the Hadith in consideration must necessarily be rejected.

Established facts derived from knowledge and reason also have the same status in this regard. The Qur’an is absolutely clear that its message is based on these established facts. Its arguments on such basic issues as tawhid and the Hereafter are primarily based on these facts. It is the requirements and demands of these facts which the Qur’an highlights through its teachings. Every student of the Qur’an is aware that it presents these facts as deciding factors for the message it puts forth. It presented them as the final word both before the Idolaters of Arabia and the People of the Book. Those who oppose these are regarded by it as people who follow their base desires. Thus intuitive realities, historical truths, results of experience and observation – all are discussed in the Qur’an in this very capacity. Hence how can a Hadith which is against these facts regarded by the Qur’an as ones which distinguish between the truth and untruth be accepted? It is obvious that it shall stand rejected. All leading scholars of Hadith also hold this view. Khatib writes:

ولا يقبل خبر الواحد في منافاة حكم العقل وحكم القرآن الثابت المحكم والسنة المعلومة والفعل الجاري مجرى السنة كل دليل مقطوع به

A khabr-i wahid cannot be accepted which is against sense and intellect, is against an established and explicit directive of the Qur’an, is against a known Sunnah or is against a practice which is observed like the Sunnah or its conflict with some conclusive argument becomes absolutely evident

Dr. Shahzad Saleem