The Book of Stations
المواقف
Context: The argument assumes the Sunni doctrine that only unbelief brings eternal Fire and sinning believers leave by intercession, against the Muʿtazila and Khawārij. The Emir's own solution limits the vision to the Fire of sinful believers of this community; Ibn Ḥajar (Fatḥ al-Bārī) offers other reconciliations. The seventy-two-wives report from Abū Umāma is graded very weak.AI
الْمَــوْقِفُ
Mawqif
In briefAI
The Emir takes up a difficulty raised by the ḥadīth commentators. One sound ḥadīth says most of the people of the Fire are women, while another gives every man in the Garden two wives from this world, which implies that women outnumber men there. He answers that the Fire the Prophet was shown was the one entered by sinning believers of this community. The women's sin was ingratitude, not unbelief, so intercession brings them out and into the Garden. The larger numbers of wives in other reports are an inheritance of places left vacant by men damned forever.
See the print: Damascus 1966, p. 990 ↗, Damascus 1966, p. 991 ↗ (archive.org)
رَوَى الْبُخَارِيُّ فِي صَحِيحِهِ أَنَّهُ ـ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ ـ قَالَ: «اُرِيتُ النَّارَ؛ فَرَاَيْتُ أَكْثَرَ اَهْلِهَا النِّسَاءَ».
Quotes a hadith: al-Bukhārī 29, in other words · in a Ṣaḥīḥ, no separate grade · sunnah.com ↗
Al-Bukhārī relates in his Ṣaḥīḥ that he (God bless him and grant him peace) said: “I was shown the Fire, and I saw that most of its people were women.”
اسْتَشْكَلَ شُرَّاحُ الْحَدِيثِ هَذَا مَعَ قَوْلِهِ ـ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ ـ لِكُلِّ وَاحِدٍ مِنْهُمْ، يَعْنِي أَهْلَ الْجَنَّةِ زَوْجَتَانِ مِنْ نِسَاءِ الدُّنْيَا.
Quotes a hadith: al-Bukhārī 3246, in other words · in a Ṣaḥīḥ, no separate grade · sunnah.com ↗
The commentators on the ḥadīth found this hard to reconcile with his saying (God bless him and grant him peace): “Each one of them (meaning the people of the Garden) has two wives from the women of this world.”
وَهُوَ فِي صَحِيحِ الْبُخَارِيِّ.
And it is in the Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī.
فَاِنَّ ظَاهِرَ الْحَدِيثِ الْأَوَّلِ يَقْتَضِي أَنَّ النِّسَاءَ فِي الْجَنَّةِ أَقَلُّ مِنَ الرِّجَالِ، وَهَذَا يَقْتَضِي: أَنَّ النِّسَاءَ فِي الْجَنَّةِ أَكْثَرُ مِنَ الرِّجَالِ.
For the outward sense of the first ḥadīth entails that women in the Garden are fewer than men, while this one entails that women in the Garden are more numerous than men.
أَقُولُ: لَا اِشْكَالَ، فَاِنَّهُ ـصَلَّىاللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ ـ أُرِىَ النَّارَ الَّتِي يَدْخُلُهَا عُصَاةُ هَذِهِ الْأُمَّةِ؟
I say: there is no difficulty, for he (God bless him and grant him peace) was shown the Fire that the disobedient of this community enter.
فَرَأَى أَكْثَرَ أَهْلِ ذَلِكَ الْمَحَلِّ النِّسَاءَ مِنْ هَذِهِ الْأُمَّةِ.
So he saw that most of the people of that place were the women of this community.
وَلَيْسَ الْمُــرَادُ أَنَّهُ أُرِىَ النَّارَ الَّتِي يَدْخُلُهَــا كُلُّ مَنْ يَدْخُلُ النَّارَ.
What is meant is not that he was shown the Fire that everyone who enters the Fire enters.
انْظُرْ قَوْلَهُ ـ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ ـ لَمَّا سُئِلَ عَنْ سَبَبِ ذَلِكَ؟! قِيلَ: يَكْفُرْنَ بِاللَّهِ؟! قَالَ: «يَكْفُرْنَ الْاِحْسَانَ،.... الْحَدِيثَ»
Quotes a hadith: al-Bukhārī 1052, part of it · in a Ṣaḥīḥ, no separate grade · sunnah.com ↗
Look at what he said (God bless him and grant him peace) when he was asked the reason for that. It was said: “Do they disbelieve in God?” He said: “They are ungrateful for kindness …” (and so on to the end of the ḥadīth).
فَنَفَىعَنْهُنَّ الْكُفْرَ بِاللَّهِ، الَّذِي يَسْتَوْجِبْنَ بِهِ الْخُلُودَ فِي النَّارِ.
So he denied of them disbelief in God, through which they would deserve eternal abiding in the Fire.
وَفِي النَّارِ جَمِيعِهَا مِنَ النِّسَاءِ مَنْ هُوَ مُخَلَّدٌ فِي النَّارِ،
In the Fire as a whole there are, among women, those who abide in it eternally;
وَمَنْ لَمْ يَكْفُرْ بِاللَّهِ؛ فَلَابُدَّ أَنْ تُدْرِكَهُ الشَّفَاعَةُ وَيَخْرُجَ اِلَى الْجَنَّةِ، فَتَكُونُ النِّسَاءُ فِي الْجَنَّةِ اَكْثَرَ مِنَ الرِّجَالِ، بِنَصِّ هَذَا الْحَدِيثِ الصَّحِيحِ.
and whoever has not disbelieved in God, intercession must reach her and she must come out to the Garden; so women in the Garden are more numerous than men, by the explicit text of this sound ḥadīth.
