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Text and translation
English translation
2547. 'Abdullāh bin Mas'ūd narrated: "We were in a tent with the Prophet ﷺ, about forty of us when the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ said to us: 'Would you be pleased to be a quarter of the people of Paradise?' They said: 'Yes.' He said: 'Would you be pleased to be a third of the people of Paradise?' They said: 'Yes.' He said: 'Would you be pleased to be one half of the people of Paradise? Verily,
none shall enter Paradise except a Muslim soul. And you are not with relation to Shirk[1] except like the white hair on the hide of a black bull or like the black hair on the hide of a red bull.” (Sahih)
[Abū ‘Eisā said:] This Hadīth is Hasan Sahih.
There are narrations on this topic from ‘Imrān bin Ḥuṣain and Abū Sa‘eed Al-Khudrī.
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Footnotes
1
[1] That is, the nations that preceded it.
Commentary
Muḥammad’s ﷺ Prophethood and ministry is for all nations and all times to come. His greatest miracle i.e., the Qur’ān is also there to stay until the end of the world. Hence it is that his followers will be twice the number of all nations, which means that the rest of the people will be one-third while his people will be two-thirds of the entire people, i.e., more than even he ﷺ, expected them to be. He had only hoped them to be half of the number of all people.
In no. 2547 the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ means to say that, as compared to the non-believers, the number of Muslims in the world will be extremely low. The people of Hellfire shall, therefore, be much more in number.
