MISZELLEN The Creation and Duration of Paradise and Hell in Islamic Theology 1 ) Binyamin Abrahamov (Bar-HanUniversity) 1. Introduction A great part of Muhammad's preaching in the first period of his prophecy in Mecca is devoted to a description of Paradise and Hell, the abodes of reward and punishment respectively. However, the Qur'an does not explicitly refer to two is- sues: a) the creation of Paradise and Hell; and b) their duration. From the begin- ning of the second/eighth century, Muslim theologians have tried to fill this gap by presenting various approaches to these two topics. This paper aims to examine Islamic theological approaches to the creation and duration of Paradise and Hell as well as the foundations of these approaches in Islamic perceptions of God, man, and the structure of the world. Although the paper presents the main arguments of the topic, it is by no means exhaustive. 2. The Creation of Paradise and Hell 2.1 Past Creation According to most of the traditionalists, Paradise and Hell will not be created in the world to come, for they have already been created by God. In a creed writ- ten by Abu Zur e a "Ubaydallah ibn 'Abd al-Karim al-Bazi (d. 264/878) and Abu Hatirn Muhammad ibn Idris al-Razi (d. 277/890), the eighth section reads: "Both Paradise and Hell really exist. Both of them are created entities which will never perish. Paradise is a reward for God's friends (awliyffihi) and Hell is a punish- ment for sinners (literally "those who disobey God", ahl mcfsiyatihi) unless God 1 ) A draft of this paper was read in the International Medieval Congress held at Leeds, July 2000. Der Islam Bd. 79, S. 87-102 © Walter de Gruyter 2002 ISSN 0021-1818