“To abide therein ages;
“No coolness shall they taste therein nor any drink,
“Save boiling water and running sores;
“Meet recompence!
“For they looked not forward to their account;
“And they gave the lie to our signs, charging them with falsehood;
“But we noted and wrote down all:
“ ‘Taste this then: and we will give you increase of nought but torment.’ ”
The above are all Madīnah Sūrahs composed in the earlier stage of Muḥammad’s mission. The allusions to hell in the Makkan Sūrahs are brief and are in every case directed against unbelievers in the Prophet’s mission, and not against sin; e.g. [Sūrah ix. 69], “God hath promised to the hypocrites (i.e. dissemblers as far as Islām was concerned), men and women, and unto the unbelievers, hell-fire to dwell therein for ever.”
The teaching of Muḥammad in the Traditions is much more specific, but it is impossible to assign a date for these traditions, even assuming them to be authentic. They are given on the authority of al-Buk͟hārī and Muslim (Mishkāt, book xxiii. ch. xv.):—