Shall I take besides Him gods? If the Most Gracious intends me any harm, their intercession will be of no use for me whatsoever, nor can they save me.
By Ahmad Amar
To enter Janna, Paradise. The crown of success is this moment. “Enter you My Paradise” (89:30). This is the triumph. Man struggles to reach the point of God’s good pleasure. He is ordered to exercise heroic servanthood of God. He flees from rest and pleasures, seeking God and His Prophet, peace be upon him and his family. He denies his self, in spite of Satan’s assaulting him vehemently. He aims to go to God, while the world seems to call him to anything but that. He doesn’t spare any effort in fulfilling his duties toward God and His Prophet, peace be upon him and his family. He refuses even greatness before people, in an attempt to remain true and sincere with his Lord, and with His Prophet, peace be upon him and his family. The supreme triumph is his, as he is admitted entrance in Janna. This does not happen necessarily only after death.
That moment is the summit of beauty. For as long as the servant is in the stages of seeking, he is not “complete”. Beauty lies in completion, in the finishing of a thing. When his struggle is complete, and he is given a pass to his place of destination, this is when beauty settles on and upon him. God Almighty says: “this day I have perfected your religion”. God Almighty says: “that He may bring you out from darkness into light” (33:43). Muhammad’s religion is the last of all religions, with him ends the cycle of Prophethood. These are strong indications of beauty being inherent to completion.
It is a moment that compels everything. That moment stands out from all other moments and events of one’s life. This is a life of struggle. God Almighty says: “Verily, We have created man in toil” (90:4). There is no use in seeking ultimate tranquility, for this world is not the abode of it. When comes the imperative to enter Janna, everything disappears before the greatness of this moment. When this happens while the person is in this world, this is utmost amazement. Darkness that one would say is perpetual disappears instantly. Tranquility, sublimeness, and magnificence suddenly appear. Such a contrast is grand, result of a decisive marvelous change of condition.
At that time, the mind is dazzled. Janna, Paradise, is such a lofty place. There are in it palaces of gold, like the one Muhammad described, peace be upon him and his family, and which belonged to Umar (may God be well pleased with him). There are there gardens beneath which rivers flow. It is a place wider than the heavens and the earth. God Almighty says: “Paradise as wide as the heavens and the earth” (3:133). This place is virtually infinite. The extent of God’s creation is infinite indeed, this is therefore the case that the Garden is also infinite. This is a most extraordinary place. Any place where the palaces are made of gold is most extraordinary. This is what is in Janna. From all one sees in it, he is never feeling anxiety and stress. He only gets more and more tranquility and freshness in his soul.
This is a place which is superior to whatever the human being can match up to. Just as the standards of a bike can never be adapted to the standards of a plane, likewise man is little in respect of Paradise’s perfection. The believer has in it palaces with in them delights, and heavenly spouses. Those are spouses of intense heavenly beauty, who don’t suffer displeasure or frustration, that being a great condition. It is a place of knowledge, and knowledge yields great happiness. Knowledge and action, in this world, leads to eternal happiness. The inmates of Janna are very happy.
Entry into Janna is the time of the parting ways with sins. Here on earth, sin is inevitable, except to people who have ultimately purified themselves. But sin always causes sorrow of many sorts. The greater the sin, the greater the sorrows one meets with. Smoking makes one to become addicted, which brings with it sorrow. Stealing makes one to like Satanic ways, and this brings about calamities. The time of parting ways with sins is a pleasurable time of relief and rest. God Almighty says: “rest and provision, and a Garden of Delights” (56:89). It is the time when the person looks to the future in front of him. He does not leave behind the life beforehand, for all the efforts he made in that part of life, which make it very dear to him, the triumphant one. But he is enthusiastic, at the thought of the unending bliss in front of him.