Meaning of the words in the hadith about wudoo’: “… but the eight gates of Paradise will be opened for him and he may enter through whichever of them he wishes”

Praise be to Allah.

Muslim (234), Abu Dawood (169), an-Nasaa’i (148), at-Tirmidhi (55), Ibn Maajah (470) and Ahmad (122) narrated from ‘Uqbah ibn ‘Aamir that ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: The Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “There is no one among you who does wudoo’ and does it well, then says: ‘I bear witness that there is no god worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is the slave of Allah and His Messenger,’ but the eight gates of Paradise will be opened for him and he may enter through whichever of them he wishes.”

At-Tirmidhi added: “O Allah, make me one of those who repent and make me one of those who purify themselves.”

Al-Albaani classed it as saheeh in Saheeh at-Tirmidhi and elsewhere.

A similar report was narrated about the virtue of Abu Bakr as-Siddeeq (may Allah be pleased with him):

Al-Bukhaari (1897) and Muslim (1027) narrated from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “Whoever gives a pair of anything for the sake of Allah will be called from the gate of Paradise: ‘O slave of Allah, this is good.’ Whoever was one of the people of prayer will be called from the gate of prayer. Whoever was one of the people of jihad will be called from the gate of jihad. Whoever was one of the people of fasting will be called from the gate of al-Rayyaan. Whoever was one of the people of charity will be called from the gate of charity.” Abu Bakr as-Siddeeq said: May my father and mother be sacrificed for you, O Messenger of Allah. There is no need for anyone to be called from all of these gates, but will anyone be called from all of them? He said: “Yes, and I hope that you will be one of them.”

Al-Haafiz Ibn Hajar (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

What the hadith means is that each doer of that deed will be called from the gate of that deed. That is clearly stated in another report from Abu Hurayrah: For each doer [of a good deed] there will be one of the gates of paradise, from which he will be called because of that deed.” Narrated by Ahmad and Ibn Abi Shaybah with a saheeh isnad.

This hadith gives the impression that it is a small number who will be called from all of those gates. It also indicates that what is referred to is voluntary deeds of each category, not obligatory deeds, because there are many who will have done all the obligatory deeds, in contrast to voluntary deeds, for there are very few who will have done all voluntary deeds.

Moreover, the one who does all of that will only be called from all of these gates by way of honouring him; otherwise he can only enter through one gate, and perhaps it will be the gate of the deed that he did the most. And Allah knows best.

Regarding the report narrated by Muslim from ‘Umar: “Whoever does wudoo’ then says, ‘I bear witness that there is no god worthy of worship except Allah… ‘”, In which it says: “the gates of Paradise will be opened to him and he will enter through whichever one he wishes,” it does not contradict what is mentioned above, even though it may appear to contradict it, because it may be understood as meaning that they will be opened to him by way of honouring him, then when he enters Paradise, he will only enter through the gate of the deed of which he did the most, as has been noted above. And Allah knows best. "Fath al-Baari"

Al-Qurtubi (may Allah have mercy on him) said: It says in the hadith of Abu Hurayrah that there are some people who will be called from all the gates. It was said that this call will be by way of acknowledgement and honour, and increasing the reward of those who did those deeds… Then he will enter through the gate of the deed which he did the most. "At-Tadhkirah (p. 533)"

Al-Qaari (may Allah have mercy on him) said in al-Mirqaat (2/219):

It was said: He will be given the choice by way of bestowing greater honour on him, but he will only be inspired to enter through the gate that is prepared for those who did the deed that he did the most, such as the gate of ar-Rayyaan for those who fast. End quote.

See also: Daleel al-Faaliheen (6/361), ‘Umdat al-Qaari (16/248; 24/262).

And Allah knows best.