Bismillahi rahmani raheem, assalamu alaikum.
When I am studying a subject I often have insights into matters that are too deep to share, it would take too much explanation or too much scientific language to explain a point that is essentially limited in its relevance to the work. Basically, to explain something complex it would take a few paragraphs to simplify one point, while in writing it is better to be succinct.
One insight that I have been pondering for over a year now is about Jahannam (Hell) and its nature.
When you understand the relationship between the spiritual world and the physical world, you see that all the suffering in the world today is because of the abuse of Allah’s creatures of ghayb, the unseen, sihr only exists because ghayb exists, desires, delusions, lust, insanity only exist because ghayb exists and all the suffering of mankind occurs because the creatures Allah placed in ghayb abuse its place over the physical world to dominate man.
This world we live in is simple, a tree is a tree, “what you see is what you get”, but in ghayb what you think is a tree from a distance up close could be something entirely different, a tree in the spiritual world, for example, could the lote tree that supports the entire universe, or Zaqqum the tree of Hell that is a source for its people’s suffering.
It is a world of qualities, illusions and delusions and only when your own nature/heart/self are straight can you properly travel to the hights of ghayb, because to come closer to Allah and the Arsh you have to be like the physical world, “what you see is what you get” in your heart.
This is the biggest lesson in the Quran about the Isra wal Miraj of the Prophet (saws), at the Height of his (saws) journey Allah tells the entire universe through the Quran that the heart of the prophet didn’t lie or waiver in seeing what it saw, it didn’t deviate from the mission, from focusing on Allah in a journey to the end of the universe witnessing the marvels Allah created, nothing distracted Him (saws).
So, after understanding where misery in the world truly originates from and seeing that man is the equivalent of a slave on earth subservient to Allah’s spiritual creatures and their whims, the nature of Hell surprised me entirely because first and foremost it’s the embodiment of justice for man over Allah’s spiritual creatures.
Our entire lives we suffer the fitnah that comes from ghayb being over us and we are underneath it, it tells us what to do all of our lives. But in the Akhira Allah turns this upside down and the physical world will tell the spiritual world what to do because that is man’s true destiny which Allah intends for Him.
Allah will say on the day of judgment to people: “We have stripped from thee the Veil that covered thee and thy (inner) vision, this day (your vision) is iron” (50:22) no Jinn will ever be able to dominate a human again.
We see what Allah intends for man in the fact He asked both Angels and Jinn to prostrate to Adam, not even a man’s wife is allowed to prostrate to her husband but Allah asked these creatures to.
In the Akhira you will see through the nature of Hell that the physical world is now on top of the spiritual world, and the eternal punishment of all the spiritual creatures will first be from the physical forces of the universe upon them down to the spiritual, something Allah mentions in the Quran in how he describes Hell, the fire will burn them first then Hell will reach the luub (core) of their hearts at the end, meaning psychological and spiritual torments are last.
This is easier to visualise when you know that Allah taught the Prophet Idriss (saws) that black holes are Jahannam, this is the prison and doom that will seal the people of Jahannam in it.
Black holes are characterised by a single force, its crushing gravity that is so intense it bends the fabric of space (think a sheet of cloth bending) on its self like a wafer over and over, again and again, the number of times it bends on itself is too great to count, and with each bend the crushing force of gravity is multiplied more and more destroying whatever is in it right down to the particles it is made from. Because of this force, Allah called Hell in the Quran “the Crusher” Al Hutumat.
Ans of all the forces that exist in the universe Gravity is the only one that works in the physical world, sub-atomically in ghayb the spiritual world gravity has no effect, it only works on large objects like suns, planets and whatever life is on them, while every other force in the universe only works sub-atomically (in ghayb) and has no effect in the physical world.
So, after understanding this and some other scientific facts about black holes we see that the spiritual creatures of Allah which made life hell for humans because their world was higher will spend the rest of eternity suffering the torments of the forces in the physical world, the forces that never touch them in life.
Hell plays a very significant role in the existence of life besides tormenting the wicked, the prophet (saws) explained it “expands and contracts”, “breaths”, or flares up at certain times of the day and because of this Humans are not allowed to pray at those times. This is so we don’t connect with Hell spiritually while its forces are increased, but these forces also help mankind by freeing him from the evil that concentrates around him subatomically throughout the day. That evil becomes like a rust that doesn’t want to move while the forces of hell break that rust and help “dissolve it”.
The place of Ghayb over the physical world was a major source of arrogance and short-sightedness for Jinn, this is the reason Iblis rebelled against Allah in the first place it was the source of His strength and he couldn’t see past that to look at what Allah actually created and its purpose, a creature capable of holding vast amounts of wisdom and because of that knowing Allah the way He wanted. Now they will spend eternity with the physical world holding them down and tormenting them because they couldn’t listen.
“Have they not travelled in the land so that they should have hearts with which to feel and ears with which to hear? For indeed it is not the eyes that grow blind – but it is the hearts, which are within the breasts, that grow blind. [Surah al-Hajj: 46]
I had written previously how at one point like many scholars in history Allah caused me to fear the nature of Jannah. Our body is a system that needs to be in a balanced state for our judgment to be balanced, and Jannah is a place of Bliss with one overriding state, happiness. For people who care little about responsibility, consequences or repercussions in life this will mean very little to them but they will be in the lower levels of Jannah with the blissful ignorant because of this.
But those burdens I mentioned also mean awareness, knowledge, experience and wisdom, they mean you have gained enough control over yourself in this world and grown through it to experience the highest spiritual states and happiness Allah will ever create without your body becoming unbalanced.
On the day of judgment, Allah will bring death meaning every force that causes death and kill it so your body will never die again.
And in the next life, unlike this one, Allah will place all His reward and happiness in Jannah and all His punishment and consequences in Jahannam. The reason Jahannam is needed in the universe is that its spiritual force permeates the entire universe will help keep the people of Jannah balanced. These are some of the systems in place in the next life that will help people, it is up to you which of the two lives you want to experience after you die.
Shaykh Rami Al Rifai.