An immortality of pain and tears ~ Richard FullerAnd they shall be tormented day and night for ever ~RevelationAbandon allhope, you who enter here. ~Dante AlighieriWhile the wish of many individuals is to arrive at heaven, we daily behold them on the way to hell. ~ Reverend William Scott DowneyHell is that state where one has ceased tohope. ~ A. J. CroninThe day when man remembers all that he strove for, Andhell is made manifest to him who sees. As for him who is inordinate and prefers the life of this world,Hell is surely the abode. ~QuranIf you have come with highexpectations of anything, you have come to thewrong place. ~R. A. LaffertyThe Narakas are the realms of suffering that equate to the Christian hell or, more accurately, to purgatory. If a person is born into one of these realms as a result of bad karma, this is not a permanent punishment - he or she may well be reborn into one of the higher worlds in the next life. ~ Jane AlexanderinYou showsigns oflevity, and that is the one thing not permitted here. This place is for serious persons only.~R. A. LaffertyAs these erroneous ideas die out, the concept of hell will fade from man's recollection, and its place will be taken by an understanding of the law which makes each man work out his own salvation upon the physical plane, which leads him to right the wrongs which he may have perpetrated in his lives on Earth, and which enables him eventually to "clean his own slate". ~ Alice Bailey'The gates of hell are open night and day; Smooth the descent, and easy is the way: But to return, and view the cheerful skies, In this the task and mighty labor lies. ~ VirgilThe longer men sin, the more easily they can; for every act of transgression weakens conscience, stupefies intellect, hardens hearts, adds force to bad habits ... ~ Edward ThompsonNarakas are not only physical places but also states of consciousness – and symbols of the suffering that can take place during life, as well as after death. ~ Jane AlexanderinHe knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell. Book of Proverbs, IX. 18Those who committed sinful deeds while on earth become crippled spirits who are incapable of fully breathing in the love of God ... Of their own will, they choose to dwell in hell ... ~ Sun Myung MoonAs for one whotransgressed, andprioritized theworldly life, then Hell will be the abode. ~ Quran
In religion and folklore,Hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and Islam, whereas religions withreincarnation usually depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations, as is the case in the Indian religions. Religions typically locate hell in another dimension or under Earth's surface. Other afterlife destinations include Heaven, Paradise, Purgatory, Limbo, and the underworld.
I used to have a friend who said: 'Are you among those who believe that when we die and turn into dust and bones, later we will be inquired?' " He said: "Can anyone find him?" So when he looked, he saw him in the midst of Hell. ~ Quran
The Narakas are the realms of suffering that equate to the Christian hell or, more accurately, to purgatory. If a person is born into one of these realms as a result of badkarma, this is not a permanent punishment - he or she may well bereborn into one of the higher worlds in the next life. Watched over by Yama, judge of the world, the Narakas are not only physical places but also states of consciousness – and symbols of the suffering that can take place during life, as well as after death.
Jane Alexanderin inThe Body, Mind, Spirit Miscellany: The Ultimate Collection of Fascinations, Facts, Truths, and Insights, Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 2009, p. 150
Infinitetorture can only be a punishment for infiniteevil, and I don't believe that infinite evil can be said to exist even in the case ofHitler. Besides, if mosthumangovernments are civilized enough to try to eliminate torture and outlaw cruel and unusual punishments, can we expect anything less of an all-merciful God? I feel that if there were an afterlife, punishment for evil would be reasonable and of a fixed term. AndI feel that the longest and worst punishment should be reserved for those who slandered God by inventing Hell.
For the average goodcitizen,death is a continuance of theliving process in hisconsciousness and a carrying forward of the interests and tendencies of the life. His consciousness and his sense of awareness are the same and unaltered. He does not sense much difference, is well taken care of, and oft is unaware that he has passed through the episode of death. For the wicked and cruelly selfish, for the criminal and for those few who live for the material side only, there eventuates that condition which we call "earth-bound". The links they have forged with earth and the earthward bias of all their desires, force them to remain close to the earth and their last setting in the earth environment. They seek desperately and by every possible means to re-contact it and to re-enter.
Alice Bailey,The Way of the Disciple (1934) p. 300/1
Another fear which induces mankind to regard death as a calamity, is one which theological religion has inculcated ... the fear of hell, the imposition of penalties, usually out of all proportion to the errors of a life-time, and the terrors imposed by an angry God. To these man is told he will have to submit, and from them there is no escape, except through the vicarious atonement. There is, as you well know, no angry God, no hell, and novicarious atonement ... the only hell is the earth itself, where we learn to work out our own salvation, actuated by the principle of love and light, and incited thereto by the example of theChrist, and the inner urge of our own souls. This teaching anent hell is a remainder of the sadistic turn which was given to the thinking of the Christian Church in theMiddle Ages, and to the erroneous teaching to be found in theOld Testament anentJehovah, the tribal God of theJews ... As these erroneous ideas die out, the concept of hell will fade from man's recollection, and its place will be taken by an understanding ofthe law which makes each man work out his own salvation upon the physical plane, which leads him to right the wrongs which he may have perpetrated in his lives on Earth, and which enables him eventually to "clean his own slate".
Alice Bailey inA Treatise on the Seven Rays: Volume 4: Esoteric Healing. (1953) p 393
You'll burn, Burn in Hell For your sins ~ Matthew Bellamy
Now BURN ! You will BURN ! You will BURN ! burn in Hell yeah you'll burn, burn in Hell ! you'll burn, burn in Hellyeah you'll burn, burn in Hell ....... for your sins..................!!
Henry Valentine: I-I never thought I could get bored with beautiful dames, but-- look, I wouldn't expect an angel to understand this see? But-but being a big guy with a chick, it didn't mean anything if it's all set up in advance. And I mean, everything is great here, see? Really great. It's just the way I always imagined it except that-that, just between you and me fats, I don't think I belong here. I don't think I fit in. Pip: Heaven? Whatever gave you the idea that you were in heaven, Mr. Valentine? Thisis the other place!!
Thevision of Christ that thou dost see Is my vision's greatest enemy. Thine has a great hook nose like thine; Mine has a snub nose like to mine. Thine is the Friend of all Mankind; Mine speaks in parables to the blind. Thine loves the same world that mine hates; Thy heaven doors are my hell gates.
