ON THE THRESHOLD
OF PARADISE
Standing at the end of human history, we stand on the threshold of Paradise. Man has been seeking a Paradise on earth for thousands of years due to his natural urges. With the coming of the industrial revolution and the age of consumerism, man thought that he could build a Paradise on earth, that the industrial age would culminate into the perfect world—Paradise—that he longs for. The superficiality of the notion that man could make a Paradise on Earth was severely dashed with the coming of pollution, acid rain and global warming. Moreover, now the Covid-19 pandemic has made man realise to the last extent that he cannot build a Paradise on earth. Instead, they are showing that not only is it impossible to build a Paradise on earth, but the present world has almost reached its end.
Such signs, both in nature and in history, appear continually. It seems that the period—the period set for the present world by its Creator, has now expired, and the time has come for this temporary world to be terminated so that the eternal world of the hereafter may replace it. These words of the Quran are indicative of this reality.
“On that Day We shall roll up the heavens like a scroll of parchment. As We originated the first creation, so shall We repeat it. This is a promise binding on Us. Truly, We shall fulfil it.” (21:104)
Today man stands on the threshold of Paradise. Paradise is the final period of the journey of civilisation. Paradise will only be found in a state of perfection in the world hereafter. There man will find a life of joy, peace and happiness forever in this world. There will be no necessity for physical labour; pleasant intellectual activities will suffice to achieve all desired goals.
Therein, all types of limitations and disadvantages will be brought to an end: there will be no fear or grief, nor will there be any noise or pain. All those potentialities which have been apparent to a man from the very first day will be fulfilled in the world of Paradise. In Paradise, man will find an eternal life in which old age, accidents, disease and death are absent. This will be the ideal world where man will be able to utilize the full potential of his personality, thus experiencing complete fulfilment. He will find a life of joy, peace and happiness forever in this world. There will be no necessity for physical labour; pleasant intellectual activities will suffice to achieve all desired goals.
Man must realise that he stands on the threshold of Paradise. The question is, how can man achieve the Paradise of his dreams? To find an answer to this question, one must become aware of the Creation Plan of God.
The Creation Plan of God
God—the Creator of man, has created man according to His Plan. To become acquainted with this Plan, it is necessary for a man to have a thorough understanding of himself—just as the workings of a machine can only be understood when we study the drawings of the engineer who made it. Besides the engineer’s mind, there is no other thing that can clarify what the machine is meant for. The case of man is the same. The existence of man is such a unique phenomenon that no other such example can be found throughout the vastness of the cosmos. Man is rightly called the ‘best of all creations,’ which means the best and most meaningful ‘being’ among all the things created. Such a ‘meaningful being’ cannot have been created without a purpose. The Creator of man has created him according to a particular Plan. The Quran, the only preserved religious scripture, sheds light on this Plan.
Enthroned above the waters, it was He who created the heavens and the earth in six Days [periods] in order to test which of you is best in conduct. (The Quran, 11:7)
We have adorned the earth with attractive things to test mankind as to which one is best in conduct. (The Quran, 18:7)
He created death and life so that He might test you and find out which of you is best in conduct. (The Quran, 67:2)
The human being was created as an eternal being, and ‘death and life’ represent both the pre-death and post-death periods of human life. So, death and life cover the entire eternal lifespan of human beings.
The Creator of man has created him according to a particular Plan. His intention is that man must spend a period of trial in this present, imperfect world, and after this, according to his deeds, he will earn the right to inhabit the perfect and eternal world, another name for which is Paradise.
According to His will, God created a perfect world called Paradise: a world in accordance with all of our desires as human beings, in that it is free of all limitations and disadvantages, free of fear and pain, free of all imperfections. It would be an eternal world with neither death nor old age, an ideal world where we could achieve fulfilment.
Less-than-perfect beings cannot inhabit a perfect Paradise. So, God created perfection-seeking beings—human beings. He intended us to spend a period of trial here. After this, according to our deeds, we will earn the right to inhabit the perfect and eternal world. As part of this test, Paradise is kept hidden from us.
