Jannah (Paradise)

Jannah, in Sunni creed, is the abode of reward in the hereafter prepared by God for the believers; at the foundation of belief it is a created, already-existing realm — created before mankind, with people made for it, and whoever enters it does so by God's grace ¹.

Article 106 of al-Aqida al-Tahawiyya states: "Paradise and the Fire are created; they never perish and never vanish," and continues: "God created Paradise and the Fire before creation and created people for them — whoever He wills among them to Paradise by His grace, and whoever He wills to the Fire by His justice" ¹. Ibn Abi al-Izz's commentary elaborates these articles under belief in the hereafter ².

Christian Lange's academic study presents paradise as a pair with the Fire whose imagery developed across the Qur'an, hadith and Sufi and philosophical literature — from gardens, rivers and chambers to spiritual and symbolic readings ³.

The Sheikh says the believers' first joy in Paradise is the assurance that they will not be removed from it. ⁵ He says that in Paradise no one is pursued for debts, no bad news arrives, and nothing disturbs. ⁶ He describes no scorching heat or bitter cold, no idle talk or sin, and angels entering to them from every gate. ⁷ He holds that there is no grief for the past and no fear for the future there. ⁸ He says worldly feelings differ from those of the Hereafter, and gives examples from the stories of Noah's son and of Abraham and his father (needs_source). ⁹ He relates a report on food and drink: a person eats in Paradise without hunger, since hunger is a pain that does not exist there, and sweat smells of musk (needs_source). ^{10 11} He explains that the food and drink of Paradise cost nothing, and that its people say words of glorification, and that the service there is without wage (needs_source). ¹² He says that bliss there is a gift and not a wage, and gives the example that ten years of worship count for nothing before grace (needs_source). ¹³ He relates a report that the lowest person in Paradise has a kingdom like the kingdom of the world (needs_source). ¹⁴ He relates that the people of Paradise keep fixed ages, and that children who died young remain young (needs_source). ¹⁵ He gives his view that the garden in which Adam was placed was not the eternal Paradise (see the other views below). ⁴

The Sheikh relates the hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ says that no one enters Paradise by his deeds; the man asked, 'Not even you?', and he replied that not even he would, unless God alone enveloped him in His mercy ¹⁶.

The Sheikh affirms that entering Paradise is purely a grace from God, in which deeds have no part, and he cites the Prophet's saying that no one enters Paradise by his deeds ¹⁸. He relates that the Prophet was asked, 'Not even you?', and answered that not even he would enter except through God's mercy; he adds that deeds apportion the ranks in Paradise, and that the emotions of the afterlife will differ from those of this world ¹⁹. In his own comparison the Sheikh likens the levels of Paradise to the classes of air travel, from economy through business and first class to a private jet, and he holds that Paradise has ranks with God ²⁰. He says that a father and mother may be at a higher rank in the highest Firdaus, and notes that the Prophet instructed people to ask God for the highest Firdaus ²¹.

The Sheikh makes the point with an everyday comparison: a person feels no shame asking a billionaire or a central bank for a large sum, and so the servant asks his Lord for the highest Paradise ²². He says that a family who gathered upon the Book and the Sunna in this world will not be denied that gathering by God in Paradise, and he cites a verse on joining believing offspring to their forebears ²³. He says that God does not bring the higher-ranked person down to the level of the lower, but raises the lower to the higher, and the Sheikh counts this among God's generosity ²⁴. He says that the love that existed between parents and children in this world is what God uses to reunite them in the afterlife, and that the emotions of this world differ from those of the people of Paradise ²⁵.

The Sheikh then turns to the question of relatives who did not believe alongside their prophets ¹⁷.

The Sheikh says that the first sip a person takes from the Kawthar pool removes malice, resentment and regret from him; he says people in this world live by wealth and glory, and calls this a miserable triangle ²⁷. He says that after drinking from the pool no envy remains, and then asks what there is in this world that does not trouble you ²⁸. The Sheikh lists everyday worries of this world, such as the demands of the household and the child's school, and says Paradise is free of them ²⁹. He contrasts someone who flips through channels and imagines a world where people live in peace with Paradise, which he stresses is a reality and not a dream ³⁰.

He says that worldly sentiment does not exist in Paradise, and he asks about the case of Ibrahim and his father Azar, and of the Prophet with Abu Lahab and Abu Talib; he notes that Durra, daughter of Abu Lahab, became Muslim and was taunted over her mother Umm Jamil ³¹. He says there is no idle talk in Paradise, nor sin, gossip, plotting or conflict, unlike this world which is all conflict; he relates that Uthman was asked when rest comes and answered that it is when you see your left foot beside your right foot inside the threshold of Paradise ³². He relates that an old woman asked the Prophet to be his companion in Paradise; he told her there are no old women in Paradise, she wept, and he reminded her that the people of Paradise are all thirty-three years old (needs_source) ³³. He says the people of Paradise will know one another and chat together in happiness, and then the Sheikh begins a joke about a preacher in an Arab country who is giving a sermon about the houris ³⁴.

The Sheikh is of the view that many household quarrels with the in-laws arise because the circle of peace is missing, and he says Paradise offers peace and a full cup ³⁵. He says that a racehorse trained for speed runs between the start and the end of one of the gates of Paradise for forty years (needs_source) ³⁶. He describes an invitation card written in letters of light, saying that God tells His servant that He has missed him and asks him to visit, and he says all this bliss is for an hour's patience (needs_source) ³⁷. The Sheikh takes up the question of an everlasting reward for finite deeds, saying it is the height of God's grace, because God knows from a servant's intention that, had he lived forever, he would have worshipped forever, and so He grants him bliss forever ^{38 26}.

The Sheikh says the sensory delights mentioned in the Qur'an can only be understood by worldly measures, and he cites the Prophet's saying that this world shares only names with the next, adding that if the realities of the afterlife were described exactly as they are, we would not understand them ^{39 40}. He gives an illustration: in 1957, he says, people in the countryside and the desert did not believe that the dog Laika and then Gagarin had gone up in a spacecraft and took it for madness, to show that people reject what exceeds their experience (needs_source) ⁴¹. He says the Prophet used to speak to people in terms they could understand, and mentions that the Qur'an describes the fruit of Paradise as resembling the fruit of this world ⁴². He says hunger is a pain, and that Paradise has no such feeling, so a person eats without hunger and feels no indigestion ⁴³.

The Sheikh holds that the next creation is prepared for this marvellous food, and he approaches it through the example of astronauts for whom special meals are prepared ⁴⁴. He says an astronaut takes a capsule every four hours and is satisfied, and asks: if that is so under the laws of this world, what of what God has promised? (needs_source) ⁴⁵. He is of the view that Paradise differs entirely in its terms from the mechanics of this world, and that food and drink drain a large part of a household's budget ⁴⁶. He says that what a person spends on food over twenty-five years, if gathered, would make him a billionaire, and that a person's money comes only through toil, whereas in Paradise there is no toil (needs_source) ⁴⁷.

He contrasts this world, where a driver, a cook or a servant costs money, with the servants of Paradise, who he says come at no cost ⁴⁸. He says the lowest person in Paradise has a kingdom a thousand years in extent, and adds that God knows best, perhaps it is a thousand light years (needs_source) ⁴⁹. He says that Adam dwelt in Paradise, and that the true believer among the children of Adam returns to the home he came from, the dwelling his father was in ⁵⁰. He cites Ibn al-Qayyim's well-known poem, which calls toward the gardens of Eden as the believer's first dwelling, and then moves on to the scene of Jibril and the angels standing in ranks ⁵¹.