10 Preface إِنَّ الَّذينَ كَفَروا لَن تُغنِيَ عَنهُم أَموالُهُم وَلا أَولادُهُم مِنَ اللَّهِ شَيئًا ۖ وَأُولٰئِكَ هُم وَقودُ النّارِAhmed AliAs for those who deny, neither their wealth nor their children will help them in the least against God. They shall be but faggots for (the fire of) Hell,1 The word Jahannam is of Hebraic origin, consisting of ji, valley, and Hannam; and meant the Valley of Hannam, south of Jerusalem, where in ancient times human sacrifices where made to Moluk, the diety of the ‘Ammuniyin, and burnt, thus signifying the alter of humanity’s sacrifice. In the Qur’an, Heaven and Hell are not eternal kingdoms as in the Bible, but contingent to and coterminous with the heavens and the earth, as is evident from verses 106 to 108 of Surah 11:And those who are doomed, will be in Hell: From them will be sobbing and sighing, where they will dwell so long as heaven and earth endure. Verily your Lord does as He wills. Those who are blessed will be in Paradise, where they will dwell so long as heaven and earth survive. …As Paradise is a state of ultimate bliss, enjoyably worldly, so is Hell described as “the fire kindled by God which penetrates the hearts. It vaults them over in extending columns,” in 104:6-9. It is, thus, a sacred archetypal symbol, carrying both a moral and psycho-social meaning within its tautology and an eschatological ultimacy. So is Yaum-al-Hashr, the Day of Resurrection, the completion and consummation of life on earth. In the metonymy of the Qur’an resurrection signifies the rising of the dead so that each could feel in preson the effects of his good and evil deeds done on earth. See Hujjat Allah al-Baligha by Shah Waliullah.