The World of Paradise

In the present world man has been given things commensurate with his needs. In the world of Paradise in the Hereafter, man will be given things according to his desires.

Chapter 14 of the Quran has this to say: “He has given you all that you asked of Him.” (14:34) This relates to the present world. But what is said about Paradise has a different connotation: “Therein you shall have all that your souls desire.” (41:31) When we think about these two verses, we learn that in the present world man has been given things commensurate with his needs. But so far as Paradise is concerned, man will be given things according to his desires.

Man is regarded as a pleasure seeking animal. Pleasure is a unique phenomenon experienced only by human beings. The desire in humans for all kinds of pleasures is limitless. But in the present world these desires of men and women are not fulfilled. Almost without exception every one of us leaves the world without having attained total fulfilment, be he rich or poor, illiterate or educated, a commoner or a king.

There is a long list of pleasures man wants to enjoy: intellectual pleasure, the pleasure of sight, of hearing, of taste, of touch, of speech, of companionship, of study, of discovery, of happiness, etc. The pleasure taken in all these things by man is limitless. But man is not able to have these limitless pleasures in the present world. He is in search of this, but very soon his time to leave the world approaches. Man does have the experience of the feeling of pleasure but is not able to experience it to the full.

An atheist philosopher holding that Paradise is a matter of wishful thinking, writes that Paradise is a beautiful idealization of human wishes. But the more appropriate thing to say would be that Paradise is a beautiful actualization of human wishes.