Ahadith

Samurah ibn Jundub relates: The Holy Prophet would often inquire from his companions: Has any of you seen a dream? Then whoever was able would relate his dream to him. One morning he related to us: Last night two persons came to me in my dream and said: Come with us. I accompanied them and we came upon a man who was lying on his back and another one standing near his head struck him on the head with a stone. When the stone hit the head of the person struck it rolled away from him. The striker went after the stone and caught it up and returned with it. In the meantime the head of the person who was hit recovered from its injury and the striker hit him again. I said to my two companions, Holy is Allah, what is this? They said: Proceed, proceed; and we proceeded and came to a man lying on his back and another one standing near him with a hooked bar of iron in his hand and approaching him from one side ripped open his mouth till his neck and ripped open his nostril till his neck and tore open his eye till his neck and then he turned to his other side and did the same on that side. By that time the first side of the man’s face recovered from its injuries and the tormentor returned to the first side and repeated what he had done to it the first time. | said to my companions: Holy is Allah, what are these two at? They said to me: Proceed, proceed; and we proceeded and arrived near a pit which was like an oven out of which we could hear cries. We glanced into it and saw men and women naked who cried out when the flames reached them from below. I asked my companions, who are these? They said: Proceed, proceed; and we proceeded till we arrived at a stream the water of which was red like blood and a man was swimming in it. On the bank of the stream was another who had collected many pieces of rock. When the swimmer approached him, he would strike him with a piece of rock which would smash his face and he would start swimming again and as he approached the bank once more the man on the bank would strike him with a piece of rock which smashed his face. I inquired . from my companions; who are these two? And they said: Proceed, proceed; and we proceeded till we came to a frightfully ugly person near a blazing fire which he started and round which he kept running. 1 asked my two companions: What is this? And they said: Proceed, proceed; and we" proceeded till we came to a garden which was full of spring flowers and in the midst of the garden was a man so tall that I could not see his head as if it was hidden in the sky and around him were so many children as I had never seen before. I] asked my companions: Who are these? And they said: Proceed, proceed; and we proceeded and arrived at a tree so enormous that I had not seen any so big nor’so beautiful and my companions asked me to climb it and we all climbed and we beheld a city which was built of gold and silver bricks laid alternately. We came to the gate of the city and asked for the gate to be opened and it was opened for us and we entered and we saw therein people one half of whose bodies was the most beautiful that you could imagine and the other half the most ugly. There was a stream flowing through the middle of the city the water of which was pure white. My companions said to the people: Go and plunge into the stream. They did so and when they returned to us their ugliness had disappeared and they became wholly beautiful. My two companions said to me: This is the Garden of Eden and that is your residence. I raised my eyes and beheld a palace like a white cloud and they repeated: That is your residence. I said to them: May Allah bless you both, now let me enter it. They said: Not just yet but you will certainly enter it. I said to them: I have witnessed many strange things this night. What is the meaning of that which I have seen? They said to me: We shall now tell you. The first person that you saw whose head was being smashed with a stone was one who had committed the Quran to memory and then forgotten it and neglected the prescribed Prayers. The person whose mouth and nostril and eye were ripped open to the neck was one who ran about from his home spreading forth lies which circulated through the world. The men and women in the oven were adulterers and adulteresses. The man you saw swimming in the stream being stoned was one who earned money by way of interest. The ugly man starting the fire was the guardian of hell. The very tall man in the garden was Abraham and the children around him were those who -had died in their natural state. (Some of those around the Holy Prophet asked him: Messenger of Allah, would the children of the idolators be included among them? The Holy Prophet said: Yes, and the children of the idolators also). Those who were half handsome and half ugly were people who had mixed righteous conduct with evil and Allah forbore from them (Bokhari). Another version is: I saw last night two men who took me to the Holy Land (and the account proceeds as in the version above and continues:) We arrived at a pit like an oven the upper part of which was narrow and the lower was wide and there was fire raging inside it. As the flames rose the inmates also rose till they were about to emerge from it and when the flames went down they went down with them. There were men and women in it, all naked. Then we arrived at a stream flowing with blood and with a man standing in the middle of it and another one on the bank with a heap of stones in front of him. The one in the middle wanted to get out of the stream but when he tried to get out the one on the bank struck him with a stone on his face which pushed him" back to where he had been before. This happened every time he tried to get out. Then the two climbed a tree along with me and caused me to enter a house better than which I had never seen in which there were men old and young. I was told: The one you saw with his cheeks ripped open was a liar whose lies were repeated till the ends of the earth. He will be treated like_this till the Day of Judgment. The one you saw whose head was smashed, was a man whom Allah had taught the Quran and who slept during the night ignoring it and would not act upon it during the day. He will be treated like that till the Day of Judgment. The first house that you entered was the dwelling of the believers and this house that you have seen is the dwelling of martyrs. I am Gabriel and this my comrade is Michael, now raise thy head; whereupon | raised my head and saw something like a cloud above me. I was told: This is your dwelling. I said: Leave me to enter my dwelling. They said: You have still a portion of your age that you have not completed. When you have completed it you will enter your dwelling (Bokhari).