Introduction

God has created an ideal world called paradise. It is a world of everlasting joy and bliss. No turmoil or pain mars its delight. One is never beset there by anguish or calamity. It is a trouble-free world of infinite blessings, where one will experience neither death, boredom nor grief.

The search for such an ideal world is an instinctive urge in man. Everybody is searching for an invisible paradise; but none is able to find a paradise of such infinite blessings in the present finite world. God has reserved it for the next world.

None can earn paradise automatically; only those who perform heavenly actions on earth will be deserving of it. God has divided our lives into two parts: a short period on earth, and the rest in the hereafter. This world is for action. The next world is for reaping the rewards of our actions.

Man is free to do as he wishes on earth, but his free will is no more than a test. He should treat it as such. He should not revel in his power. Those who are not deluded by their temporary power, and never lose sight of their true position, will be accommodated in paradise. Those who rebel on the basis of their worldly power will abide in hell.

All real power in this world belongs to God alone. He is the Lord of all things. No one can escape from His control for an instant. Those who recognize this fact will submit to God of their own accord. They are the ones who are worthy of paradise. Those who deny this fact and proceed in whatever direction their impulse takes them, are offenders in God’s sight. They will have no share in the blessings of the life-hereafter.
 

Wahiduddin Khan
October, 1980

The Islamic Centre,
New Delhi