These hadiths were given to me and I was asked the question 'is
hell filled with women'?
These are the hadiths that are relevant:
عِمْرَانَ بْنِ حُصَيْنٍ عَنِ النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللَّه عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ
قَالَ: (اطَّلَعْتُ فِي الْجَنَّةِ فَرَأَيْتُ أَكْثَرَ أَهْلِهَا الْفُقَرَاءَ وَاطَّلَعْتُ
فِي النَّارِ فَرَأَيْتُ أَكْثَرَ أَهْلِهَا النِّسَاء)َ . رواه البخاري 3241 ومسلم
2737
Imran ibn Husayn [may Allah be pleased with him] reports
that the Prophet (may Allah bestow peace and blessings upon him) said, "I
looked into paradise and most its inhabitants were from the impoverished [in
the world]. I looked at hell and I saw most of its inhabitants were
women." Bukhari and Muslim.
فعَنْ عَبْد اللَّهِ بْنِ عَبَّاسٍ قال قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم
: ( َأُرِيتُ النَّارَ فَلَمْ أَرَ مَنْظَرًا كَالْيَوْمِ قَطُّ أَفْظَعَ وَرَأَيْتُ
أَكْثَرَ أَهْلِهَا النِّسَاءَ ) قَالُوا :
بِمَ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ؟ قَالَ : ( بِكُفْرِهِنَّ ) قِيلَ : يَكْفُرْنَ بِاللَّهِ
، قَالَ : ( يَكْفُرْنَ الْعَشِيرَ وَيَكْفُرْنَ الإِحْسَانَ لَوْ أَحْسَنْتَ إِلَى
إِحْدَاهُنَّ الدَّهْرَ كُلَّهُ ثُمَّ رَأَتْ مِنْكَ شَيْئًا قَالَتْ مَا رَأَيْتُ
مِنْكَ خَيْرًا قَطُّ ) رواه البخاري 1052
Abdullah ibn Abbas [may Allah be pleased with him] reports
that the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bestow peace and blessings upon him)
said, "I have seen hell and I have not seen a sight, like today, more
horrid. I saw most of its inhabitants were women." They asked, "Why
was that? O Messenger of Allah?" He replied, "They denied." One
asked, "They denied Allah?" He said, "They denied [ungrateful]
towards their family, they denied goodness [that they were given]. If someone
was good to them their whole life they would see something [bad] from you. They
would say I have never seen any good from you." Bukhari
حديث أُسَامَةَ، عَنِ النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم، قَالَ: قُمْتُ عَلَى
بَابِ الْجَنَّةِ، فَكَانَ عَامَّةَ مَنْ دَخَلَهَا الْمَسَاكِينُ وَأَصْحَابُ الْجَدِّ
مَحْبُوسُونَ غَيْرَ أَنَّ أَصْحَابَ النَّارِ، قَدْ أُمِرَ بِهِمْ إِلَى النَّارِ
وَقمْتُ عَلَى بَابِ النَّارِ، فَإِذَا عَامَّةُ مَنْ دَخَلَهَا النِّسَاءُ أخرجه البخاري
Usamah [may Allah be pleased with him] reports that the
Prophet (may Allah bestow peace and blessings upon him) said, "I stood at
the door of paradise and most of those who entered it were poor and those who exerted themselves in
isolation, unlike the residents of hell. I moved to [see] hell and stood at the
door of hell. Most of those in it were women." Bukhari.
These hadith have to be explained and understood. This is something that caused me a lot of grief, when this question was asked of me. Now firstly we have to look at what our scholars said.
قال القاضي عياض: النساء أكثر ولد آدم
Qadi Iyyad said, "Women are the greatest number of the
offspring of Adam."
This makes sense, because if there were more men than women
then their number in hell would be greater because there are more of them.
قال القرطبي تعليقا على قوله : { رأيتكن أكثر أهل النار } : يحتمل أن يكون
هذا في وقت كون النساء في النار وأما بعد خروجهن في الشفاعة ورحمة الله تعالى حتى لا
يبقى فيها أحد ممن قال: لا إله إلا الله فالنساء في الجنة أكثر
Al-Qurtabi (may Allah be pleased with him) said, "I saw
you [using female first person plural pronoun] as most of the inhabitants of
hell." It means that is how it was at that time. Yet later they came out with
the intercession and mercy of Allah (the Exalted) until none of them remained
who said there is no deity except Allah then women will be the greatest [number
of] heaven."
قال العيني ـ رحمه الله ـ في بيان فوائد
هذا الحديث: منها: تحريم كفران الحقوق والنعم، إذ لا يدخل النار إلا بارتكاب حرام
Al-'Ayni (may Allah
be pleased with him) said explaining the benefits of this hadith, "The
forbidding of rejecting [or denying] rights and blessings; no one enters the
fire except those who commit major sins."
ابن حجر العسقلاني ، فيكون الجمع بين الحديثين
أن النساء أكثر أهل النار وأكثر أهل الجنة ، وبذلك يكن أكثر من الرجال وجودا في الخلق.
