DISCOVERY OF PARADISE
The present world is for engaging in actions that can make a person eligible for Paradise: It is not the place for building a ‘paradise’. The right place for Paradise is in the Hereafter.
It was probably in 1983. There was an Englishman living in Delhi. He had read my books and had become quite familiar with my thinking. Once, I mentioned to him that I was fond of pens. I said I had used many pens but had not found a pen I liked. He said he would soon go to London and fetch me a nice pen.
After some time, the gentleman met me and gave me a fountain pen. He mentioned that he had bought the pen in a market in Oxford after quite a search. He said that he knew I was a perfectionist and because in the world, no pen is a perfect pen, I would not like any pen!
The truth is that by birth, every person is a perfectionist. Therefore, it is right to say that man is a perfection-seeking being. It is this feature of human nature because almost every person is drowned in frustration, so much so that even those who have obtained all the things of the world are not exempt from this feeling. Therefore, man is, by nature, a perfectionist, but nothing is perfect in his world. In this way, there is a contradiction between man’s desires and the things of the world. This incompatibility between the two is the real reason for man’s frustration.
Man makes every effort, seeking to fulfil his desires. Finally, the time may come when he obtains wealth, power, and everything he desires. However, he feels as frustrated as before, even after getting the things he had hankered with. Even then, he is not able to feel contented.
Before obtaining something he desires, man thinks it is that particular thing whose desire he nurses in his heart. However, after receiving it, he does not find the peace and satisfaction that one should have in obtaining something one desires. This is because his desire was for something perfect, while everything in this world is imperfect, and a perfectionist cannot find peace and satisfaction in something imperfect.
There is only one solution to this problem: that man should make the perfect world of Paradise his goal or target. In the most total sense, Paradise is an ideal world, while the present world is only an imperfect place compared to it. Paradise is the perfect world that man has been seeking since his birth. However, because of their unawareness of Paradise, a man tries to fulfil his desires in this present world itself, and because of the incompatibility between his nature and the nature of this world, he becomes a victim of frustration.
The solution to this problem is just one—and it is that man should undergo a conscious inner revolution and obtain awareness of Paradise. After receiving this awareness, his feeling of frustration will end because he will come to know that the things he is searching for to satisfy his desires do not possess the ability to give him complete satisfaction and contentment. Following this discovery, his focus will be on Paradise of the Hereafter. After this, he will use the things of the world only at the level of his needs, not his desires. Moreover, when this transformation happens in a person, he will begin to live with a feeling of discovery and finding rather than deprivation and frustration.
The present world is more a place of losing than of gaining. Here, every person repeatedly feels that he has lost something or some opportunity, that someone has caused him loss or harm, that he has been wronged, and so on. A person cannot save himself from such situations. Every person faces them. Now, the question is: What is the way to make up for these losses? There is only one way, and that is firm and sure faith in Paradise. After facing every harm and loss in this world, the person who has such faith in God’s Paradise will be able to say that worldly damage is very petty compared to the priceless Paradise. After every material loss, an individual will lean towards God more. He will become even more desirous of eternal Paradise.
The Quran mentions that the inhabitants of Paradise will ‘have no fear, nor will they grieve’ (2:38). It means that no one is bereft of fear and grief in the present world. The present world's system has been made so that attaining a life free of anxiety and grief is impossible. Given this, the only proper attitude for man is that he should not make this world his goal. He should give the world only the status of a road that leads to his true destination—Paradise.
This fact is expressed in a Hadith in the following words: “O God! There is no comfort, but the comfort of the Hereafter.” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 2961) To search for comfort and happiness in the present world is like a passenger trying to construct a mansion on a railway platform. An individual stays on a railway platform for only a brief period, so it is not the right place to build a mansion where he can live for a long time. The present world is a place for engaging in actions that can make a person eligible for Paradise: It is not the place for building a ‘paradise’. The right place for Paradise is in the Hereafter.
To set Paradise as one’s goal is not just a matter of religious belief. Instead, it is the very purpose of human life.
