First published on: Paradise In Islam: Not Just A Dream!

Have you ever stopped at an advertisement about a great vacation to Himalaya or Ohio where you can find stunning views, waterfalls, mountains, wonderful resorts, delicious foods and amazing drinks and beauty and peace all around. A place where you feel totally relaxed and where you want to stay forever. But sometimes I wonder if this is the pleasure that Allah offers to people on Earth, what about the pleasures and the blessings that He granted His believers in Paradise?!   

Many religions offer or give promises to heavens and paradise which sound very attractive to any person, but these religions don’t give specific details about paradise and the life hereafter which leaves people on a thin ice. Islam, on the other hand, through The Quran (The Final Revelation) and the Sunnah (Prophet Mohammed Teaching and Sayings), described paradise and the blessings that Allah has created for His righteous people in details.  

The Ultimate Pleasure: Seeing God!

People of paradise “the believers” will see their Lord in Paradise. There is nothing more loved and nothing more pleasurable than seeing God our creator after entering paradise. It was narrated that Suhaib said:

The Messenger of Allah recited this Verse: ‘For those who have done good is the best reward and even more.’ Then he said: ‘When the people of Paradise enter Paradise, and the people of the Fire enter the Fire, a caller will cry out: “O people of Paradise! You have a covenant with Allah and He wants to fulfill it.” They will say: “What is it?” Has Allah not made the Balance (of our good deeds) heavy, and made our faces bright, and admitted us to Paradise and saved us from Hell?” Then the Veil will be lifted and they will look upon Him, and by Allah, Allah will not give them anything that is more beloved to them or delightful, than looking upon Him.’”

In The Quran, God Almighty said:

[Some] faces, that Day, will be radiant, Looking at their Lord.” [Quran.com/75/22-23]

This is the greatest blessing that He, may He be glorified, will bestow upon people of Paradise. 

No Fear, No Pain, No Sorrow in Paradise

We, human beings, are created to the Hereafter. As the Hereafter is eternal life, God has created to His believers paradises where there is no death, no pain, no sorrow, no disease. There is nothing that can harm you in Paradise and nothing from the things that bothers you on earth can ever bother you in paradise. Whenever you desire any thing in paradise, just thinking of it, The Lord, may He be glorified, will make it come true. The base in this life is doing good deeds and hard work while the base in the Hereafter in Paradise is demanding whatever you desire as God said:

They will have whatever they wish therein, and with Us is more.” [Quran.com/50/35].

Enjoying The Great pleasure of Eternity

One of the greatest pleasures in Paradise is the blessing of eternity. The believers will enjoy Paradise and its pleasures forever. As God said that the reward of righteous people who do good deeds in their life is paradise “in which they will remain forever” [Quran.com/18/3]

Their destiny is that they will enjoy happiness forever as God Almighty said:

And as for those who were [destined to be] prosperous, they will be in Paradise, abiding therein as long as the heavens and the earth endure, except what your Lord should will – a bestowal uninterrupted.” [Quran.com/11/108].

Sensual Pleasure in Paradise

Some religions like Christianity denies any kind of sensual joy in Paradise claiming that this place should be a “Pure place” above any sensual or sensuous pleasures. Islam, on the other hand, is balanced. Our creator knows our nature and inclination very well. He made the pleasures of Heavens not only spiritual but also sensual. As for the sensual pleasure in paradise, “herein is whatever the souls desire and [what] delights the eyes, and you will abide therein eternally.” [Quran.com/43/71]

In The Qur’an there are many lovely descriptions of the foods, drinks, clothes, servants, houses and spouses in Paradise.   

As For food:

For you therein is much fruit from which you will eat.” [Quran.com/43/73]

Drinks:

God Almighty said:

Is the description of Paradise, which the righteous are promised, wherein are rivers of water unaltered, rivers of milk the taste of which never changes, rivers of wine delicious to those who drink, and rivers of purified honey, in which they will have from all [kinds of] fruits and forgiveness from their Lord, like [that of] those who abide eternally in the Fire and are given to drink scalding water that will sever their intestines?” [Quran.com/47/15]

Houses:

On thrones woven [with ornament], Reclining on them, facing each other.” [Quran.com/56/15-16]

Servants:

There will circulate among them young boys made eternal. When you see them, you would think them [as beautiful as] scattered pearls.

Purified Spouse:

God Said: “And give good tidings to those who believe and do righteous deeds that they will have gardens [in Paradise] beneath which rivers flow. Whenever they are provided with a provision of fruit therefrom, they will say, “This is what we were provided with before. “And it is given to them in likeness. And they will have therein purified spouses, and they will abide therein eternally.”

One can’t ever imagine the beauty of Paradise. The Prophet (PBUH) said:

Allah Most High said: ‘I have prepared for My righteous worshipers what no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human heart has conceived.'” And that is testified to in Allah’s [the Mighty and Sublime] Book: “No person knows what is kept hidden for them of delights of the eyes.” [Quran.com/32/17]

In a nutshell, each one of us was created to worship God, and this will only be fulfilled if we choose Him above everything else. But because He gave each of us free will, many decide to choose for themselves pleasure in this life and ignore, or completely deny, God’s wishes for them in the Hereafter. And His wishes are complete and total joy for all eternity in paradise.