وَأَقَلُّ مَا يَكُونُ لِلرَّجُلِ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْجَنَّةِ زَوْجَتَانِ مِنْ نِسَاءِ الدُّنْيَا، وَزَوْجَتَانِ مِنَ الْحُورِ الْعِينِ، بِنَصِّ الرِّوَايَةِ الْأُخْرَى فِي الصَّحِيحِ: زَوْجَتَانِ مِنَ الْحُورِ الْعِينِ.
Quotes a hadith: al-Bukhārī 3254, part of it · in a Ṣaḥīḥ, no separate grade · sunnah.com ↗
The least that a man among the people of the Garden has is two wives from the women of this world and two wives from the wide-eyed ḥūr, by the explicit text of the other version in the Ṣaḥīḥ: “two wives from the wide-eyed ḥūr.”
وَأَمَّا مَا أَخْرَجَهُ الْفِرْيَابِيُّ مِنْ رِوَايَةِ أَبِي أُمَامَةَ ـ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ ـ «مَا مِنْ عَبْدٍ يَدْخُلُ الْجَنَّةَ اِلَّا وَيُزَوَّجُ ثِنْتَيْنِ وَسَبْعِينَ زَوْجَةً، ثِنْتَيْنِ مِنَ الْحُورِ الْعِينِ، وَسَبْعِينَ مِنْ أَهْلِ مِيرَاثِهِ مِنْ أَهْلِ الدُّنْيَا».
Quotes a hadith: Ibn Mājah 4337, in other words · graded al-Albānī: very daif; Muḥammad Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī: very daif; Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ: very daif; Zubayr ʿAlī Zaʾī: daif (hadith-api open data) (grades ↗) · sunnah.com ↗
As for what al-Firyābī reported in the transmission of Abū Umāma (God be pleased with him): “There is no servant who enters the Garden but he is married to seventy-two wives: two from the wide-eyed ḥūr, and seventy from those of his inheritance among the people of this world”
وَعِنْدَ أَبِي نُعَيْمٍ مِنْ رِوَايَتِهِ: لِلْمُؤْمِنِ فِي الْجَنَّةِ ثَلَاثٌ وَسَبْعُونَ زَوْجَةً.
Quotes a hadith: not found in the Six Books or the Muwaṭṭaʾ (sunnah.com data, 11 Nov 2026) · grade not yet checked by a person
and, in Abū Nuʿaym from his transmission: “The believer has seventy-three wives in the Garden”
فَهَذَا الْعَدَدُ فِي هَذَيْنِ الْحَدِيثَيْنِ؛ اِنَّمَا كَانَ لِلْمُؤْمِنِ مِيرَاثاً وَرِثَهُ عَمَّنْ دَخَلَ النَّارَ وَخَلَدَ فِيهَا مِنَ الرِّجَالِ.
this number in these two ḥadīths came to the believer only as an inheritance, which he inherited from the men who entered the Fire and abide in it forever.
وَلَوْ دَخَلُوا الْجَنَّةَ لَكَانَتِ النِّسَاءُ لَهُمْ.
Had they entered the Garden, the women would have been theirs.
فَاِنَّ اللَّهَ جَعَلَ لِكُلِّ مُكَلَّفٍ مَوْضِعاً فِي الْجَنَّةِ بِمَا يَلْزَمُهُ مِنَ النَّعِيمِ، وَمَوْضِعاً فِي النَّارِ بِمَا يَلْزَمُهُ مِنَ الشَّقَاءِ.
For God has assigned to every legally responsible person a place in the Garden with the bliss that goes with it, and a place in the Fire with the misery that goes with it.
كَذَا وَرَدَ فِي الْحَدِيثِ.
Quotes a hadith: Ibn Mājah 4341, an allusion · graded al-Albānī: sahih; Muḥammad Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī: sahih; Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ: sahih; Zubayr ʿAlī Zaʾī: daif (hadith-api open data) (grades ↗) · sunnah.com ↗
So it has come in the ḥadīth.
وَهَذَا مِنْ حَيْثُ الْجَوَازُ الْاِمْكَانِيُّ، فَاِنَّ كُلَّ أَحَدٍ مِنْ حَيْثُ الْاِمْكَانُ الْأَصْلِيُّ صَالِحٌ لِهَذَا وَلِهَذَا.
This holds with respect to possibility as contingency, for everyone, with respect to original contingency, is fit for this and for that.
وَأَمَّا الزَّوْجَتَانِ الْمَذْكُورَتَانِ فِي الصَّحِيحِ؛ فَاِنَّ اللَّهَ جَعَلَهُمَا لِذَلِكَ الْمُؤْمِنِ حَظَّهُ وَقِسْمَتَهُ أَصَالَةً لَا مِيرَاثاً.
As for the two wives mentioned in the Ṣaḥīḥ, God made them that believer's portion and lot originally, not as an inheritance.
Translations, word glosses and term notes are AI-generated (Claude) and marked as such; no published translation is reproduced.Word analysis is automatic (CAMeL Tools), guided by the text's vowelling. How this text was established.