Thus we may infer thatthe only characteristic difference between modern Christianity and the oldheathen faiths is the belief of the former in a personal devil and in hell. "The Aryan nations had no devil," saysMax Muller. "Pluto, though of a sombre character, was a very respectable personage; andLoki (the Scandinavian), though a mischievous person, was not a fiend. TheGerman Goddess, Hell, too, likeProserpine, had once seen better days. Thus, when the Germans were indoctrinated with the idea of a real devil, the Semitic Seth, Satan orDiabolus, they treated him in the most good-humored way." The same may be said of hell.Hades was quite a different place from our region ofeternal damnation, and might be termed rather an intermediate state of purification. Neither does the ScandinavianHel or Hela, imply either a state or a place of punishment; for whenFrigga, the grief-stricken mother ofBal-dur, the white god, who died and found himself in the dark abodes of the shadows (Hades) sentHermod, a son ofThor, in quest of her beloved child, the messenger found him in the inexorable region — alas! but still comfortably seated on a rock, and reading a book. TheNorse kingdom of the dead is moreover situated in the higher latitudes of thePolar regions; it is a cold and cheerless abode, and neither the gelid halls of Hela, nor the occupation of Baldur present the least similitude to the blazing hell of eternal fire and the miserable "damned"sinners with whichthe Church so generously peoples it.
The only designation of something approaching hell in the Bible isGehenna or Hinnom, a valley near Jerusalem, where was situatedTophet, a place where a fire was perpetually kept for sanitary purposes. The prophetJeremiah informs us that theIsraelites used to sacrifice their children toMoloch-Hercules on that spot; and later we find Christians quietly replacing this divinity by their god of mercy, whose wrath will not be appeased, unless the Church sacrifices to him her unbaptized children and sinning sons on the altar of "eternal damnation"!
H.P. Blavatsky,Isis Unveiled, Vol. II, Chapter I, (1877)
Let heaven exist, though my own place may be in hell. Let me be tortured and battered and annihilated, but let there be one instant, one creature, wherein thy enormous Library may find its justification.
The heart of man is the place the devil dwells in; I feel sometimes a hell dwells within myself.
SirThomas Browne,Religio Medici (1642), Part I, Section LI
Ben Graham told a story 40 years ago that illustrates whyinvestment professionals behave as they do: An oil prospector, moving to his heavenly reward, was met bySt. Peter with bad news. "You're qualified for residence," said St. Peter, "but, as you can see, the compound reserved for oil men is packed. There's no way to squeeze you in." After thinking a moment, the prospector asked if he might say just four words to the present occupants. That seemed harmless to St. Peter, so the prospector cupped his hands and yelled, "Oil discovered in hell." Immediately the gate to the compound opened and all of the oil men marched out to head for the nether regions. Impressed, St. Peter invited the prospector to move in and make himself comfortable. The prospector paused. "No," he said, "I think I'll go along with the rest of the boys. There might be some truth to that rumor after all."
When the final taps is sounded and we lay aside life's cares, And we do the last and glories parade, on Heaven's shining stairs, And the angels bid us welcome and the harps begin to play, We can draw a million canteen checks and spend them in a day, It is then we'll hear St. Peter tell us loudly with a yell, "Take a front seat you soldier men, you've done your hitch in Hell."
Frank Bernard Camp, "Our Hitch in Hell", st. 6, inAmerican Soldier Ballads (1917),p. 21.
A more famous variant was later used as an epitaph of PFC Cameron, USMC, at Lunga Point Cemetery, Guadalcanal:
And when he goes to Heaven To Saint Peter he will tell: Another Marine reporting , Sir; I've served my time in Hell!
Samuel Eliot Morison,History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol. 5:The Struggle for Guadalcanal (1949), p. x
It is reported thatMark Twain, on being asked what he thought of heaven and hell, replied,I'm not going to tell you ---- for I have friends in both places. I could go him one better, for I have had experiences in both places; or rather, experiences in both such levels of consciousness.
Think about it. Religion has actuallyconvinced people … that there's aninvisible man, living inthe sky, who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list often things He doesnot want you to do. And if you doany of these ten things, He has aspecial place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where He will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever, 'til the end of time. … But He loves you.
Just as seeing Heaven's light gave him an awareness of God's presence in all things in the mortal plane, so it has made him aware of God's absence in all things in Hell.
Ted Chiang, "Hell Is the Absence of God", inStarlight 3, 2001
Were it for nothing else, yet for this at least, we should deserve hell, because we fear hell more than Christ ...Did we but love Christ as we should love Him, we should have known that to offend Him we love were more painful than hell.
He who deceived the first man ... persuades some to suspect there is no hell, that he may thrust them into hell. As God on the other hand threatens hell, and made hell ready, that by coming to know of it you might so live as not to fall into hell.
There are many men, who form good hopes not by abstaining from their sins, but by thinking that hell is not so terrible as it is said to be, but milder than what is threatened, and temporary, not eternal; and about this they philosophize much.
What can be more grievous than hell? Yet nothing is more profitable than the fear of it; forthefear of hell will bring us the crown of thekingdom. Where fear is, there is noenvy; where fear is, the love ofmoney does not disturb; where fear is, wrath is quenched, evil concupiscence is repressed, and every unreasonable passion is exterminated.
Hell is when we look back during that fraction of a second and know that we wasted an opportunity to dignify the miracle of life. Paradise is being able to say at that moment: “I made some mistakes, but I wasn’t a coward. I lived my life and did what I had to do.” However, there’s no need to anticipate my particular hell and keep going over and over the fact that I can make no further progress in what I understand to be my “Spiritual Quest.” It’s enough that I keep trying. Even those who didn’t do all they could have done have already been forgiven; they had their punishment while they were alive by being unhappy when they could have been living in peace and harmony. We are all redeemed and free to follow the path that has no beginning and will have no end.
There are special tortures destined for particular souls. These are the torments of the senses. Each soul undergoes terrible and indescribable sufferings, related to the manner in which it has sinned. There are caverns and pits of torture where one form of agony differs from another. I would have died at the very sight of these tortures if the omnipotence of God had not supported me. Let the sinner know that he will be tortured throughout eternity, in those senses which he made use of to sin.
Faustina Kowalska:The Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul
[S]he asked if I believed in hell. At first I said no. Then I said, "Honestly, I think it's possible. Though I don't think you get sent there. I don't think God would have to send people there. I think they would go there by themselves."
She asked, "Why do you think that?"
I said, "Look at how people act. They walk right into horrible things all the time. They actually go out of their way."