ويمكن أن يقال : إن حديث أبي هريرة رضي الله عنه يدل على أن نوع النساء في الجنة
Ibn Hajjar
Al-Asqalani (may Allah show him mercy) said, "Combining between the
hadiths that women are most of the inhabitants of paradise and most of the
inhabitants of paradise. Therefore they are greater number in creation than men."
وقال النووي: توعده على كفران العشير وكفران
الإحسان بالنار يدل على أنهما من الكبائر
Al-Nawawi (may Allah show him mercy) said, "It warns
that rejecting the family and rejecting blessing [is punishable] by the fire is
a major sin."
وقال ابن بطال: فيه دليل على أن
العبد يعذب على جحد الإحسان والفضل وشكر النعم، قال وقد قيل إن شكر المنعم واجب.
Ibn Battal (may Allah show him mercy) said, "It
contains proof that the servant is punished if he denies goodness, virtues and being
ungrateful for blessings." He said, "Being grateful for blessings is
mandatory."
Imam Al-Suyuti said his commentary of Imam Muslim hadith
collection, 'Most means that they [women] will be more than men..." The Prophet (may Allah bestow peace and blessings upon him)
said,
يا معشر النساء تصدقن فاني رأيتكن أكثر أهل النار
"O women
folk, give charity because I saw you [women] as most the inhabitants of
hell." There would be no point in the command to give charity if they were
to remain in hell forever. This indicates they are not to remain there forever.
They will enter the fire for their sins and be released from the fire after a
time, to marry one of the residents of paradise."
1/6 الديباج على صحيح مسلم بن الحجاج
Combining all the points
To further illustrate the opinions of the rich tradition of
scholarship of Islam I want to combine all the points mentioned.
1. The hadiths occurred when the Prophet (may Allah bestow
peace and blessings upon him) saw paradise and hell. This was the blessed event
of the Miraj/heavenly ascension. So if he looked into hell at that point how
many Muslims had died at that point in history? Very few because the miraj
occurred in the year in 621 when the Muslims numbered in the hundreds. So how
could it be that most of the hell was made up of women? At what point in
history was hell seen? So this is why it was most of the women from previous
nations, not those currently alive or yet to be born. As it would be unjust for
people who were not yet born to be everlasting torment when they had done
nothing. So this could only apply to those who had died without faith and were
dead at that time, thus in hell. This does not apply to those who have faith.
It only applies to those without.
2. Is being ungrateful to ones husband such a great sin to
endure in hell forever? No sin will mean that they stay in hell forever, apart
from disbelief. So female believers will be freed from hell with intercession
or those who have the least bit of faith. So the hadith must be taken as a
warning. Only the sin of kufr or shirk will cause perpetual torment in hell.
All other sins will be removed by the torment of hell and then they will enter
paradise based on faith. This is a problem when we take a single evidence in
isolation. Being ungrateful to Allah (the Exalted) is a sin. Being ungrateful
to ones husband is a sin but not as great to cause one to enter hell. This
hadith has to be taken as a warning because if it was a major sin then would be
more than just a few hadith on it. There should be so many hadith that would
leave all doubt.
3. If we also consider that men will have more than one wife in
paradise therefore we must conclude that there are more women in paradise! Yet
there are no men complaining about being the least gender in paradise.
What does most mean? In hanafi fiqh most meanings 51% or
more. If it is 51% percent then it nothing to be concerned about especially if
there are more women than men.
In the Quran Allah (the Exalted) praised women, "The
Muslim men, the Muslim women, the believing men, the believing women, the
obedient men, the obedient women, the truthful men, the truthful women, the
patient men, the patient women, the fearful men, the fearful women, the men who
give charity, the women who give charity, the fasting men, the fasting women,
and the men and women who guard their private areas, and those men and women
who remember Allah much; Allah prepared for them forgiveness and a great
reward." (Quran: Al-Ahzab 33:35)
So Allah (the Exalted) praises women here and do not think
otherwise. If you want to see how the Quran views women please see previous
article on that. Also see previous see womens reward in paradise too.
The encouragement to give charity was to increase their good
actions and this has to be seen in a positive manner.
The second hadith states that there is a certain type of
women who is ungrateful towards here husband for seeing one bad trait in him.
This is true when people argue they forget all the good you did to them. I
did translate kafar as deny but it can mean ungratefulness here. As its two
main translation is disbelief and ungratefulness. Here I translated it as deny.
Finally, these hadiths should not be used by men to scare
women into thinking that they are going to be in hell in greater numbers. This
type of misogynistic retelling of Islam is not wanted and it belies the
original tradition.
Wives must be aware of being ungrateful to Allah (the
Exalted) as much as men. One has to be careful when reading hadith without, the
largely untapped, commentary of our scholars. Find a scholar to ask a question
and be safe.
The main point is that hell is filled with those without
faith, regardless of gender.
Important links
How the Prophet (may Allah bestow peace and blessings upon him) treated women click here
Treatment of women click here
Women's reward in paradise click here
Hijab in the modern context click here
Can women visit graves? click here