The essence of God’s Creation Plan is to give a person complete freedom–not simply as a gift, but as a test. The result of this test would enable God to know who misused his freedom and who put his freedom to the best use. This was, and still is, the divine scheme of things for man. In the pre-death period of life, an individual has the chance to qualify himself for Paradise so that in the post-death period of life, he may be settled as a deserving candidate in this perfect world.
This world, therefore, has all the components necessary for a test. It has perfection-seeking beings in a less-than-perfect world, beings who have been given complete freedom to choose their actions. Thus, we have a choice—we can misuse our freedom to do evil or use our freedom wisely, submit to God, and qualify for Paradise. Those who misuse their God-given freedom are chastised thus in the Quran:
“This is the truth from your Lord. Let him who will, believe in it, and him who will, deny it.’ For the wrongdoers, We have prepared a Fire which will cover them like a canopy, and if they beg for water, they will be given water as hot as molten lead, which will scald their faces: how dreadful a drink, and how evil a resting place!” (The Quran, 18:29)
The Creator of the world has created this world, as one half of a pair—the present world, in which we pass our lives after birth, is the first half; and the next eternal world where we live after death is the other half. The Creator of man has further created him as an eternal creature and has divided his life into two periods—the pre-death period or the life in this world and the post-death period or the life after death. The limited period before death is meant to be a test for man, while the eternal period after his death will be the period for his reward or punishment, based on his performance in the test in this life.
According to this Creation Plan of God, human beings are placed in situations where they have to face hardships from time to time throughout their lives as part of their test. Difficulty and sadness are an integral part of the creation plan of the Creator. No man has the power to extricate himself from this life of trial and tribulation. This arrangement reminds man that the present world has not been made as a place of luxury and comfort, but rather as a period of trial and such as will help determine whether he is eligible or not for the eternal life in Paradise. This is the scheme of existence for this world devised by its Creator. Creation aims to select those who are fit to inhabit the world of Paradise.
What Is Paradise?
Paradise is the name of the ideal world, the desire for which is lodged in the hearts of all human beings. It is Paradise where man’s personality shall achieve fulfilment in the most total sense. Man desires this Paradise with every fibre of his being, and Paradise awaits him in its entirety.
Paradise is a world where man attains his complete fulfilment, where he thinks the way he wants to think; where he sees what he desires to see; where he listens to the sounds that give pleasure to his ears in the real sense; where he touches those things which gives him the highest degree of pleasure; where he has the company of those people who make his life highly meaningful, where the winds are life-giving zephyrs for him, where he eats such food as he eternally craved for and he sips such drinks as are only beautiful figments of his imagination today.
Those pure souls will qualify for Paradise who, in their life in this world, come up to the standard of citizenship of Paradise—a perfect world of eternal comfort and pleasure, a world which holds far more significant meaning than this one. Perhaps it is this Divine Plan which Jesus Christ was referring to:
“This is how you should pray: Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.” (Matthew, 6:9)
Which are the pure souls who will qualify for the citizenship of Paradise in the hereafter? Answering this, the Quran states:
“The hearts of the people of Paradise will be filled with the glory of God.” (The Quran, 39:75)
For one to be deserving of Paradise, one must discover the glory of God in the present world and acknowledge it from deep within his heart. Glorifying God means discovering God through thinking and reflection, as the Lord of the Universe, while He is unseen. This discovery must be intellectually so profound that it should bring about a revolutionary change in his personality. In this way, he becomes a Rabbani (divine) person. (The Quran, 3:79)
The society of Paradise will be a collection of the best individuals from the whole of human history. Every member of this society will possess the fine qualities of positive thinking, peaceful behaviour, sublime character, truthfulness, sincerity and amiable personality, an idealist in thought and a perfectionist in behaviour.