Mary Gaitskill,The Mare (2015). New York: Vintage, 2016, p. 198
The function of thelawyer is to preserve ascepticalrelativism in asociety hell-bent for absolutes. The worse the society, the morelaw there will be.In Hell there will be nothing but law and due process will be meticulously observed.
Grant Gilmore,The Ages of American Law (1977), p. 110.
I was suddenly arrested by what seemed to be an awful voice proclaiming the words, "Eternity! Eternity! Eternity!" It reached my very soul — my whole man shook — it brought me like Saul to the ground. The great depravity and sinfulness of my heart were set before me, and the gulf of everlasting destruction to which I was verging. I was made to bitterly cry out, "If there is no God — doubtless there is a hell." I found myself in the midst of it.
Stephen Grellet, on his inspiration, when he was still learning English and walking alone in the fields of Long Island, to take up the reading of No Cross, No Crown by William Penn, after having first set it aside upon realizing it was a religious book. In Memoirs of the Life and Gospel Labors of Stephen Grellet (1860), p. 20
You see, Mr. Simpson—a man, well, he'll walk right into Hell with both eyes open. But even theDevil can't fool adog!
The whole image is that eternal suffering awaits anyone who questions God's infinite love. That's the message we're brought up with, isn't it?Believe or die! Thank you, forgiving Lord, for all those options.
Whodares think one thing, and another tell, Myheart detests him as the gates ofhell.
Homer, inThe Iliad as translated byAlexander Pope, Book IX, line 412; the same line, with "soul" for "heart", occurs in Pope's translation of theOdyssey, Book XIV, line 181
I cannot believe that there is any being in thisuniverse who has created a human soul for eternalpain. I would rather that every god would destroy himself; I would rather that we all should go to eternalchaos, to black and starlessnight, than that just one soul should suffer eternal agony.
In the estimation of good orthodox Christians I am a criminal, because I am trying to take from loving mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, and lovers the consolations naturally arising from a belief in an eternity of grief and pain. I want to tear, break, and scatter to the winds the God that priests erected in the fields of innocent pleasure — a God made of sticks called creeds, and of old clothes called myths. I shall endeavor to take from the coffin its horror, from the cradle its curse, and put out the fires of revenge kindled by an infinite fiend. Is it necessary that Heaven should borrow its light from the glare of Hell? Infinite punishment is infinite cruelty, endless injustice, immortal meanness. To worship an eternal gaoler hardens, debases, and pollutes even the vilest soul. While there is one sad and breaking heart in the universe, no good being can be perfectly happy.
The God ofHell should be held in loathing, contempt and scorn. A God who threatens eternal pain should be hated, not loved — cursed, not worshiped. A heaven presided over by such a God must be below the lowest hell. I want no part in any heaven in which the saved, the ransomed and redeemed will drown with shouts of joy the cries and sobs of hell — in which happiness will forget misery, where the tears of the lost only increase laughter and double bliss.
Theidea of hell was born ofignorance, brutality,fear,cowardice, andrevenge. This idea testifies that our remote ancestors were the lowest beasts. Only from dens, lairs, and caves, only from mouths filled with cruel fangs, only from hearts of fear and hatred, only from the conscience of hunger and lust, only from the lowest and most debased could come this most cruel, heartless and bestial of all dogmas.
It makes man an eternal victim and God an eternal fiend. It is the one infinite horror. Every church in which it is taught is a public curse. Every preacher who teaches it is an enemy of mankind. Below this Christian dogma, savagery can not go. It is the infinite of malice, hatred and revenge. Nothing could add to the horror of Hell, except the presence of its creator, God. While I have life, as long as I draw breath, I shall deny with all my strength, and hate with every drop of my blood, this infinite lie.
Nothing gives me greater joy than to know that this belief in eternal pain is growing weaker every day—that thousands of ministers are ashamed of it. It gives me joy to know that Christians are becoming merciful, so merciful that the fires of Hell are burning low—flickering, choked with ashes, destined in a few years to die out forever.
Robert G. Ingersoll, inLittle Journey to the Home of Robert Ingersoll by Elbert Hubbard
TheMahayana stresses the ideal of thebodhisattva, who out of boundless compassion dedicates oneself to helping others. A Zen master, when asked where he would go after he died, replied, "To hell, for that's where help is needed most."
Philip Kapleau,Zen: Dawn in the West (Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, 1980), p. 83
Oh, threats of Hell and Hopes of Paradise! One thing at least is certain: This life flies. One thing is certain and the rest is lies; the flower that once has blown forever dies.
The notions of hell and purgatory, ofparadise and resurrections are all caricatured, distorted echoes of the primeval one Truth, taught humanity in the infancy of its races by every First Messenger—the Planetary Spirit mentioned on the reverse of page the third—and whose remembrance lingered in the memory of man, as Elu of the Chaldees,Osiris theEgyptian,Vishnu, the firstBuddahs and so on. The lower world of effects is the sphere of such distorted thoughts; of the most sensual conceptions, and pictures; of anthropomorphic deities, the out-creations of their creators, the sensual human minds of people who have never out-grown their brutehood on earth. p. 48
Most people leave Earth not realizing that they will have toreturn again. If they could remember at least something of the past, and learn to think about the future, they would save themselves from many errors. It is not a fear of hell but a desire forperfection that will lead people to the betterment of life.
You showsigns oflevity, and that is the one thing not permitted here. This place is for serious persons only. If you are not serious now, by hell you'll get serious pretty quick!
In the future no questions or disputes about these conditions will be possible, because man will see for himself that there is no hell, though he will also see very clearly that those who live an evil life are by that fact storing up for themselves very undesirable results and a very unpleasant time in the astral life. ~Charles Webster Leadbeater
Instead of consigning some men to heaven and some to hell, as modem theology does, it would be more true to say that every man must pass through both the states which are typified by those names. Every man must pass through the astral plane on his way to theheaven world. Every man at the end of his astral life will attain that heaven world, unless he be a person so entirely elementary, so entirely degraded as never yet to have had any unselfish thought or feeling. If that be so, there can indeed be no heaven world for him, because all these selfish desires and feelings belong exclusively to the astral plane, and they will find their result on that plane.
