showing that they shall not be taken out of Paradise; while in the case of Hell, the idea that those in it will be taken out is confirmed by the concluding statement, that God does as He intends.

This conclusion is corroborated by Ḥadīth. The Holy Prophet is reported to have said: “Then Allāh will say, The angels have interceded and the prophets have interceded and the faithful have interceded and none remains but the most Merciful of all merciful ones. So He will take out a handful from the fire and bring out a people who have never done any good” (M. 1:72). Three kinds of intercession are spoken of in this ḥadīth — of the faithful, of prophets and of the angels — and the intercession of each class is undoubtedly meant for people who have some sort of close relation with that class. The faithful will intercede for people who have come into contact with them personally; the prophets will intercede for their followers; the angels, who move men to do good, will intercede for people who are not followers of a prophet, but who have done some good. And the report adds that the most Merciful of all still remains, so He will bring out from the fire even people who have never done any good. It follows that, thereafter, none can remain in Hell, and in fact the handful of God cannot leave anything behind.

Other ḥadīth state even more explicitly that all men shall be taken out of Hell. “Surely a day will come over Hell when it will be like a field of corn that has dried up after flourishing for a while” (KU.). “Surely a day will come over Hell when there shall not be a single human being in it” (FBn. IV, p. 372). And a saying of ‘Umar, the second Caliph, is recorded as follows: “Even if the dwellers in Hell may be numberless as the sands of the desert, a day will come when they will be taken out of it” (FBn. IV, p. 372). A similar saying is recorded from Ibn Mas‘ūd: “Surely a time will come over Hell when its gates shall be blown by wind, there shall be none in it, and this shall be after they have remained therein for many years.”49 Similar sayings are reported from many other Companions such as Ibn ‘Umar, Jābir, Abū Sa‘īd, Abū Hurairah, etc., and also from the learned men of the next generation (Tābi‘īn) (FBn.). And later Imāms, such as Ibn ‘Arabī, Ibn Taimiyah, Ibn Qayyim, and many others, have held similar views (ibid.). Thus there can be but little doubt left that Hell is a temporary