Al-Sirat
Definition
Al-Sirat is the bridge stretching over the Hellfire that every soul must cross on the Day of Judgment. It is described in hadith as thinner than a hair and sharper than a sword, and one's speed in crossing it — or one's falling from it — corresponds to one's deeds in this life. Al-Ghazali uses this image not to produce terror but to produce precision: every act of worship, every moment of sincere dhikr, every instance of genuine compassion is, in effect, practice for that crossing. The one who has made the straight path (al-sirat al-mustaqim) their path in this life will cross the bridge of the afterlife with ease; the one who has wandered from it in this life will find the crossing correspondingly difficult.
As understood in the classical tradition of Imam al-Ghazali and the scholars of his school.
How the scholars use Al-Sirat.
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"What will your faith profit you if it does not drive you to seek Allah's pleasure through obedience and forsaking disobedience? If nothing awaited you but the terror of the Sirat and the fright of your heart at the danger of crossing it, even if you were safe, that would suffice as horror and dread. The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, described the Sirat, a bridge placed across hell, which he will be the first to cross with his nation among the messengers."
— Imam al-Ghazali, Book 40: The Book of the Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife
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"hereafter, light and safe. But whoever deviates from uprightness and burdens themselves with sins will stumble at the first step on the Sirat and descend. Consider the terror that will seize your heart when you see the Sirat and its sharpness, then your eyes fall upon the blackness of hell beneath it, and your ears catch the sound of its roaring and burning."
— Imam al-Ghazali, Book 40: The Book of the Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife
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"and guide them to the path of hell and stop them, they are to be questioned from Surah As-Saffat. After these dreadful events, people will be driven towards the Sirat, a bridge over hell, sharper than a sword and finer than a hair. Whoever remains steadfast in this world on the straight path will find the Sirat in the hereafter, light and safe."
— Imam al-Ghazali, Book 40: The Book of the Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife
Appears in
1 book in the library
Hear the term in context.
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