Our religious friends argue much about heaven and hell and are terribly afraid of the latter indeed it would sometimes almost seem as though they were afraid of the former as well, from the manner in which they exert themselves to avoid going there. In the future no questions or disputes about these conditions will be possible, because man will see for himself that there is no hell, though he will also see very clearly that those who live an evil life are by that fact storing up for themselves very undesirable results and a very unpleasant time in the astral life. The glories of the heaven world will also be open to his sight, and he will realize that man needs only a development offaculty in order to place him at once, here andnow, in the midst of all the bliss that that wondrous life can give.
There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," andthose to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened.'
A dungeon horrible, on all sides round, As one great furnace, flamed; yet from those flames No light, but rather darkness visible Serv'd only to discover sights of woe, Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace And rest can never dwell, hope never comes That comes to all; but torture without end.
Infernal world! and thou, profoundest Hell, Receive thy new possessor, one who brings A mind not to be changed by place or time. The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. What matter where if I be still the same
The Hell within him; for within him Hell He brings, and round about him, nor from Hell One step, no more than from himself, can fly By change of place.
He [Jesus] would never have said, "Until thou payest the uttermost farthing," (Matthew 5:26) unless it had been possible for us to be freed from our sins through having atoned for them by paying the penalty;neither would He have said, "he shall be beaten with many stripes," or "he shall be beaten with few stripes," (Luke 12:47-48) unless it were that the penalties, being meted out according to the sins, should finally come to an end.
It is not God who decides whether a person's spirit enters heaven or hell upon his death; it is decided by the spirit himself. Humans are created so that once they reach perfection they will fully breathe the love of God. Those who committed sinful deeds while on earth become crippled spirits who are incapable of fully breathing in the love of God. They find it agonizing to stand before God, the center of true love. Of their own will, they choose to dwell in hell, far removed from thelove of God.
Allah'sMessenger (may peace be upon him) said: Awoman was punished because she had kept acat tied until it died, and (as a punishment of this offence) she was thrown intoHell. She had not provided it with food or drink, and had not freed her so that she could eat the insects of the earth.
Muhammad narrated in Saheeh Muslim, Book 026, Number 5570
Nobody, I think has actually said, “The Kingdom of hell is within you”—perhaps because it is so obviously true that it does not need saying.
Bhikkhu Nanamoli, A Thinker’s Note Book, Posthumous papers of a Buddhist Monk, The Forest Hermitage, Kandy, Ceylon, 1971, p. 17. quoted fromArun Shourie,Preparing: For Death. Penguin Random House India Private Limited, 2020.ISBN 935305978X, 9789353059781
Richard Dawkins: What did they tell you about it? I mean, what happens in Hell? Jill Mytton: It's strange, isn't it? After all this time, it still has the power to affect me when you ask me that question. Hell is a fearful place. It is complete rejection by God. It is complete judgment. There is real fire. There is real torment, real torture. And it goes on forever, so there is no respite from it.
Of all the tyrannies that afflict mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst. Every other species of tyranny is limited to the world we live in, but this attempts a stride beyond the grave, and seeks to pursue us into eternity.
Stan: We're goin' tochurch. We'vesinned and so we have toconfess again. Butters: Uh us too. Uh we saw a picture of anaked lady. We could see her whole beaver. Clyde: Yeah. If we died right now, we'd haveuncleansouls and we'd burn in hell. Butters: I mean, poor Timmy's gonna go to hell! He can't confess his sins, 'cause all he can say is his name!
Hell Director: Hello, newcomers, and welcome. Can everybody hear me? Hello? Can everyb--? Okay. Uh, I'm the hell director. Uh, it looks like we have about 8,615 of you newbies today, and for those of you who are a little confused, uh, you are dead, and this is hell, so, abandon all hope and uh yada yada yada. Uh, we are now going to start the orientation process, which will last about-- Man 4: Hey, wait a minute, I shouldn't be here. I was a totally strict anddevoutProtestant! I thought we went toheaven! Hell Director: Yes, well I'm afraid you werewrong. Soldier: I was a practicingJehovah's Witness. Hell Director: Uh, you picked the wrongreligion as well. Man 5: Well, who was right? Who gets into heaven? Hell Director: I'm afraid it was theMormons. Yes, the Mormons were the correct answer. Crowd: Awww. Hell Director: So now I'd like to quickly introduce your new ruler and master foreternity,Satan.
More to the point, what was the lesson thatthe first Christians drew from the crucifixion? Today such a barbarity might galvanize people into opposingbrutal regimes, or demanding that suchtorture never again be inflicted on alivingcreature. But those weren’t the lessons theearly Christians drew at all. No, the execution ofJesus is The Good News, a necessary step in the most wonderful episode in history. In allowing the crucifixion to take place,God did the world an incalculable favor. Thoughinfinitelypowerful,compassionate, andwise, he could think of no other way to reprieve humanity frompunishment for itssins (in particular, forthe sin of being descended from a couple who had disobeyed him) than to allow aninnocentman (hisson no less) to be impaled through the limbs and slowly suffocate in agony. By acknowledging that this sadistic murder was a gift of divine mercy, people could earneternal life. And if they failed to see the logic in all this, theirflesh would be seared byfire for alleternity. According to this way of thinking, death by torture is not an unthinkable horror; it has a bright side. It is a route tosalvation, a part of the divine plan. LikeJesus, the early Christiansaints found a place next toGod by being tortured to death in ingenious ways. For more than a millennium,Christianmartyrologies described these torments withpornographic relish.
Steven Pinker,The Better Angels of Our Nature (2012)
The early Christians also extolledtorture as just deserts for thesinful. Most people have heard of theseven deadly sins, standardized byPope Gregory I in 590 CE. Fewer people know about thepunishment inhell that was reserved for those who commit them: "Pride: Broken on the wheel.Envy: Put in freezingwater.Gluttony: Force-fedrats,toads, andsnakes.Lust: Smothered infire andbrimstone.Anger: Dismembered alive.Greed: Put in cauldrons of boilingoil.Sloth: Thrown in snake pits." The duration of these sentences, of course, was infinite. By sanctifyingcruelty, early Christianity set a precedent for more than a millennium of systematictorture inChristian Europe. If you understand the expressionsto burn at the stake,to hold his feet to the fire,to break a butterfly on the wheel,to be racked with pain,to be drawn and quartered,to disembowel,to flay,to press,the thumbscrew,the garrote,a slow burn, andthe iron maiden (a hollow hinged statue lined with nails, later taken as the name of aheavy-metalrock band), you are familiar with a fraction of the ways thatheretics were brutalized during theMiddle Ages andearly modern period.
