It Takes an Earthquake
If a man is to enter Paradise, a moral revolution of the intensity of an earthquake must occur within him. Only such a divine refinement is the price of Paradise.
If a man is to enter Paradise, he cannot do so after living a life full of errors of omission and commission, with a resolutely deaf ear turned towards his conscience. If he is to enter Heaven’s gates, a moral revolution must occur within him. Moreover, it must be of such intensity that it is like a veritable earthquake. If this seems a very high price to pay, it must be remembered that it is in every way commensurate with the divine refinement of the Paradise he hopes to secure.
Everyone is bestowed with divine nature by birth. First, however, that divine nature must be nurtured and released, very much in the way that an enormous amount of energy is released from an atom when it is smashed. In his current life of trial, man’s fundamental task is to produce just such an explosion from within so that the hidden divine self may appear.
Every man is born in tune with the nature of his Maker. However, circumstances, traditions, desires, and many other such pressures, draw veil after veil across his moral vision: blurring his perceptions and muting his conscience. This conditioning covers one’s inner divine nature. Then, man gradually begins living according to how his thinking has been conditioned. If he is to make any spiritual progress, he must recognize the artificiality of these veils and tear them aside, no matter what the mate-rial cost.
Making a break from one’s existing mental makeup is one of the most challenging aspects. However, in the struggle to undertake this task, God has hidden all the secrets of His blessings for human beings. According to the Quran when a man makes this necessary break, his psyche is transcended and raised to the level of the divine. (17:84)
Once awakened, the divine nature becomes the direct recipient of God’s blessings. He leaves this world of limitations and enters a world of boundless joy. Just as his thinking becomes divine, so also does his moral sense. It happens in the same way that a beautiful tree emerges from a seed. However, the most crucial factor is that the seed should be willing to break open and ultimately destroy itself so that this can happen.
Every man has a divine nature which can enter the gates of Paradise in the Hereafter. However, this hidden man can come into being only when the outer self is ready to produce an inner revolution of the intensity of an earthquake.
In order to promote his worldly desires and expediency, man places everything he cherishes at stake. Detachment from material goals and a refusal to act out of expe-diency would immediately open the gates of Paradise to him. Unfortunately, most people are unaware of this vital truth. If a man is to enter Paradise, a moral revolution of the intensity of an earthquake must occur within him. Only such a divine refinement is the price of Paradise.
