Notes on Soorah al Kahf verses 2-3

Verse 2. [He made it] straight to warn of a terrible punishment coming from Him, and to give glad tidings of a good reward to the believers who do righteous deeds.


 "[HE made it} straight". Shawkani: 1) refers to its straightforwardness 2) custodian and guardian for the previous divine revealed scriptures.

 Belief alone is not sufficient; righteous actions should accompany it.

 Two conditions for an act to be righteous:

o Sincerity to Allah: intending to have the pleasure of Allah and the Hereafter.

o Obedience to Allah: The deed must not be outside Allah's Shareah.

 "A good reward" the pleasure of Allah and entrance to paradise containing what no eye has ever seen, nor ear ever heard, not has it crossed the mind of any human being.

Verse 3. They will remain there forever.


• Both paradise and hell already exists now and they are both eternal. (4:168-9) (33:64-5) (43:74-5)

• The Heaven is already created."…prepared for the God fearing". (3:133). Numerous hadeeth supports this. "Indeed I saw paradise and I had a bunch of fruit from it. If I had brought it, you would have eaten [from it] as long as the world existed…." (Al Bukhari)

• Location of Paradise: It is in the highest level of 'Illiyoon (83:18)

• Hell is in the lowest of the lows (83:7).

• Harun Yahya's deviant teachings:

o "…it will be understood with what kind of order Allah created the entire universe from out of nothing, so much so that, with this secret, the question of "when" and "where?" become meaningless because there are no time and space left. When spacelessness is grasped, it will be understood that hell, heaven and earth are all actually the same place." (Allah is known through reason (pp. 202-3).

• Those who say that Hell is not eternal

o Jahmites
o Imam of the pantheists, Ibn 'Arabee at Taa'ee
o Aboo Haazil al 'Allaaf (a leading Mu'tazilah scholar)
o Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al Qayyim

• Evidence of Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al Qayyim

o Narrated Abdullah ibn 'Amar al Aas that he said: "There will come a time when a wind will blow through the gates of Hell, and there will be nobody in it. This is a marfoo' narration."

o "And those who are blessed, they will be in Paradise abiding there for as long as the heavens and earth endure, except as your Lord wills, a gift without end." (11:108)

o It is not permissible to malign or condemn these two scholars because of this error of ijtihaad.

o Another narration from Ibn Taimiyyah in Majmoo' Fatawa

 "The Salaf and Imaams of this Ummah and Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah agreed that there exist created entities that will never come to an end at all, like Paradise, Hell etc."

o This indicates that Ibn Taimiyyah has two opinions. Unless one can establish his final verdict it is incorrect to assert that he held that Hell would end without qualifying it.