Islamic Heaven

[Shahanshah]

[Shahanshah]

[pilgrim]

[manohar]

_________________
Asatoma sadgamaya,
tamasoma jyotirgamaya,
mrutyoma amrutam gamaya,
...................................
Om shaanti shaanti shaantihi.
May all the innocent rest in peace forever.

[pilgrim]

Heaven According to Muslims

By: Malik Muslimani
8/22/2002
Annaked.com

Translated by Pilgrim

Note: this a seven page article in Arabic. I do not have time to translate it in one session; therefore I will serialize and assign a number to each part. For sake of continuity, I will reprint previous parts each time I post a new segment.
………………..

Folks,
Pilgrim is an honest heavenly real estate broker. I have choice parcels and various dwelling to satisfy city folks, nomads such as Arabs and Turks, and outdoor campers.

So here we go.

Part 1

Heaven has a fundamental understanding in all religions. It arose out of a philosophical question about death and after death. This thinking about after death was and continues to be an issue that no system of thought can ignore. Thus, death occupies the religious and the philosophical mind through the ages.

The method of dealing with this issue unmasks the spiritual level of the founder of any religion. The answer that these founders developed influences greatly the hearts and minds of the followers of these religions. Thus, the imaginations and beliefs of the Muslims does not only explain the nature and environment of the period of the founding of Islam, and does not only reveal the personality of Muhammad and his companions in their call to Islam, but also helps to define the personality of the Muslims; It also draws the outline of the ethical awareness of the Muslims, in addition it confirms, or negates the presence of human sensitivity.

In this article we are going to present the picture of heaven as understood by the Muslims. The reader shall see through the characteristics of the heaven, the Islamic personality, and its view of recompense, and how the Muslim looks at life, and the goal for life. Heaven is the goal for the actions of the Muslims. It is the abode of eternity as a reward for their “good “deeds in the world.

In order not to enter into many details about description of heaven which occur in Muhammad’s hadith [statements of Muhammad], and in Islamic books, we are going to display heaven according to its Qur’anic description, and will rely on Islamic tradition to complete the picture.

The basic description of heaven according to Islamic vision is that it contains all that the senses desire; and Qur’an points to that as follows: <<Qur’an 43:71 Therein are brought round for them trays of gold and goblets, and therein is all that souls desire and eyes find sweet. And ye are immortal therein>>. And according to Islamic tradition in which Allah says: << I have prepared for my righteous worshipers things that no eye has seen, and no ear has heard, and has not occurred to the heart of a human>>. And there is in it reveling and merrymaking that believers have no knowledge of: <<Qur’an 32:17 No soul knoweth what is kept hid for them of joy, as a reward for what they used to do>>.

This is the first description of heaven, and we see in this description that the Muslim is promised by Allah himself that he will obtain all that delights him, that is fulfilling all his worldly desires.

The Construction
The width of paradise is <<Qur’an 57:21 Race one with another for forgiveness from your Lord and a Garden whereof the breadth is as the breadth of the heavens and the earth, which is in store for those who believe in Allah and His messengers. Such is the bounty of Allah, which He bestoweth upon whom He will, and Allah is of Infinite Bounty>>. And according to hadith, heaven has doors reserved for various groups: the door of repentance [for the repented]; the door of alms [for the alms giver]; the door of prayer [for those who pray]; the door of struggle [for those who fight for Allah]; the door of eating [for those who fast] according to hadiths by Al-Bukhari and Muslim. This does not clarify how Muslims are to enter these doors since what has been stated here are obligations of all Muslims. It could be said, probably, that the one who engages in excessive prayer enters through the door of prayer, and so on.

Islamic tradition adds the following description to heaven: << It is built with alternate bricks of gold and silver; they are plastered with musk of exceptionally powerful fragrance. Its stones are rubies and pearls, and its soil is saffron. Who ever enters it becomes immortal, and their youth become everlasting, and their clothes never wear [The traditions of Al-Darami in a chapter on the construction of paradise; similarly it was stated by Al-Tarmathy in a chapter on a description of heaven; and in the Traditions written by Ahmad]>>.

