By Babatunde Jose
When Allah the Almighty, in His infinite wisdom and divine mercy, created the human soul, He intended its eternal abode to be in the Garden of Bliss. However, the journey to this eternal abode is indeed full of many obstacles, be it the splendours of this world, the passions of our lower self, or the whispers of Satan. It is the successful preparation for this journey that will – with the Mercy of Allah – ultimately lead us to that Garden.
Where really is Paradise? Where is Jannatul Firdous located? Is it a mythical concept or a reality? How far is Al Janna? How long do we have to stay in the grave before the roll is called up yonder? These and many more questions are what agitate the minds of believers. The desire to make heaven and all its promise is a strong one iin the minds of men. And it requires serious preparation.
“The idea of paradise as a place of rest and refreshment in which the righteous live in the presence of God appears in Judaism and thence in both Christianity and Islam…The word itself is said to derive from Old Persian pairidzaeze, meaning an enclosed area, usually a royal park or pleasure garden, although some derive the word more simply from the Persian Firdausi or garden. Whichever is the case, the origin is undoubtedly Persian.” – Edward Burman, The Assassins – Holy Killers of Islam
“There is good indication that the Biblical paradise, which is described as a garden planted eastward of Eden, from whose waters flow the four world rivers including the Tigris and Euphrates, may have been originally identical with Dilmun, the Sumerian paradise-land.” – S.N. Kramer, History Begins at Sumer.
“The Arabs call Syria ‘the land of Sheni,’ who was of course Noah’s second son – ‘Sum-Yawar’ to the Mandaeans, the man who preserved their mysteries after the flood. Damascus is in fact ‘Dimishq ash Sham‘ – Shem Town – and the astonishingly fertile area around the city is even associated by many with the Garden of Eden itself. Among this ‘many’ is the Prophet Muhammad (SAW). He buried his daughter Fatima – wife and cousin to Ali, the first Shi’ite Muslim – just outside Damascus.”
“Shem’s descendants became the Canaanites, whom many Syrians to this day claim as their ancestors.” – Paul William Roberts, Journey of the Magi (1995)
“The Qur’an refers to paradise in terms that are reminiscent of the Judaic or Christian Garden. The abode of the just is called the Garden, al-Janna, often described as a Garden through which rivers flow but also as the ‘Garden of Eden’ or the ‘garden of delight’.
O Allah, give us the good health and Grant us al-Janna here and in the Hereafter. So that we may ‘experience forgiveness, peace and the satisfaction of the soul in You’.
As the gates are opened for the arrival of the saved into Jannah they will be greeted (Q.39:73) by angels announcing, “Peace be upon you, because ye have endured with patience; how excellent a reward is paradise!” (Q13:24).
While the Quran never mentions God being in the Garden, the faithful are promised the opportunity to gaze upon His face, something the inhabitants of the Fire will be deprived of.
One day in paradise is considered equal to a thousand years on earth. While the Quran is full of “graphic” descriptions of the “physical pleasures” for the inhabitants of the Garden, it also states that the “acceptance [riḍwān] from God” felt by the inhabitants “is greater” than the pleasure of the Gardens (Q.9:72), the true beauty of paradise, the greatest of all rewards, surpassing all other joys. On the day on which God brings the elect near to his throne (‘arsh), “some faces shall be shining in contemplating their Lord”.
Perhaps no aspect of Islamic eschatology has so captured the imagination” of both “Muslims and non-Muslims” as houri (ḥūr). Men will get untouched Houri in paradise (Q55:56), virgin companions of equal age (Q56:35-38) and have large, beautiful eyes (Q37:48). Houri have occasioned “spectacular elaborations” by later Islamic eschatological writers, but also “some derision by insensitive Western observers and critics of Islam”.
In Islam, the term houri) refers to a beautiful maiden woman who is a celestial companion awaiting the faithful in paradise. Houris are often described as having beautiful eyes and are considered a form of reward for the pious. They are mentioned four times in the Quran and also the hadith, where they are depicted as pure and virginal, often associated with the beauty of the human soul. The houris are said to be present in paradise, where they will accompany believers, and their descriptions vary, including their physical attributes and the nature of their relationship with the faithful.
The Quran also states the saved “will have pure spouses,” (without indicating gender) (Q2:25, Q4:57), accompanied by any children that did not go to Jahannam (Q52:21), and attended to by servant-boys with the spotless appearance similar to a protected pearls (Q52:24).
Despite the Quranic description above, Houris have been described as women who will accompany faithful Muslims in Paradise. Muslim scholars differ as to whether they refer to the believing women of this world or a separate creation, with the majority opting for the latter.
The Qur’an describes paradise as a “great kingdom” (Q.76:20) stretching out over and above the entire world, and “lofty”. (Q69:22).
Paradise is “as vast as the heavens and the earth” (Q3:133). There are four rivers: one each of water, milk, honey, and wine (Q47:15). (They were later identified as Kawthar, Kafur, Tasnim, and Salsabil.)
Despite the details given in the Quran about Jannah/Garden, “nowhere” is there found “an ordered picture of the structure” of the abode. “For the most part Islamic theology has not concerned itself with questions about the location and structure of the Garden and the Fire on the understanding that only God knows these particulars.”
