4. Saʿīr (سعير). [Sūrah iv. 11]: “Those who devour the property of orphans unjustly, only devour into their bellies fire, and they broil in saʿīr.”
(The word occurs in fourteen other places.)
5. Saqar (سقر). [Sūrah liv. 47]: “The sinners are in error and excitement. On the day when they shall be dragged into the fire on their faces! Taste ye the touch of saqar!”
[Sūrah lxxiv. 44]: “What drove you into saqar?”
6. Al-Jaḥīm (الجحيم). [Sūrah ii. 113]: “Thou shalt not be questioned as to the fellows of al-Jaḥīm” (Aṣḥābu ʾl-Jaḥīm).
(The word occurs in twenty other places).
7. Hāwiyah (هاوية). [Sūrah ci. 8]: “As for him whose balance is light, his dwelling shall be Hāwiyah.”
The Muḥammadan commentators, with that utter recklessness which so characterizes their writings, distribute these seven stations as follows (see al-Bag͟hawī, al-Baiẓāwī, and others): (1) Jahannam, the purgatorial hell for Muslims. (2) Laz̤ā, a blazing fire for Christians. (3) Al-Ḥut̤amah, an intense fire for the Jews. (4) Saʿīr, a flaming fire for the Sabians. (5) Saqar, a scorching fire for the Magi. (6) Al-Jaḥīm, a huge hot fire for idolaters. (7) Hāwiyah, bottomless pit for the hypocrites. A reference to the Qurʾān will prove that there is not the least reason for assigning these regions to their respective tenants beyond the sentence already quoted: “At each portal a separate party.”
The teaching of the Qurʾān (which is chiefly confined to those Sūrahs which, chronologically arranged, are the earliest), is as follows:—
[Sūrah lxxiv. 26–34] (generally held to be the second Sūrah composed by Muḥammad, and relating to al-Walīd ibn al-Mug͟hīrah, a person of note amongst the unbelieving Makkans):—