The Price of Paradise

When a man attains realization of God, discovers the realities of divine creation, this spontaneously brings words of acknowledgement of God to his lips. This will make him deserving of Paradise.

A certain tradition has been recorded in different books of Hadith with slight differences. Its gist is that a person may be taken out of the Hell in the Hereafter. Then he will be asked as to how he met his fate. He will say that he had been very bad. Then he would be asked if he had possessed gold equal to the earth, would he like to pay out all that gold in order to save himself from hell fire. He will say, “Yes”. Then he will be told: that in the world he was asked for much less but he did not comply with that. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 6538)

In this tradition, what is meant by ‘less’? It means acknowledgement. If man had been asked to give gold as the price of Paradise it would have been the material price of Paradise. But a material price of this kind is not required of man. What was asked from man was nothing but acknowledgement, but man was so engrossed with things other than God that he could not pay this price of acknowledgement.

What is acknowledgement? Acknowledgement is not a simple matter: it is always the result of discovery. When a man thinks deeply, divine realities are revealed to him. On the one hand, he attains realization of God, and on the other hand, he discovers the realities of divine creation. He becomes fully conscious of Hell and Paradise.

These discoveries produce a storm in his mind. When this consciousness and this feeling spontaneously bring words of acknowledgement of God to his lips, it is such acknowledgement as will make him deserving of Paradise.