Comparison between the doors of Jannah and Jahannam

In Surah Az-Zumar, Allah describes two scenes of the Day of Judgement. One scene is where the disbelievers are taken to Jahannam and the other scene is where the believers are taken to Jannah. When describing the scene where the disbelievers are taken to Jahannam, Allah says:

وَسِيقَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا إِلَىٰ جَهَنَّمَ زُمَرًا ۖ حَتَّىٰ إِذَا جَاءُوهَا فُتِحَتْ أَبْوَابُهَا

“And those who disbelieved will be driven to Hell in groups until, when they reach it, its gates are opened….” Surah Az-Zumar, 71

To describe the gates of Jahannam, Allah uses this expression. حَتَّىٰ إِذَا جَاءُوهَا فُتِحَتْ أَبْوَابُهَا which translates as ‘until when they reach it, its gates are opened’. So this means that when the disbelievers reach the gates of Jahannam, the gates are originally closed and they are only opened when they reach it.

Now look at this ayah where Allah describes the believers reaching the gates of Jannah.

وَسِيقَ الَّذِينَ اتَّقَوْا رَبَّهُمْ إِلَى الْجَنَّةِ زُمَرًا ۖ حَتَّىٰ إِذَا جَاءُوهَا وَفُتِحَتْ أَبْوَابُهَا

“But those who feared their Lord will be driven to Paradise in groups until, when they reach it while its gates have been opened…” Surah Az-Zumar, 73.

Here, the words Allah uses to describe the gates of Jannah are حَتَّىٰ إِذَا جَاءُوهَا وَفُتِحَتْ أَبْوَابُهَا. As you can notice its similar to the words used to describe the gates of Jahannam. The only difference is this word وَ before فُتِحَتْ أَبْوَابُهَا. وَ translates as while. So this ayah is saying, until when they reach it, WHILE the gates have been opened. This means that the gates of Jannah were opened even before the believers reached it. Because Allah has always kept the gates of Jannah opened, while He kept the doors of Jahannam closed, out of His incomprehensible Mercy that He has for all of humanity. Subhaanallah!

May Allah make all of us those who enter the gates of Jannah. Ameen!