It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Sa'id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him); he said: I said: O Messenger of Allah, will we see our Lord on the Day of Resurrection? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Do you have any difficulty in seeing the sun at midday in a clear sky when there are no clouds?" We said: No, O Messenger of Allah. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Then do you have any difficulty in seeing the moon on the night of the full moon in a clear sky when there are no clouds?" We said: No. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "You will have no difficulty in seeing Him on the Day of Resurrection except as much as you have in seeing either of these two. When the Day of Resurrection comes, a caller will call out: Listen! Let every nation join what it used to worship. Then no one who used to worship an idol, a statue or an image will remain, but they will all go until they fall into Hell. And only those who used to worship Allah alone will remain, whether righteous or wicked, and some remnants of the People of the Book. Then Hell will be presented to them as if it were a mirage, one part of it smashing another. Then the Jews will be called, and He (Allah) will say: 'What did you used to worship?' They will say: 'Uzayr, who is the son of Allah.' He will say: 'You have lied; Allah has taken neither a wife nor a son. Now what do you want?' They will say: 'O our Lord, we are thirsty.' He will say: 'Will you not go to drink?' So they will go until they fall into Hell. Then the Christians will be called, and He will say: 'What did you used to worship?' They will say: 'The Messiah, who is the son of Allah.' He will say: 'You have lied; Allah has taken neither a wife nor a son. Now what do you want?' They will say: 'O our Lord, we are thirsty; give us water to drink.' He will say: 'Will you not go to drink?' So they will go until they fall into Hell. Then only those who used to worship Allah alone will remain, whether righteous or wicked. Then Allah Almighty will manifest Himself to us in a form other than the form in which we saw Him the first time. He will say: 'O people, every nation has joined what it used to worship, and only you remain.' On that day no one will speak to Him except the prophets. They will say: 'We separated from people in the world, though we were more in need of their company; every nation has joined what it used to worship, and we are waiting for our Lord whom we used to worship.' He will say: 'I am your Lord.' They will say: 'We seek refuge in Allah from you.' He will say: 'Is there any sign between you and Allah by which you would recognise Him?' They will say: 'Yes.' Then the Shin will be uncovered, and we will all fall down in prostration. And no one who used to prostrate in the world for fame, for show or out of hypocrisy will remain except that his back will become like a single plank; whenever he wants to prostrate, he will fall over on the back of his neck." He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Then our righteous and our wicked will all raise their heads, and He (Allah) will return to us in the form in which we saw Him the first time. He will say: I am your Lord. They will say three times: Yes, You are our Lord. Then the bridge will be laid over Hell." We said: O Messenger of Allah, may our fathers and mothers be sacrificed for you, what is that bridge like? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "It is a place of slipping and stumbling, with hooks and grapnels on it, and curved thorns like the thorns of Najd called sa'dan. The believer will pass over it like the blink of an eye, like the flutter of an eyelid, like the wind, like birds, and like fine horses and mounts. So some will be saved safe and sound, some will be let go after being scratched, and some will fall headlong into the fire of Hell. By the One in whose Hand is my soul, none of you pleads more insistently for a right of his than the believers will intercede with Allah for their brothers when they see that they themselves have been saved from the Fire. They will say: O our Lord, our brothers used to pray with us, fast with us, perform Hajj with us and do jihad with us; the Fire has seized them. Allah Almighty will say: Go, and whoever's face you recognise, bring him out. And their faces will be made forbidden to the Fire. So one will find that the Fire has seized one man up to his feet, another up to the middle of his shin, another up to his knees, and another up to his waist. They will bring many people out of it. Then they will petition again, and He will keep telling them until He says: Go, and whoever you find in whose heart there is even an atom's weight of faith, bring him out." Whenever Sayyiduna Abu Sa'id (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated this hadith, he would say: If you do not believe, then recite this verse: "Indeed, Allah does not do injustice, even as much as an atom's weight; and if there is a good deed, He multiplies it and gives from Himself a great reward" [Surah al-Nisa': 40] . (He (peace and blessings be upon him) said:) "Then they will say: O our Lord, we have not left any good (person of faith) in it. He will say: Who now remains except the Most Merciful of those who show mercy? The angels have interceded, the prophets have interceded; so who now remains except the Most Merciful of those who show mercy?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Then He will take a handful from the Fire and bring out a people who will have been burnt to charcoal, who never did any good deed for Him. Then they will be thrown into a river called the River of Life, and they will sprout in it - by the One in whose Hand is my soul - just as a seed sprouts in the debris carried by a flood. Have you not seen that the part of it facing the shade is yellow and the part facing the sun is green?" The narrator said: We said: O Messenger of Allah, it is as if you have lived among livestock?! He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "They will sprout like that, then they will come out like pearls. Seals will be placed on their necks, then they will be sent into Paradise. The people of Paradise will say: These are the Jahannamiyyun (those freed from Hell); these are the ones whom Allah brought out of the Fire without any deed they had done or any good they had sent forth. Allah Almighty will say: Take, and whatever you take is yours. So they will keep taking until (their desires) come to an end. Then they will say: Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, will never give us (more) than what we have taken. Allah Almighty will say: Indeed, I have given you something better than what you have taken. They will say: O our Lord, what is better than this and than what we have taken? He will say: My good pleasure, after which there is no displeasure." This hadith has a sahih (authentic) chain, but the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) did not record it with this wording! Both of them agreed only upon the hadith of al-Zuhri, narrated from Sa'id bin al-Musayyib and Ata' bin Yazid al-Laythi from Abu Hurayrah in abridged form, and Imam Muslim alone recorded the hadith of Abd al-Razzaq, from Ma'mar, from Zayd bin Aslam, from Ata' bin Yasar, from Abu Sa'id, with less than half of this wording.