1.The Size of Hell

Allah created hell as a punishment for the disbeliever, hypocrite and believers who accumulated a lot of sin. We don’t know exactly the size of it, but there are indications that it is huge.

One indication is that hell fire will always ask for more people. Hell would continue to say: Is there anything more, until Allah, the Exalted and High, would place His foot therein and that would say: Enough, enough, by Your Honour, and some parts of it would draw close to the other. [Muslim, 40/6823] [Also see Bukhaari, Chapter Book 6]

Another indication is the depth of hell fire. This hadith is a miracle. We cannot explain it in a scientific fashion; it is a miracle. Abu Huraira reported: We were in the company of Allah’s Messenger sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam then we heard a terrible sound. Thereupon Allah’s Apostle sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said: “Do you know what (sound) is this?” We said: “Allah and His Messenger know best.” Thereupon he said: “That is a stone which was thrown seventy years before in Hell and it has been constantly slipping down and now it has reached its base.” [Muslim, 40/6813] How this exactly happened – who all heard it, how did they hear it, etc – we do not know. This is a miracle. But the fact that this rock took 70 years to fall to the bottom of hell shows that hell is very deep.

The third indication is the number of angels involved in pulling it. Abu Huraira reported Allah’s Messenger sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam as saying: “Hell would he brought on that day (the Day of judgment) with seventy bridles and every bridle would be controlled by seventy angels.” [Muslim, 40/6180] [Imam commented]: the translation of the hadith is incorrect here; it should be 70,000 bridles and 70,000 angels will be pulling them.

The fourth indication is that the sun and the moon will be thrown into hell fire. Obviously, this is the clearest indication to us because we know the size of the sun and moon. RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam says that on the Day of Judgment, both the sun and the moon will be thrown into the hell fire. You might wonder why specifically the sun and the moon are thrown in hell – is that a punishment? The hadith is in Bukhaari and Muslim – any god that was worshipped other than Allah will be thrown into hell.

[Some Prophets, such as Jesus/Eesa and Ezra were worshipped, but of course they will not be in hell.]