Steven Pinker,The Better Angels of Our Nature (2012)
To rest, the cushion and soft dean invite, Who never mentions hell to ears polite.
Alexander Pope,Moral Essays (1731-35), Epistle IV, line 149
Someone says that "after passing into the Subtle World, man does not find the hell which he so dreaded before leaving the Earth." It would be necessary to add the adjective "average" before the word "man." Verily, hell does exist. In the Subtle World, not only do criminals suffer terribly, but also those who have permitted in themselves spiritual deterioration, or who are full of any kind of lust. This is taught in the scriptures of all peoples.
The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists. That is why they invented Hell.
Bertrand Russell,Sceptical Essays (1928), Ch. 1: The Value of Scepticism
You will find that in theGospels Christ said: 'Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?' That was said to people who did not like His preaching. … Then Christ says: 'The Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth'; and He goes on about the wailing and gnashing of teeth. … Then you all, of course, remember about the sheep and the goats; how at the second coming to divide the sheep and the goats He is going to say to the goats: 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.' He continues: 'And these shall go away into everlasting fire.' Then He says again: 'If thy hand offend thee, cut it off; it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched; where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.' He repeats that again and again also. I must say that I think all this doctrine, that hell-fire is a punishment for sin, is a doctrine of cruelty.
I do my own penance for my own sins. What do you say, huh? Ah, it's all bullshit except the pain, right? The pain of hell, the burn from a lighted match increased a million times.Infinite, and you don't fuck around with the infinite. There's no way you do that.The pain in hell has two sides. The kind you can touch with your hand, the kind you can feel in your heart. Your soul, the spiritual side, and you know the worst of the two is the spiritual.
Martin Scorsese and Mardik Martin, inMean Streets (1973); in the context presented in the film this primarily refers to the pain and anguish ofHell, but it was later quoted byStephen King inIT (1986), in a more ambiguous way which permits it to be interpreted as primarily referring toGod, with just the phrase:You don't fuck around with the infinite.
"Worry about your own fortunes, gentlemen. The deepest circle of Hell is reserved for betrayers, and mutineers."
There are countless circles of hell; Believers never penetrate the ninth circle.
Dejan Stojanovic inThe Sun Watches the Sun, “Inferno” (the first poem in the book) (1999)
Even to the wicked He stretches forth in His compassion. His divine cloud hovers over all that is His; it drips dew even on that fire of punishment so that, of His mercy, it enables even the embittered to taste of the drops of its refreshment.
St.Ephrem the Syrian,Hymns on Paradise, transl. by Sebastian Brock, HYMN X, p. 153
He is going to manifest some wonderful outcome, a matter of immense and ineffable compassion on the part of the glorious Creator, with respect to the ordering of this difficult matter of Gehenna’s torment: out of it the wealth of His love and power and wisdom will become known all the more—and so will the insistent might of the waves of His goodness.
St.Isaac the Syrian,Second Part, Chapter 39, Sec. 6; quotedhere by Fr Aidan Kimel
Repeating pain, why? It's all the same, same. I hate this place, stuck in this paradigm. Don't believe in paradise, this must be what Hell is like.
Seth: I know why you lost your faith. How could true holiness exist if your wife can be taken away from you and your children? Now, I always said God can kiss my fuckin' ass. Well, I changed my lifetime tune about thirty minutes ago' cause I know, without a doubt, what's out there trying to get in here is pure evil straight from hell. And if there is a hell, and those monsters are from it, there's got to be a heaven. Now which are you, a faithless preacher or a mean, mother fuckin' servant of God?
“Pretty damn soon, the Rebs’ll pack it in here, too, I expect,” Carlton said. “Every blasphemy that passes your lips means a hotter dose of hellfire in the world to come,” McSweeney answered.” I’ve seen enough hellfire right here on earth,” Carlton said. “The kind of the preachers go on about don’t worry me as much as it used to.”
Facilis descensus Averno; Noctes atque dies patet atri janua Ditis; Sed revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras, Hoc opus, hic labor est.
The gates of hell are opennight andday; Smooth the descent, and easy is the way: But to return, and view the cheerful skies, In this the task and mighty labor lies.
Virgil,Æneid (29-19 BC), VI. 126, as translated byJohn Dryden. ("Averni" in some editions.)
Variant translation: Easy is the descent to Lake Avernus (mouth of Hades); night and day the gate of gloomy Dis (god of Hades) is open; but to retrace one's steps, and escape to the upper air, this indeed is a task; this indeed is a toil.
Quisque suos patimur manis. Each of us bears his own Hell.
In the throat Of Hell, before the very vestibule Of opening Orcus, sit Remorse and Grief, And pale Disease, and sad Old Age and Fear, And Hunger that persuades to crime, and Want: Forms terrible to see. Suffering and Death Inhabit here, and Death's own brother Sleep; And the mind's evil lusts and deadly War, Lie at the threshold, and the iron beds Of the Eumenides; and Discord wild Her viper-locks with bloody fillets bound.
Virgil,Æneid (29-19 BC), Book VI, line 336; C. P. Cranch's translation.
Do you know what Hell really is, Thomas? It's not lakes of burning oil or chains of ice. It's being removed from God's sight, of having His word taken from you. It'shard tobelieve, Thomas,so hard. I know that better than anyone.
Abu Umama narrated: "The Messenger of God said, 'Everyone that God admits into paradise will be married to 72 wives; two of them are houris and seventy of his inheritance of the [female] dwellers of hell. All of them will have libidinous sex organs and he will have an ever-erect penis.' "
Augustine of Hippo,Confessions, Book XI, Chapter XII. Quoting an unnamed author. Adapted from "Alta, scrutantibus gehennas parabat." God prepared hell, for those who are inquisitive about high things.
Undique ad inferos tantundem viæ est.
From all sides there is equally a way to the lower world.
Cicero,Tusc. Quæst, Book I. 43. 104. Quoted as a saying ofAnaxagoras.
There is in hell a place stone-built throughout, Called Malebolge, of an iron hue, Like to the wall that circles it about.
We spirits have just such natures We had for all the world, when human creatures; And, therefore, I, that was an actress here, Play all my tricks in hell, a goblin there.
Et metus ille foras præceps Acheruntis agundus, Funditus humanam qui vitam turbat ab imo, Omnia suffuscans mortis nigrore, neque ullam Esse voluptatem liquidam puramque relinquit.
