It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Allah Almighty will gather the people on the Day of Resurrection, and a caller will call out: 'O people! Are you not pleased with your Lord, who created you, fashioned you and provided for you, that He should hand every person over to whatever he used to worship and hold devotion to in the world? Is this not justice from your Lord?' They will say: 'Certainly!' He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: So every one of you will go to whatever he held devotion to in the world, and the forms of the things they used to worship in the world will be made to appear before them. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: For whoever worshipped Sayyiduna Isa in the world, the form of the devil of Isa will be made to appear; for whoever worshipped Uzayr, the form of the devil of Uzayr will be made to appear; until even the forms of trees, wood and stones will be presented before them. And the people of Islam will remain, fallen on their knees. Allah Almighty will say to them: 'What is the matter with you? Why have you not gone as the rest of the people have gone?' They will say: 'Indeed, we have a Lord whom we have not yet seen.' He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Then Allah Almighty will ask: 'If you see your Lord, how will you recognise Him?' They will say: 'Between us and Him there is a sign; if we see it, we will recognise Him.' Allah Almighty will ask: 'What is that sign?' Then the Shin will be uncovered. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Then everyone whose back (used to bow in prostration in the world) will fall down prostrating, and some people will remain whose backs will be (rigid) like the horns of cattle; they will want to prostrate but will not be able to. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Then they will be commanded and they will raise their heads, and they will be given light according to their deeds. Some of them will be given light like a mountain in front of them, some will be given less light than that, some will be given light like a date-palm in their right hand, and some will be given even less than that, until the last of them will be the one who is given light on the big toe of his foot, which will shine at one moment and go out at another; when it shines he will step forward, and when it goes out he will stand still. Then they will pass over the Sirat, and the Sirat is sharp like the edge of a sword, a slippery place. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: It will be said: 'Be saved (cross over) according to your light.' So some of them will pass like a shooting star, some will pass like the wind, some like the swift running of a man, and some will pass jogging. They will pass according to their deeds, until the one whose light is on the big toe of his foot will pass: one of his hands will slip while the other clings, one of his feet will slip while the other clings, and the Fire will touch his sides. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Then they will be saved (in this way), and when they are saved they will say: 'All praise is for Allah, who saved us from you after we had seen you. Indeed, Allah has given us what He has not given anyone else.' Then they will go to a shallow pool of water near the gate of Paradise and bathe in it, and the fragrance and the complexion of the people of Paradise will return to them. They will look through the gaps of the gate of Paradise, while that gate is closed, and (see) a dwelling in the lowest level of Paradise. They will say: 'O our Lord! Grant us this dwelling.' He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Allah Almighty will say to them: 'Are you asking Me for Paradise when I have only just saved you from the Fire?!' They will say: 'O our Lord! Grant it to us, and make this gate a barrier between us and the Fire so that we do not hear its sound.' Allah Almighty will say to them: 'If you are given this, perhaps you will begin asking Me for something else?' He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: They will say: 'No, by Your Might! We will not ask You for anything besides it; and what dwelling could be better than this?' He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: So they will be given it. Then another dwelling will be raised up before them beyond it, and on seeing it their first dwelling will seem to them like a dream. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: They will say: 'O our Lord! Grant us that dwelling.' Allah Almighty will say to them: 'If you are given this, perhaps you will begin asking Me for something else?' They will say: 'No, by Your Might! We will not ask You for anything besides it; and what dwelling could be better than this?' Then they will fall silent. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: It will be said to them: 'What is the matter with you? Why do you not ask?' They will say: 'O our Lord! We have asked so much that we now feel ashamed.' He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Then Allah Almighty will say to them: 'Are you not pleased that I give you the equal of the world from the day I created it until the day I annihilated it, and then ten times more than that?'" Masruq relates that when Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) reached this part of the hadith, he laughed. A man said to him: O Abu Abd al-Rahman! You have narrated this hadith many times, and whenever you reach this part you laugh? Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) narrate this hadith many times, and whenever he (peace and blessings be upon him) reached this part he would laugh so much that his throat and his last molar would become visible, because that person will say: "Are You mocking me while You are the King?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Then the Lord, the Mighty and Majestic, will say: 'No, but I have full power to do that, so ask Me.'" He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "They will say: 'O our Lord! Join us with the people.' Allah Almighty will say to them: 'Join the people.'" He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "So they will go running through Paradise, until a palace of a hollow pearl appears before one of them, and he will fall down in prostration. It will be said to him: 'Raise your head.' When he raises his head it will be said: 'This is only one of your palaces.' He will walk on and a man will come towards him, and he will ask: 'Are you a king or an angel?' He will be told: 'This is only one of your attendants, one of your slaves.' That man will come to him and say: 'I am only one of your attendants appointed over this palace; under me there are a thousand attendants, and they are all in the same position as I am.' Then he will go with him until he opens the gate of the palace, and it will be a hollow pearl whose roofs, doors, locks and keys are also from that same pearl. When the palace is opened for him, a green gem seventy cubits long, lined with red, will appear before him. It will have sixty doors, each door opening onto a gem whose colour differs from the other. In every gem there will be couches, wives and maidservants. He will enter it and come to a beautiful, wide-eyed houri wearing seventy garments; the marrow of her shin will be visible from behind those garments. Her liver will be his mirror and his liver will be her mirror. When he turns away from her for a moment, she will become seventy times more beautiful in his eyes than before, and he will say: 'You have become seventy times more beautiful in my eyes.' And she will say the same to him. He will cast his gaze over his kingdom, which will be the distance of a hundred years' journey." (On hearing this) Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: O Ka'b! Do you hear what Ibn Umm Abd (Abdullah bin Mas'ud) is telling us about what the person in the lowest level of Paradise will receive? Then what will be the state of those in the highest levels of Paradise? Ka'b said: O Commander of the Faithful! (For them is) what no eye has seen and no ear has heard. Indeed, Allah Almighty was above the Throne and the water, and He made for Himself a home with His Hand, then adorned it with whatever He willed, and placed fruits and drinks in it. Then He closed it, and from the day He created it until now none of His creation has seen it, neither Jibril nor any other angel. Then Ka'b recited this verse: "No soul knows what delight of the eyes has been hidden for them." [Surah al-Sajdah: 17] And below that He made two more Gardens, adorned them with whatever He willed, placed in them the silk, fine silk (sundus) and brocade (istabraq) that have been mentioned, and showed them to whomever He willed of His creation and the angels. So whoever's record of deeds is in Illiyyin will be seen in that home. And when a man from the people of Illiyyin rides out in his kingdom, not a single tent of the tents of Paradise will remain without the light of his face entering it, so much so that they will smell his fragrance and say: 'Ah! What a fine fragrance!' And they will say: 'Today a man from the people of Illiyyin has looked down upon us.' On hearing this Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: Woe to you, O Ka'b! These hearts have been given some slack; now tighten them a little (i.e. make them fear the Hereafter). Ka'b said: O Commander of the Faithful! Indeed, Hell will let out such a roar that no angel brought near and no prophet will remain without falling on his knees, so much so that even Ibrahim (peace be upon him), the Khalil of Allah, will say: "O my Lord! (Today my only concern is) myself, myself." And even if you had the deeds of seventy prophets in addition to your own deeds, you would still think that you will not be saved from it. All the narrators of this hadith are trustworthy (thiqah); however, those two (the two Shaykhs) did not record from Abu Khalid al-Dalani in the "Two Sahihs" because of what has been mentioned about his deviation from the Sunnah regarding the Companions. But the early Imams have all testified to Abu Khalid's truthfulness and precision. This hadith is sahih (authentic), but the two Shaykhs did not record it, and Abu Khalid al-Dalani is among those Imams of the people of Kufah whose hadith are collected.