As-Sirāt

Those who performed acts of goodness in their lives are transported across the path at speeds according to their deeds leading them to the Hawd al-Kawthar (lit.

[7] On Judgement Day, after the dead have been resurrected, assembled, and judged by God, the saved and the damned now being clearly distinguished, the souls will traverse over hellfire[8] via the bridge of As-Sirāt.

The faithful will "move easily and swiftly across a broad path", led first of all by Muhammad and other leading lights of the community on their way to Jannah; those judged guilty of sin but still considered to be mu'minun (lit.

'hellfire') but remain there only for a limited period of purgation; unbelievers, however, will find the bridge has become "sharper than a sword and thinner than a hair" and darkness blinds their way.

˹Allah will say to the angels,˺ "Gather ˹all˺ the wrongdoers along with their peers, and whatever they used to worship instead of Allah, then lead them ˹all˺ to the path of Hell [ṣirāṭ al-jahīm].

Q.37:21-25[12]Neither set of verses mentions a bridge nor falling into hell, but Ṣirāṭ al-jahīm "was adopted into Islamic tradition to signify the span over jahannam, the top layer of the Fire".

"[14]"The idea of a bridge crossing to the underworld has found expression in a number of different religious traditions"[15] In Judaism, a version of this doctrine is espoused by Philo of Alexandria in De Somniis, where he interprets "Jacob's ladder" as symbolic of the aerial realm, the air between heaven and earth, through which departed spirits ascend before either united to God or falling back to earth to be reincarnated.

S. G. F. Brandon quotes the Dāstan-i Mēnōk-i Krat " ... pursued by the malevolence of the evildoer Wrath who bears a bloody spear, (the soul) will come to the Bridge of the Requiter, lofty and dreadful, for thither must saved and damned alike proceed.

Like the versions of this doctrine in Philo and the Kabbalah, the Manichaean account entails reincarnation as a possibility resulting from falling off the path or turning back.

Image from a Falnama from India, created around 1610-1630, depicting the Last Judgement, Israfil on the top with a trumpet, a div below with a torch, the taqalan ( ins and jinn ) waiting to pass the Sirat Bridge to the afterlife with sinners falling off into hell filled with snakes, and the souls of the believers above in heaven.
Diagram of Ard al-Hashr ( lit. ' Plain of Assembly ' ) on the Day of Judgment. As-Sirāt ( lit. ' the Bridge ' ) is the line across of Jahannam ( lit. ' Hell ' , the dark grey circle). Also shown are the Arsh ( lit. ' Throne of God ' ), pulpits for the righteous ( al-Aminun ), seven rows of angels , Gabriel ( al-Ruh ), A'raf (the Barrier), the Pond of Abundance ( Kawthar , a blue circle), al-Maqam al-Mahmud ( lit. ' the Praiseworthy Station ' ; where the prophet Muhammad will stand to intercede for the faithful), Mizan ( lit. ' the Scale ' ), and Marj al-Jannat ( lit. ' Meadow of Paradise ' ). (From an autograph manuscript of Futuhat al-Makkiyya by Sufi mystic and Muslim philosopher Ibn Arabi , c. 1238 .) [ 1 ]