With respect to construction, Qur’an mentions the existence of rooms, some of which are multi stories, and some have rivers flowing beneath <<39:20 But those who keep their duty to their Lord, for them are lofty halls with lofty halls above them, built (for them), beneath which rivers flow. (It is) a promise of Allah. Allah faileth not His promise>>. Qur’an confirms that the believers <<34:37 And it is not your wealth nor your children that will bring you near unto Us, but he who believeth and doeth good (he draweth near). As for such, theirs will be twofold reward for what they did and they will dwell secure in lofty halls>>.

And if the promise of <rooms> was suitable for the people of Quraysh [Meccans] because they lived in a commercial city with residential dwellings, this promise was not met with appreciation by a large proportion of the inhabitants of the Arabian peninsula who were nomads, and thus had to be attracted by talking about the tents of heaven. Muhammad promised the believers with a tent. He said: <<there is in paradise a tent made by the cavity inside a pearl whose width is 60 miles>> Al-Bukhari- in another quote:<<the tent is in a pearl with a hollow inside, its length in heaven is 30 miles>>. Apparently this occurred in Yathrub [Madina] when groups of bedawins [nomads] began to approach Muhammad. It is clear that Muhammad sensed the extent of their emotional attachment to tents. We still see its influence in the adherence of the Arabs to tents to this day. These psychological manifestations confirm to a great extent the deep rooted nomadic life style in the psych of the Arabs.

Heaven is not limited to buildings and tents only. Some hadiths talk about palaces for a selected group of Muslims as has been conveyed by sources about Muhammad; he saw in a dream a woman making ablution next to a palace. He asked to whom the palace belongs. He was told it belonged to ‘Umar Bin-al-Khattab [ Sahih (correct hadith) Al-Bukhari, number 3533; Sahih Muslim, number 6147; Also the article on ‘Umar Bin-al-Khattab in the Lion of the Forest: 654/3]. This is in line with classifications that were clearly defined in the Qur’an <<Qur’an 43:32 Is it they who apportion thy Lord's mercy ? We have apportioned among them their livelihood in the life of the world, and raised some of them above others in rank that some of them may take labour from others; and the mercy of thy Lord is better than (the wealth) that they amass>>.

(To be continued)

Best regard, Pilgrim [Can't wait to get to Muslim's heaven]
_________________
"A dead thing can go with the stream...but only a living thing can go against it." G.K. Chesterton
"we believe the church and the world both benefit when civilized people are "locked together in an argument". G. K. Chesterton

[manohar]

I am born on at a time that is inauspicious going by some Hindu astrological calculations,many of the posts that I made here were in inauspicious days and times,using inauspicious considered black colored keyboards,so do not take my posts seriosly.

I want an eternal peace and nothing more.If ever I have another life,I wish I be born as a Buddhist,lead a meaningful and purposeful life and attain nirvana or eternal bliss.

Bye to all.
_________________
Asatoma sadgamaya,
tamasoma jyotirgamaya,
mrutyoma amrutam gamaya,
...................................
Om shaanti shaanti shaantihi.
May all the innocent rest in peace forever.

[manohar]

Hindu can have too many literary works and according to Mundaka Upanishad which has the motto 'Satyameva Jayate'(Truth alone triumphs) astology etc are all lower truths and the knowlege of the Supreme Self is the higher truth.That prompted me to write something knowing fully well that I am not infallible in metaphysics.
_________________
Asatoma sadgamaya,
tamasoma jyotirgamaya,
mrutyoma amrutam gamaya,
...................................
Om shaanti shaanti shaantihi.
May all the innocent rest in peace forever.

[manohar]

[manohar]

[manohar]

[diotima64]

[manohar]

[diotima64]

[manohar]

[pilgrim]

Heaven According to Muslims

By: Malik Muslimani
8/22/2002
Annaqed.com

Translated by Pilgrim

Part 2
Islamic Heaven
By Malik Muslimani
8/22/2006