[ابوالوليد المسلم]

The path (3)

‘Abdullah ibn Hamoud al-Furaih

The path (3)

is the path wide or narrow?
There is dispute over the width of the Sirat on two sayings:

The first saying: that the Sirat is a wide path

They proved this: A. Linguistically, the Sirat is: the wide path
B. The saying of the Prophet (peace be upon him) regarding the description of the Sirat: “The void in which one Is likely to slip. There would be hooks, tongs”[1]

The face of evidence: that the slip, hooks and tongs are not except along the wide path.
The second saying: that the Sirat is a very narrow path

They proved this: what Muslim narrated from the Hadith of Abu Sa`id (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: “I have come to know that the bridge would be thinner even than the hair and sharper than the sword”[2]. Similar to it came with Ahmed raising the Hadith of `A'ishah (may Allah be pleased with them)[3]

With Al Hakim, there is the Hadith of Salman raising that it is like the level of Musa (peace be upon him) but Allah knows best of what is more correct.

Through the previous discrepancy, they clarify the description of the Sirat and that it is suspended above Hell. It has hooks and tongs that catch people based on their deeds. We ask Allah for peace and success.

Al Qurtubi (may Allah be pleased with him) said: a view of the passage of the Sirat: “you think now that it has you with the panic in your heart. If you see the Sirat, (your heart) will pound, your sight will fall upon the darkness of Hell from under it and then your hearing will ring with the inhalation and irritation of the fire. You have decided to walk on the Sirat despite your weak situation and heart puputations. Your foot slips and your back becomes heavy with the weight that stops you from walking on the ground, rather than the sharpness of the Sirat.

How will you be then if one of your legs are put on it so that you feel its sharpness and you have hesitated to place your second foot. The creation are around you slipping, panicking and the angels of Hell catch them with hooks and you are watching them. How their faces turn towards Hell and their legs rise. What a terrifying sight, how hard and how tense (the situation is).”

We ask Allah Almighty for success. O Lord sustain us with guidance, excessive obedience that will (make us) cross over the Sirat with great speed after which we will (reach) the elevated homes.

[1] Narrated by Al Bukhari number (7439). Narrated by Muslim number (183). From the Hadith of Abu Saeed (may Allah be pleased with him).

[2] Narrated by Muslim number (183)

[3] Narrated by Ahmad (24739)