The Mirror of the Excellences of Islam — Page 135
134 Ā'ĪNA-E-KAMĀLĀT-E-ISLĀM―DĀFI‘UL-WASĀWIS another hadith to the same effect in which it is recorded that a portion of the fire is decreed for every human being-they may accept their share of this fire in the way of God Almighty in this world, or they may pass their life in ease and neglect and render the account for their comfortable living in the Hereafter. ' The verse 25 also has another meaning, which is that in the world of the Hereafter every fortunate person and every wretched person will be shown things in an embodied form so that he will realize whether he had walked on the path of peace and security in this world or had chosen the way of destruction, death, and Hell. In the next world, therefore, the path of peace and security, namely, șirāṭ-e-mustaqim [the straight path] a very narrow path upon which very few people walk and from which to stray to the right or left is really to fall into Hell— will materialize before their eyes. And the people who were unable to walk upon șirāṭ-e-mustaqim in this world will be unable to walk upon it in the Hereafter also, because the șirāṭ [path] of the next world is in reality only a representation of the spiritual șirāt of this world. With our spiritual eyes, we can see even now that there truly is Hell to the right and left of our șirāṭ [path]—such that if we leave the șirāț and walk even a little to the right, we fall into Hell; and if we falter a little to the left, even then we fall into Hell. Only if we keep walking upon şirat-e-mustaqim [the straight path] are we saved from Hell. In the next world, we shall see all this as a reality in physical form. We shall see with our own eyes that there really is a șirāṭ laid out above Hell in the form of a bridge, to the right and the left of which is Hell. Then, we shall be made to walk on the șirāț, and if we had been treading upon şirāṭ-e-mustaqim in this world, and had not veered right or left, then we shall have no fear of the șirāț of the next world. The steam of Hell 1. Al-Minhaj Sharḥ ṣaḥīḥ Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj, Imām Nawawī, Kitābuz-Zuhd war-Raqā'iq, p. 2035, Hadith 2956, published by Dār Ibn Ḥazm, Beirut, Lebanon [Publisher] 2. Surah Maryam, 19:72 [Publisher]