Many sources agree that paradise has “various degrees and levels”. On the basis of “several scriptural suggestions”, scholars have created “a very detailed structure” of paradise, but there is more than one, and not all of the traditions on location of paradise and hell “are easily pictured or indeed mutually reconcilable”.
For example, Q23:17 states: “We created above you seven paths [Ṭarā’iq]”, from which is drawn a heaven of seven tiers (which is also “a structure familiar to Middle Eastern cosmogony since the early Babylonian days”). Another school of thought insists Jannah actually has “eight layers or realms” as the Quran gives “eight different names … for the abode of the blessed”. (Q23:17)
Another possibility is that there are four separate realms of the blessed, of which either Firdaws or Eden is the uppermost. This is based on Surah 55, which talks about two Gardens: (“As for him who fears standing before his Lord there are two Gardens [Jannatan]”) [Q 55:46). All descriptions following this verse are of things in pairs, (i.e. in the Arabic dual form) – two fountains flowing, fruit of every kind in pairs, beside these two other gardens with two springs (Q.55:62,66).
Still others have proposed that the seven levels suggested by the Qur’an are the seven heavens, above which is the Garden or final abode of felicity, while many see paradise as only one entity with many names. (According to one source – a member of the fatwa team at Islamweb.net – only God knows the exact number of the levels of Paradise, but reliable hadith say the number of levels of Jannah may be the same as the number of verses in the Quran, i.e. over 6000 verses.)
One version of the layered Garden conceptualization describes the highest level of heaven (al-firdaws) as being said to be so close that its inhabitants could hear the sound of God’s throne above. This exclusive location is where the messengers, prophets, Imams, and martyrs (shahids) dwell. Al-Suyuti and Kitāb aḥwāl al-qiyāma each give names to the levels that don’t always coincide.
Two verses of the Quran (Q.7:40, 39:73) mention “gates” or “doors” (using the plural form) as the entrance of paradise, but say nothing about their number, names or any other characteristics.
“To those who reject Our signs and treat them with arrogance, no opening will there be of the gates of heaven …” (Q.7:40)
“And those who kept their duty to their Lord (Al-Muttaqoon – the pious) will be led to Paradise in groups till when they reach it, and its gates will be opened” (Q.39:73)
According to scholars Jane I. Smith and Yvonne Y. Haddad, while there are Muslims of a “philosophical or mystical” bent who interpret descriptions of heaven and hell “metaphorically”, “the vast majority of believers”, understand verses of the Quran on Jannah (and hellfire) “to be real and specific, anticipating them” with joy or terror, although this view “has generally not insisted that the realities of the next world will be identical with those of this world”.
Besides the material notion of the paradise, descriptions of it are also interpreted as allegories, whose meaning is the state of joy believers will experience in the afterlife. For some theologians, seeing God is not a question of sight, but of awareness of God’s presence. Although early Sufis, such as Hallaj, took the descriptions of Paradise literal, later Sufi traditions usually stressed out the allegorical meaning.
Most Muslim scholars, however, assert that paradise and hell have been created already and coexist with the contemporary world, taking evidence from the Quran, Muhammad’s (SAW) heavenly journey, and the life in the graves.
Those that turn (to Allah) in repentance; that serve Him, and praise Him; that wander in devotion to the Cause of Allah; that bow down and prostrate themselves in prayer; that enjoin good and forbid evil; and observe the limits set by Allah; –(these do rejoice). So proclaim the glad tidings to the Believers. (Q9:112)
The truly righteous, whose lives in various aspects are described in the verse above, do so rejoice. The good news is to be proclaimed to all Believers, including the weakest among us, so that they may profit by that example. These are the inhabitants of Al Jannatul Firdous. May we be counted among them.
Barka Juma’at and a happy weekend.
ADDENDUM:
ATOLAGBE ANIMASHAUN JOINS HIS ANCESTORS: INNA LILLAHI WA INNA ILEHI RAJIUN.
In what read like another rude shock in our continuing saga of a ‘season of deaths’, we received the announcement of the departure of our friend and member of our social circle, consummate retired civil servant and political aspirant, tall man, Muritala Atolagbe Ajadi Animashaun; who in the past we jokingly called Tola of Richmond Virginia. He boarded the ‘flight’ of ‘no return’ on Tuesday 9th September and was interred on Wednesday 10th. Tola was a good friend and our families go way back.
In a tribute to him, I admonished him to greet those of our people who have gone before him and behave well when he gets to heaven. He should not eat earthworms or millipedes, only eat those things that are allowed in heaven.
There are too many up there for him to greet that space will not allow us to list.
Born in February 1952, to the great preacher and Islamic radio broadcaster, late Muritala Ajadi Animashaun (Eniyan bi tiyin nimi), Tola was 73 when he died. He was in the evening of his life. A lesson to us all. Death will come. For some it comes in the morning, others in the afternoon and for some it comes in the evening, and others late in the midnight hour.
O Allah, give us good health and Grant us al-Janna here and in the Hereafter. So that we may ‘experience forgiveness, peace and the satisfaction of the soul in You’. May Allah SWT grant Tola Jannatul Firdous.
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