Those who have developed this kind of personality are competent members of such a society in the present world. Only those persons will find entry into Paradise who have qualified themselves in the present world, as mentioned in the Quran, thus:
“[In the Hereafter] man shall have only that for which he strives.” (The Quran, 53:39)
Paradise is not anyone’s birth right, nor will one receive entry into it through recommendation or wishful thinking. Only such a person will find entry into Paradise who qualifies for it. Entry into Paradise is a matter of selection, and God Almighty will make this selection in the world Hereafter.
Eligibility for Citizenship in Paradise
To be held eligible for entry into the perfect world of Paradise in the hereafter, we must discover God’s Creation Plan. According to this Plan, we must spend a period of trial in this imperfect world, and according to our deeds, we will earn the right to inhabit the perfect and eternal world, Paradise. We are, therefore, placed in situations where we face hardships from time to time throughout our lives as part of our test. Our desire for Paradise should make this world seem insignificant to us. We should discover and submit to our Creator while He is unseen and willingly adopt divine ethics. We should develop ourselves intellectually and spiritually so we will be found eligible for the citizenship of the refined world of Paradise by God Almighty.
There are two necessary conditions for entry to Paradise. The first condition is that one discovers God at the level of realisation, called maarifah. It means that one’s feelings and emotions are focused on and associated with God alone. Without even seeing God, one experiences God’s mercy and blessings at every moment. The second condition is that one should reach the world of the Hereafter with a purified personality (20:76). It means that one has purified his soul in this world to such an extent that one’s heart and mind are free of impurities devoid of any negativity; that is, one has grown a garden of divinity within himself. However, those who choose to be negative and pollute themselves by following the footsteps of Satan will be thrown into hell in the Hereafter, while those who purify themselves will eternally dwell in the blissful environs of Paradise. Those who purify their personalities and attain a profound realisation of God will undoubtedly be rewarded with eternal Paradise by God Almighty.
Deserving Candidates of Paradise
God’s Angels are continuously preparing a record of man’s words and deeds in the present life. Based on this record, one who is a thanksgiver will gain entry into Paradise, and one who is a denier and does not acknowledge God will be deprived of Paradise forever.
The time prior to death is a testing period. After death will be the time for receiving the reward commensurate with the results of one’s test. In the Quran (76:7), this test tells us who is a thanksgiver and who a denier, who lives a life of acknowledgement and who lives a life of ingratitude. Thanksgiving is acknowledgement, and denial is, in fact, ingratitude.
In the Hereafter, when all human beings are presented before their Creator, their eternal future will be decided according to the record of their past deeds. In the court of the Creator, some will be declared thanks-givers while others will be declared as deniers, that is, those who did not acknowledge God. This decision will be based on what deeds one did in life before death.
The greatest fortune a person may have is that he gains entry into Paradise in the stage of life after death. This entry into Paradise will not be based on anything mysterious. According to the Quran, it will be based on thanksgiving or acknowledgement of God.
In the present world, God’s Angels are continuously preparing a record of man’s words and deeds. According to this record, a thanksgiver will gain entry into Paradise. Moreover, one who denies God or does not acknowledge God will be deprived of Paradise forever.
The thanksgiver has a well-integrated personality. This personality may be called a godly (rabbani) personality, although it is built by man himself. The more one develops his consciousness, the more he will develop his godly or spiritual personality. Such a personality is formed through living consciousness rather than wishful thinking or some mysterious procedure.
The Righteous Shall Inherit the Land
Events have shown that the present state of the earth is not an ideal one, even though there exists nature’s life support system in its perfect form. This system may be at its best on the earth, but there is one thing in all this, that is, it is far from ideal. Here, good and bad people exist alongside each other. The presence everywhere of seriously flawed individuals is the source of all kinds of evil. However, all the bad people will be separated from the good in the hereafter. They will be deprived of all the earth’s resources, and the earth will be entrusted solely to the good people. This is the truth which has been mentioned in the following verse: “And indeed We have written in Psalms (Az-Zabur) that My righteous servants shall inherit the land.”(i.e., the land of Paradise) (The Quran, 21:105). This statement made in the Quran is recorded in detail in the Book of Psalms in the Bible: “The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell in it forever.” (Psalms, 37:29).
