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Is it true that the dwellers of Hellfire will be more numerous than the dwellers of Paradise, and what is the wisdom behind Allah's creation of humankind when He knows that most of them will be among the dwellers of Hellfire?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Many texts from the Quran and Sunnah indicate that most of humanity will enter Hellfire, and only a few will enter Paradise. Examples include Allah’s saying: "And most of mankind, much as you desire it, will not be believers," and His saying: "And indeed Iblis (Satan) did prove true his assumption about them, and they followed him, all but a group of the believers." And His saying: "And few of My servants are grateful." From the Sunnah, there is the hadith of Abu Sa'id, where the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: "Allah will say: 'O Adam, send forth the delegation of Hellfire.' He will say: 'And what is the delegation of Hellfire?' He will say: 'From every thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine.'" As for the question: "Why did Allah create humans knowing that most of them would be in Hellfire?" this is not correct, because Allah is not questioned about what He does, while they will be questioned, and His wisdom may be apparent to us or it may be hidden. Ibn al-Qayyim mentioned that the wisdom behind this is to achieve the benefit of jihad and the various forms of worship that follow from it.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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