The dreadful fear of hell is to be driven out, which disturbs the life of man and renders it miserable, overcasting all things with the blackness of darkness, and leaving no pure, unalloyed pleasure.
In inferno nulla est redemptio. There is no redemption from hell.
Pope Paul III, when Michael Angelo refused to alter a portrait introduced among the condemned in his "Last Judgment".
He knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.
Proverbs, IX. 18
Belief in eternalhell fire was an essential item of Christian belief until pretty recent times. In this country, as you know, it ceased to be an essential item because of a decision of the Privy Council, and from that decision the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York dissented; but in this country our religion is settled by Act of Parliament, and therefore the Privy Council was able to override Their Graces and hell was no longer necessary to a Christian. Consequently I shall not insist that a Christian must believe in hell.
St. Austin might have returned another answer to him that asked him, "What God employed himself about before the world was made?" "He was making hell."
Nay, then, what flames are these that leap and swell As 'twere to show, where earth's foundations crack, The secrets of the sepulchres of hell On Dante's track?
In the deepest pits of 'Ell, Where the worst defaulters dwell (Charcoal devils used as fuel as you require 'em), There's some lovely coloured rays, Pyrotechnical displays, But you can't expect the burning to admire 'em!
Themind is its own place, and in itself Can make aheaven of hell, a hell of heaven. ~John Milton
Quotes reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert,Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).
An immortality of pain and tears; an infinity of wretchedness and despair; the blackness of darkness across which conscience will forever shoot her clear and ghastly flashes, — like lightning streaming over a desert when midnight and tempest are there; weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth; long, long eternity, and things that will make eternity seem longer, — making each moment seem eternity, — oh, miserable condition of the damned!
What will you do in a world where the Holy Spirit never strives; where every soul is fully left to its own depravity; and where there is no leisure for repentance, if there were even the desire, but where there is too much present pain to admit repentance; where they gnaw their tongues with pain, and blaspheme the God of heaven?
The Lamb is, indeed, the emblem of love; but what so terrible as the wrath of the Lamb? The depth of the mercy despised is the measure of the punishment of him that despiseth. No more fearful words than those of the Saviour. The threatenings of the law were temporal, those of the gospel are eternal. It is Christ who reveals the never-dying worm, the unquenchable fire, and He who contrasts with the eternal joys of the redeemed the everlasting woes of the lost. His loving arms would enfold the whole human race, but not while impenitent or unbelieving; the benefits of His redemption are conditional.
The longer men sin, the more easily they can; for every act of transgression weakens conscience, stupefies intellect, hardens hearts, adds force to bad habits, and takes force from good example. And, surely, there is nothing in such associations; as wicked affinities will insure to the sinner in the future state, to incline him to repentance.
Thus we may infer thatthe only characteristic difference between modern Christianity and the oldheathen faiths is the belief of the former in a personal devil and in hell. p. 10, Book II
The same may be said of hell.Hades was quite a different place from our region ofeternal damnation, and might be termed rather an intermediate state of purification. Neither does the ScandinavianHel or Hela, imply either a state or a place of punishment; for whenFrigga, the grief-stricken mother ofBal-dur, the white god, who died and found himself in the dark abodes of the shadows (Hades) sentHermod, a son ofThor, in quest of her beloved child, the messenger found him in the inexorable region — alas! but still comfortably seated on a rock, and reading a book.
TheNorse kingdom of the dead is moreover situated in the higher latitudes of thePolar regions; it is a cold and cheerless abode, and neither the gelid halls of Hela, nor the occupation of Baldur present the least similitude to the blazing hell of eternal fire and the miserable "damned"sinners with whichthe Church so generously peoples it. p. 11, Book II
The only designation of something approaching hell in the Bible isGehenna or Hinnom, a valley near Jerusalem, where was situatedTophet, a place where a fire was perpetually kept for sanitary purposes. The prophetJeremiah informs us that theIsraelites used to sacrifice their children toMoloch-Hercules on that spot; and later we find Christians quietly replacing this divinity by their god of mercy, whose wrath will not be appeased, unless the Church sacrifices to him her unbaptized children and sinning sons on the altar of "eternal damnation"! p. 11, Book II
Whence then did the divine learn so well the conditions of hell, to actually divide its torments into two kinds, the pcena damni and paenae sensus, the former being the privation of the beatific vision; the latter the eternal pains in a lake of fire and brimstone / If they answer us that it is in the Apocalypse (xx. io), we are prepared to demonstrate whence the theologist John himself derived the idea, “ And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented for ever and ever,” he says. Laying aside the esoteric interpretation that the “ devil ” or tempting demon meant our own earthly body, which after death will surely dissolve in the fiery or ethereal elements,* the word “eternal” by which our theologians interpret the words “ for ever and ever” does not exist in the Hebrew language, either as a word or meaning. p. 11, Book II
In theOld Testament the wordforever only signifies a long time, Archbishop Tillotson has completely perverted its sense with respect to the idea of hell-torments. According to his doctrine, when Sodom and Gomorrah are said to be suffering “eternal fire,” we must understand it only in the sense of that fire not being extinguished till both cities were entirely consumed. But, as to hell-fire the words must be understood in the strictest sense of infinite duration. Such is the decree of the learned divine. For the duration of the punishment of the wicked must be proportionate to the eternal happiness of the righteous. p. 12, Book II
Origen understood it well, having been a pupil ofAmmonius Saccas ; therefore we see him bravely denying the perpetuity of helltorments. He maintains that not only men, but even devils (by which term he meant disembodied human sinners), after a certain duration of punishment shall be pardoned and finally restored to heaven, In consequence of this and other such heresies Origen was, as a matter of course, exiled. p. 13, Book II
Many have been the learned and truly-inspired speculations as to the locality of hell. The most popular were those which placed it in the centre of the earth. p. 13, Book II
The eloquentTertullian, who hopes to see all the “philosophers” in the gehenna fire of Hell. “What shall be the magnitude of that scene ! ... How shall I laugh! How shall I rejoice! How shall I triumph when I see so many illustrious kings who were said to have mounted into heaven, groaning with Jupiter, their god, in the lowest darkness of hell! Then shall the soldiers who have persecuted the name of Christ burn in more cruel fire than any they had kindled for the saints!” These murderous expressions illustrate the spirit of Christianity till this day. But do they illustrate the teachings of Christ? p. 250, Book II
Buddha teaches the doctrine of anew birth as plainly as Jesus does. Desiring to break with the ancient Mysteries, to which it was impossible to admit the ignorant masses, the Hindu reformer, though generally silent upon more than one secret dogma, clearly states his thought in several passages. Thus, he says : “Some people are born again ; evil-doers go to Hell; righteous people go to Heaven; those who are free from all worldly desires enter Nirvana” (Precepts of the Dhammapada, v., 126) p. 566, Book II
And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless inthe day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them.
