The afterlife: Paradise and Hell
الآخرة: الجنة والنار
Twelve named places and days of the hereafter, from al-Firdaws to Saqar, with 262 mentions. With theme tags, 1,256 of the Quran's 6,236 verses speak of the hereafter.
Including related themes: 1256 verses across 92 surahs (shown in the chart below).
All figures are computed from the Quranic Arabic Corpus ontology and the Quran 360 theme index.
Take the lesson →Across the 114 surahs
Each bar is a surah; its height is how many verses of this study it contains. Tap a bar to open the surah.
The ontology files the hereafter under two categories. Afterlife locations (10 concepts, 165 mentions) include Paradise (al-janna, 58 mentions in 57 verses across 32 surahs), the Gardens of ʿAdn (11), al-Firdaws (2), Salsabīl (1) and the Lote Tree (4) on one side, and Hell (Jahannam, 79 mentions in 79 verses across 39 surahs), Saqar (4), Laẓā (1), Sijjīn (2) and the tree of Zaqqūm (3) on the other. Afterlife events are the Day of Resurrection (yawm al-qiyāma, 71 mentions) and the Last Day (al-yawm al-ākhir, 26). Together: 12 concepts, 262 mentions in 258 verses across 71 surahs.
With our theme tags for the hereafter, the Hour, resurrection, Paradise and Hell, the study covers 1,256 verses in 92 surahs: about one verse in five of the Quran's 6,236. Surah al-Wāqiʿa has the most (59 verses), then al-Ṣāffāt (52) and al-Raḥmān (44).
The Quran describes Paradise as a garden as wide as the heavens and the earth (3:133), with rivers of water, milk, wine and honey (47:15), and the Fire with many names: Jahannam, al-Jaḥīm (26 times), al-Saʿīr (16), Saqar and Laẓā.
Key facts
12 concepts, 262 mentions: 10 afterlife places (165) and 2 afterlife days (97).
Hell has 79 mentions in 39 surahs; Paradise 58 mentions in 32 surahs; the Day of Resurrection 71 in 31 surahs.
The name Jahannam occurs 77 times; the ontology adds 66:6 and 67:5, where the Fire is described without the name.
With theme tags, 1,256 of the Quran's 6,236 verses speak of the hereafter, in 92 surahs.
Al-Wāqiʿa has the most hereafter verses (59), then al-Ṣāffāt (52) and al-Raḥmān (44).
The word janna (garden) occurs 147 times; in 42 verses it comes with rivers, “gardens beneath which rivers flow”.
Surahs named after these
Gardens: al-Janna, ʿAdn and al-Firdaws
“Hasten to forgiveness from your Lord and a garden as wide as the heavens and the earth, prepared for the God-conscious” (3:133). Its rivers are of water that does not go stale, milk whose taste does not change, wine delicious to drink and purified honey (47:15). The Gardens of ʿAdn are promised in 11 verses (e.g. 9:72; 98:8), and the Gardens of al-Firdaws twice (18:107; 23:11). There is a spring named Salsabīl (76:18), and near the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary is the Garden of Refuge (53:14-15).
The many names of the Fire
The name Jahannam occurs 77 times; the ontology's concept Hell has 79 mentions because it also tags 66:6 (“a fire whose fuel is people and stones”) and 67:5 (“the punishment of the Blaze”). Other names: al-Jaḥīm (26 times), al-Saʿīr (16), Saqar (“What will make you know what Saqar is?”, 74:27), Laẓā (70:15) and al-Ḥuṭama (104:4). Its keeper is the angel Mālik (43:77), and its food is the tree of Zaqqūm (44:43-44). Sijjīn (83:7-8) is explained by the commentators as the register of the wicked or the place where it is kept.
The Day of Resurrection and the Last Day
Yawm al-qiyāma is named 71 times in 31 surahs; Surah al-Qiyāma opens with an oath by it (75:1). Al-yawm al-ākhir, the Last Day, is named 26 times, mostly with belief in Allah: “whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day” (2:8; 2:62; 2:177). The Quran's first description of Allah as Master of the Day of Judgement (yawm al-dīn) comes in al-Fātiḥa (1:4). The Hour brings the sky splitting, the stars scattering and the seas overflowing (82:1-3).
Every concept (14)
Themes
For reflection and discussion
Paradise is “prepared for the God-conscious” (3:133), and the next verse describes them: they spend in ease and hardship, restrain anger and pardon people (3:134). Which of these can you practise this week?