Qur'an & Hadith

Lit., "it has seven gates, [with] an allotted share of them for each gate". This probably means "seven degrees" of hell, i.e., of the suffering which, in the life to come, awaits the "followers of Satan" in accordance with the gravity of their sins (Razi; a similar explanation is given by Qatadah, as quoted by Tabari,). It should also be remembered that the concept of "hell" as such is referred to in the Qur'an under seven different names, all of them metaphorical (necessarily so, because they relate to what the Qur'an describes as al-ghayb, "something that is beyond the reach of human perception"): namely nar ("fire, which is the general term), jahannam ("hell"), jahim ("blazing fire"), sa'ir ("blazing flame"), saqar ("hell-fire"), laza ("raging flame"), and hutamah ("crushing torment"). Since, as I have mentioned, these designations of other-worldly suffering are obviously allegorical, we may also assume that the "seven gates of hell" have the same character, and signify "seven approaches [or "ways"] to hell". Furthermore, it is well known that in the Semitic languages - and most particularly in classical Arabic - the number "seven" is often used in the sense of "several" or "various" (cf. Lisan al-'Arab, Taj al -Arus, etc.): and so the above Qur'anic phrase may well have the meaning of "various ways leading to hell" - in other words, many ways of sinning.