Some of the Mu‘tazilite authorities said that Hell will be created later, but such an idea is mistaken and foolish, and arises from Hell not having completely opened up at the present time and developed into a form entirely appropriate for its inhabitants. In order to see with our worldly eyes the dwelling places of the next world within the veil of the Unseen and to demonstrate their existence, either the universe has to be shrunk to the size of two provinces, or our eyes have to be enlarged to the size of stars, so that we can see and specify their places. God knows best, the dwelling-places of  the  hereafter  are  not  visible  to  our  worldly  eyes,  but  as  indicated  by certain narrations, the Hell of the hereafter is connected with our world. A Hadith says about the intense heat of summer: “It gives an inkling of Hell.”6  That is to say, the Greater Hell is not visible to the tiny, dim eyes of this world’s minds. However, we may look with the light of the divine name of All-Wise, as follows:

The Greater Hell beneath the earth’s annual orbit has as though made the Lesser Hell at the earth’s centre its deputy and made it perform some of its functions. The possessions of the All-Powerful One of Glory are truly extensive; He situated the Greater Hell wherever divine wisdom required. Yes, the All-Powerful One of Glory, the All-Wise One of Perfection, who issues the command of “‘Be!’ and it is,”(36:82) has tied the moon to the earth before our very eyes with perfect wisdom and order, and with vast power and perfect order tied the earth to the sun, and has made the sun travel together with its planets at a speed close to that of the annual rotation of the earth, and with His majestic dominicality, according to one possibility, made it travel towards the sun of suns, and like a fleet decked out with electric lights has made the stars luminous witnesses to His sovereign dominicality. It is not far from the perfect wisdom, tremendous power, and sovereign dominicality of one thus All-Glorious to make the Greater Hell like the boiler of an electric-light factory and with it set fire to the stars of the heavens that look to the hereafter, and give them heat and power. That is, give light to the stars from Paradise, the world of light, and send them fire and heat from Hell, and at the same time, make part of that Hell a habitation and place of imprisonment for those who are to be tormented. Furthermore, He is an All-Wise Creator who conceals a tree as large as a mountain in a seed the size of a finger-nail. It is surely not far then from the power and wisdom of such an All-Glorious One to conceal the Greater Hell in the seed of the Lesser Hell in the heart of the globe of the earth.

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6 Bukhari, Mawaqit, 9, 10; Adhan 18; Bad’l-Khalq, 10; Muslim, Masajid, 180, 181, 183, 184, 186; Abu

Da’ud, Salat, 4; Tirmidhi, Mawaqit, 5; Nasa’i, Mawaqit, 5; Ibn Maja, Salat, 4; Tibb, 19; Darimi, Salat,

14; Muwatta’, Waqut, 27, 28, 29; Musnad, ii, 229, 238, 256, 266, 285, 318, 324, 393, 394, 462, 501,

507; iii, 9, 53, 59; iv, 250, 662; v, 155, 162, 176, 368.