When theSon of Man shallcome in His glory, and all the holyangels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of his glory: And before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And He shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit theKingdom prepared for you from thefoundation of the world: for I was hungry, and ye gave Me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took Me in; naked, and ye clothed Me; I was sick, and ye visited Me; I was in prison, and ye came unto Me.” Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, “Lord, when saw we Thee hungry, and fed Thee? Or thirsty, and gave Thee drink? When saw we Thee a stranger, and took Thee in? Or naked, and clothed Thee? Or when saw we Thee sick, or in prison, and came unto Thee?” And the King shall answer and say unto them, “Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto Me.” Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for theDevil and his angels: for I was hungry, and ye gave Me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took Me not in; naked, and ye clothed Me not; sick, and in prison, and ye visited Me not.” Then shall they also answer Him, saying, “Lord, when saw we Thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto Thee?” Then shall He answer them, saying, “Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to Me.” And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
Gospel of Matthew 25:31-46
Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: but I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: but I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is thedevil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh! Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. Woe unto you, scribes andPharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between. the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and the fireis not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, who after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.
There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son,remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the beast and the false prophet;and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne;and books were opened: and another book was opened, which is [the book] of life: and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, [even] the lake of fire. And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.
Book of Revelation 20 : 10-15
But for the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part [shall be] in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death.
As Moses entered hell, the fire withdrew a distance of five hundred parasangs, and the Angel of Hell, Nasargiel, asked him, "Who art thou?" and he answered, "I am Moses, the son of Amram." Nasargiel: "This is not thy place, thou belongest in Paradise." Moses: "I came hither to see the manifestation of the power of God."
Moses saw men undergoing torture by the Angels of Destruction: some of the sinners were suspended by their eyelids, some by their ears, some by their hands, and some by their tongues, and they cried bitterly. And women were suspended by their hair and by their breasts, and in other ways, all on chains of fire. Nasargiel explained: "These hang by their eyes, because they looked lustfully upon the wives of their neighbors, and with a covetous eye upon the possessions of their fellow-men. These hang by their ears because they listened to empty and vain speech, and turned their ear away from hearing the Torah. These hang by their tongues, because they talked slander, and accustomed their tongue to foolish babbling. These hang by their feet, because they walked with them in order to spy upon their fellow-men, but they walked not to the synagogue, to offer prayer unto their Creator. These hang by their hands, because with them they robbed their neighbors of their possessions, and committed murder. These women hang by their hair and their breasts, because they uncovered them in the presence of young men, so that they conceived desire unto them, and fell into sin."
Moses saw the place called Alukah, where sinners were suspended by their feet, their heads downward, and their bodies covered with black worms, each five hundred parasangs long. They lamented, and cried: "Woe unto us for the punishment of hell. Give us death, that we may die!" Nasargiel explained: "These are the sinners that swore falsely, profaned the Sabbath and the holy days, despised the sages, called their neighbors by unseemly nicknames, wronged the orphan and the widow, and bore false witness. Therefore bath God delivered them to these worms."
Moses went thence to another place, and there he saw sinners prone on their faces, with two thousand scorpions lashing, stinging, and tormenting them, while the tortured victims cried bitterly. Each of the scorpions had seventy thousand heads, each head seventy thousand mouths, each mouth seventy thousand stings, and each sting seventy thousand pouches of poison and venom, which the sinners are forced to drink down, although the anguish is so racking that their eyes melt in their sockets. Nasargiel explained: "These are the sinners who caused the Israelites to lose their money, who exalted themselves above the community, who put their neighbors to shame in public, who delivered their fellow-Israelites into the hands of the Gentiles, who denied the Torah of Moses, and who maintained that God is not the Creator of the world."
Then Moses saw the place called Tit ba-Yawen, in which the sinners stand in mud up to their navels, whilethe Angels of Destruction lash them with fiery chains, and break their teeth with fiery stones, from morning until evening, and during the night they make their teeth grow again, to the length of a parasang, only to break them anew the next morning. Nasargiel explained: "These are the sinners who ate carrion and forbidden flesh, who lent their money at usury, who wrote the Name of God on amulets for Gentiles, who used false weights, who stole money from their fellow-Israelites, who ate on the Day of Atonement, who ate forbidden fat, and animals and reptiles that are an abomination, and who drank blood."
Then Nasargiel said to Moses: "Come and see how the sinners are burnt in hell," and Moses answered, "I cannot go there," but Nasargiel replied, "Let the light of the Shekinah precede thee, and the fire of hell will have no power over thee." Moses yielded, and he saw how the sinners were burnt, one half of their bodies being immersed in fire and the other half in snow, while worms bred in their own flesh crawled over them, and the Angels of Destruction beat them incessantly. Nasargiel explained: "These are the sinners who committed incest, murder, and idolatry, who cursed their parents and their teachers, and who, like Nimrod and others, called themselves gods." In this place, which is called Abaddon, he saw the sinners taking snow by stealth and putting it in their armpits, to relieve the pain inflicted by the scorching fire, and he was convinced that the saying was true, "The wicked mend not their ways even at the gate of hell."
