Seventy in Qur’an and Hadith
From this month onwards we present under this column those traditions of the Prophet in which he used the word “seventy”. The following are from Suyuti’s Jaami` Saghir, which he declared Sahih. But first those Qur’anic verses that used the word “seventy.”
1. And Musa chose from his people seventy men for Our appointed time. But when the violent quaking seized them, he said, ‘My Lord! Had you willed, You could have destroyed them before me ‑ and me (too along with them). Will you destroy us all for what the foolish ones of us have done? Surely, this is Your trial: You lead astray thereby whom You will and guide whom you will. You are our Protector, therefore, forgive us and show us mercy. And, surely, You are the best of those who forgive. [7: 155]
2. And whether you (O Muhammad) seek forgiveness for them (the hypocrites) or do not seek forgiveness. If you sought forgiveness for them seventy times, Allah will never forgive them. That is because they disbelieved in Allah and His Messenger. And Allah does not guide a corrupt people. [9: 80]
3. (It will be said about the unbeliever), “Seize him and chain him. Then roast him in Hellfire. Then bind him with a chain of length seventy yard.” [69: 30-31]
1. The lowest one in position, of those in Paradise, will have eighty thousand servants, and seventy wives. A tomb decorated with pearls and other rich stones will be erected for him – of area as the area between Jabiyyah (in Syria) and Sanaa‘ (in Yemen).
2. Faith is seventy and odd branches. Its highest is the testimony “there is no deity save Allah,” while its lowest is to remove a thing of inconvenience from the path. And modesty is part of faith
3. Usury has seventy doors, and so has polytheism
4. No Muslim visits a sick person in the evening but has in his company seventy thousand angels seeking his forgiveness until the morning. And, he who visited in the morning, will have seventy thousand angels in his company seeking his forgiveness until the evening.
5. Seventy-thousand of my Ummah will enter Paradise without reckoning. They are those who do not cauterize, do not seek to be cauterized, who do not seek incantation, do not seek omen by the birds and in their Lord they put their trust.
6. When a slave (of Allah) is placed into his grave and his companions turn back from him, until he hears the receding sound of their footsteps, two angels come to him and make him sit up. They ask him, “What did you have to say about this person?” (i.e., Muhammad). As for a believer he says, “I testify that he is Allah’s slave and Messenger.” He is told, “Look at your abode in the Fire. Allah has exchanged it with your abode in Paradise.” He sees them both. And his grave is expanded to seventy yards. And a nice perfume is spread on him until the day they will be resurrected.
As for the unbeliever or the hypocrite, he is told, “What was it you used to say about this man?” He replies, “I don’t know. I just repeated what the people had to say.” He is told, “Neither you knew nor did you read.” Then he is given a blow with an iron hammer between his two ears. He screams a scream that everyone nearby hears except the Jinn and Mankind. And his grave is constricted upon him until his ribs slide into each other.
7. The earth calls out seventy times everyday: “Children of Adam! Eat whatever you wish and desire, but, by Allah, I shall surely eat your flesh and your skins.”