They said: We cannot prefer thee to what has come to us of clear arguments and to Him Who made us, so decide as thou wilt decide. Thou canst only decide about this world's life. Surely we believe in our Lord that He may forgive us our faults and the magic to which thou didst compel us. And Allah is Best and ever Abiding.Whoso comes guilty to his Lord, for him is surely hell. He will neither die therein, nor live. And whoso comes to Him a believer, having done good deeds, for them are high ranks, Gardens of perpetuity, wherein flow rivers, to abide therein. And such is the reward of him who purifies himself.
chapterTa Ha : 72-76
One of them said:"I used to have a friend who said: 'Are you among those who believe that when we die and turn into dust and bones, later we will be inquired?' " He said: "Can anyone find him?" So when he looked, he saw him in the midst of Hell. He said: "By God, you nearly misguided me! And had it not been for my Lord's blessing, I would have been with you. Are we then not going to die, except for our first death, and we will not be punished?" Such is the greatest triumph.
chapterAs-Saffat : 51-60
So give admonition! (because) admonition is useful, he who is thoughtful will consider while the unrighteous one will neglect it, one who will be burnt in the greatFire, then therein he will neither live nordie.
chapterAl-A'la : 9-13
So when the great Calamity comes; The day when man remembers everything that he has done, Andhell is made manifest to him who beholds. Then as for him who is inordinate, And prioritizes the life of this world,Hell is surely the abode. And as for him who fears to stand before his Lord and restrains himself from low desires, TheParadise is surely the abode.
chapterAn-Naziat : 34-41
As for one who transgressed, andprioritized the worldly life, then Hell will be the abode.
chapterAn-Naziat : 37-39
Whoever desires this world's life and its finery, We repay them their deeds therein, and they are not made to suffer loss in it. These are they for whom there is nothing butFire in theHereafter. And what they work therein is fruitless and their deeds are vain. Is he then (like these), who has with him clear proof from his Lord, and a witness from Him recites it, and before it, the Book of Moses, a guide and a mercy? These believe in it. And whoever of the parties disbelieves in it, the Fire is his promised place. So be not in doubt about It. Surely it is the truth from thy Lord, but most men believe not.
chapterHud : 15-17
Besides Him they worship on nothing but idols and they call on nothing but rebellious Satan, whom Allah has cursed. And he said: "Certainly I will take of Thy servants an appointed portion; And certainly I will lead them astray and excite in them vain desires and bid them so that they will slit the ears of the cattle, and bid them" so that they will alter Allah's creation. And whoever takes Satan for a guardian, ignores Allah, he indeed suffers a great loss. He promises them and excites vain desires in them. And Satan promises them only to deceive. for these, their refuge is Hell, and they will find no escape from it.
chapterAn-Nisa : 117-121
And when Abraham said: My Lord, make this a secure town and provide its people with fruits, such of them as believe in God and the Last Day. He said: And whoever disbelieves, I shall grant him enjoyment for a short while, then I shall drive him to the chastisement of theFire. And it is an evil destination.
chapterAl-Baqarah : 126
Whoso disbelieves in Allah after his belief -- not he who is compelled while his heart is content with faith, but he who opens (his) breast for disbelief -- on them is the wrath of Allah, and for them is a grievous chastisement. That is because they love this world's life more than the Hereafter, and because Allah guides not the disbelieving people. These are they whose hearts and ears and eyes Allah has sealed and these are the heedless ones. No doubt that in the Hereafter they are the losers.
chapterAn-Nahl : 106-109
And if thou couldst see when they are made to stand beforethe Fire, and say: Would that we were sent back! We would not reject the messages of our Lord but would be of the believers. Nay, that which they concealed before will become manifest to them. And if they were sent back, they would certainly go back to that which they are forbidden, and surely they are liars. And they say: There is nothing but our life of this world and we shall not be raised again. ~ QuranI pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. ~ Gospel of Lukeits keepers ask them: Did not a warner come to you? They say: Yea, indeed a warner came to us, but we denied and said Allah has revealed nothing you are only in great error. And they say:Had we but listened or pondered, we should not have been among the inmates of the burning Fire ~ Quran
It may be that your Lord will have mercy on you. And if you return (to mischief), We will return (to punishment). And We have made hell a prison for the disbelievers. Surely this Qur'an guides to that which is most upright, and gives good news to the believers who do good that theirs is a great reward, And that those who believe not in the Hereafter, We have prepared for them a painful chastisement. And man prays for evil as he ought to pray for good; and man is ever hasty. And We made the night and the day two signs, then We have made the sign of the night to pass away and We have made the sign of the day manifest, so that you may seek grace from your Lord, and that you may know the numbering of years and the reckoning. And We have explained everything with distinctness. And We have made every man's actions to cling to his neck, andWe shall bring forth to him on the day of Resurrection a book which he will find wide open. Read thy book. Thine own soul is sufficient as a reckoner against thee this day.
chapterAl-Isra : 8-14
And for those who disbelieve in their Lord is the chastisement of hell, and evil is the resort. When they are cast therein, they will hear a loud moaning of it as it heaves, Almost bursting for fury. Whenever a group is cast into it, its keepers ask them: Did not a warner come to you? They say: Yea, indeed a warner came to us, but we denied and said Allah has revealed nothing you are only in great error. And they say: Had we but listened or pondered, we should not have been among the inmates of the burning Fire. Thus they will confess their sins so far (from good) are the inmates of the burning Fire.
chapterAl-Mulk : 6-11
And if thou couldst see when they are made to stand before the Fire, and say: Would that we were sent back! We would not reject the messages of our Lord but would be of the believers. Nay, that which they concealed before will become manifest to them. And if they were sent back, they would certainly go back to that which they are forbidden, and surely they are liars. And they say: There is nothing but our life of this world and we shall not be raised again. And if thou couldst see when they are made to stand before their Lord! He will say: Is not this the truth? They will say: Yea, by our Lord! He will say: Taste then the chastisement because you disbelieved. They are losers indeed who reject the meeting with Allah, until when the hour comes upon them suddenly, they will say: O our grief for out neglecting it! And they bear their burdens on their backs. Now surely evil is that which they bear! And this world's life is naught but a play and an idle sport. And certainly the abode of the Hereafter is better for those who keep their duty. Do you not then understand?
chapterAl-An'am : 27-32
Verily, in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the succession of night and day, are signs to those possessed of minds; who remember God standing and sitting or lying on their sides, and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth. ‘ O Lord ! thou hast not created this in vain. We celebrate Thy praise ; then keep us from the torment of the fire ! Lord ! verily, whomsoever Thou hast made to enter the fire, Thou hast disgraced him ; and the unjust shall have none to help them. Lord! verily, we heard a crier calling to the faith, “ Believe in your Lord,” and we did believe. Lord ! forgive us our sins and cover our offences, and let us die with the righteous. Lord ! and bring us what Thou hast promised us by Thy apostles, and disgrace us not upon the resurrection day; for, verily, Thou dost not break Thy promises !’ And the Lord shall answer them, ‘ I waste not the works of a worker amongst you, be it male or female, — one of you is from the other. ‘ Those who fled, and were turned out of their houses, and were harmed in my way, and who fought and were killed, I will cover their offences, and I will make them enter into gardens beneath which rivers flow.’ A reward from God; for God, with Him are the best of rewards.
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