Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society
Recapitulation:
Having made the above clarification, we may now state that the description of Heaven in the Holy Qur’an contains the following basic elements:
1. Immortality;
2. Peace ;
3. Absolute Purity of the Will enjoyed by all;
4. Social Harmony and Love;
5. Companionship of the Blessed Servants of God;
6. Light;
7. Beauty;
8. Truth;
9. Direct Experience of Reality;
10. Holiness;
11. Happiness.
No. 1 forms the basic human yearning in connection with the realisation of all human ideals.
Nos. 2 to 5 form the ideal of Morality.
Nos. 6 and 7 form the ideal of Aesthetic Enjoyment.
Nos. 8 and 9 form the ideal of Knowledge.
No. 10 forms the ideal of Religion.
No. 11 forms the ideal of the Sentient Self.
Thus the realisation of all healthy human yearnings and ideals has been affirmed in the Qur’anic conception of Heaven.
Re-stating this fact in other words: The form of human personality—its constitution—will be changed in the next world. It will exist in a different dimension—on a different plane,—with all the grossness and carnality of its earthly physical existence removed. Thus the individual will enjoy all that he desires here in respect of physical happiness, but he will enjoy it in a sublimated form, i.e., without the grossness and other limitations of physical existence. It will not be physical happiness but beatitude, i.e., heavenly happiness—happiness of the highest kind, all spiritual delights, having been figured forth from parallel experiences in our present life.
He will also enjoy the aesthetic pleasures, but those pleasures shall be free of all morbidity and grossness, experienced as they will be on the non-physical plane.
Thus the ideals of physical happiness and aesthetic enjoyment will be realised in Heaven to the full but on a higher level—the level of holiness,—and all that as a reward of moral effort and the maintenance of true relationship with God in this earthly life.[1]
And not only that. Man’s moral effort and his trials and sufferings in the Way of God—in the Path of God-orientated Righteousness—shall culminate in Heaven in the perfect realisation of the moral ideal, i.e., the attainment of Moral Bliss and Social Bliss.
The reward, however, will not end there. The recipients of heavenly life shall be blessed with the direct knowledge of the Reality of the Cosmos. Then, even beyond that: they will be blessed with the direct Vision of God, the Really-Real, the Source of all that exists.
And they will be blessed not only with the direct Vision of God, but will live in Divine Presence and will be fed by Divine Pleasure eternally—increasing qualitatively in holiness and employed happily all the time, each individual in accordance with his individual taste, calibre and destiny.[2]
THE HELL:
As regards Hell, it has been mentioned in the Holy Qur’an as punishment for the rejectors of Truth (2:24; etc.) and the wrong-doers (50:25; etc.), wherever Heaven has been mentioned as a reward for the righteous,—and it has been described as a contrast of Heaven. Its symbol is the Fire (2:24; etc.), in contrast to the Garden, which is the symbol of Heaven. “(It is) the Fire of God (namely, having come into existence under the command of God) kindled (to a blaze), which rises above the hearts: It shall be made into a vault over them, in columns outstretched” (104:7-9).
In other words, the hell-fire originates within the hearts of those who reject the Source of Goodness, namely, God, and the Pattern of Goodness, namely, the Prophet of God, and nurture evil in their breasts. They will be those “to whom God will not speak, nor will He look at them on the Day of Judgment; nor will He purify them (on that Day)” (2:77). And because on the hearts of those who earn Hell in this life “is the stain of the (evil) which they do, verily, from (the Light of) their Lord, that Day, will they be veiled” (83:14-15), becoming thus deprived of all the Blessings which will flow to the inmates of Heaven from the Bounties of God.
The life of the inmates of Hell will, indeed, be a life of roasting in agony (4:56; 14:17; 25:13-14; 25:55; 32:20). They will be held in bondage to the punishment brought on them by their evil beliefs and evil deeds (32:19-22; 69:30-37). Their faces will be covered with humiliation (88:23-26), and their surroundings will be pervaded by ugliness and darkness “in the shades of Black Smoke: nothing will there be to refresh, nor to please: for that they were wont to indulge, before that, in wealth (and luxury), and persisted obstinately in wickedness supreme!” (56:43-46). Their life will be a life of horrible misery, even in respect of their “foods” and “drinks” which will be of the most painful type (14:17; 14:49-50; 37:62-67; 44:43-48; 55:43-44; 56:52-55; 78:21-25).
In short, the conditions of life in Hell shall be the exact opposite of those we have described in detail in connection with Heaven. Life in Heaven being the life of Fulfilment, life in Hell will reflect the Agony attendant on Frustration, in the onward march towards the realisation of Human Destiny. The nature and the measure of punishment will vary in respect of the denizens of Hell, even as reward will vary in the case of the inmates of Heaven (6:132).
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[1] The Holy Qur’an has stated this fact clearly and beautifully in verses 3:14-
[2] That there are numerous degrees in good and evil, in respect of the deeds and motives of human beings, and that, consequently, there will be degrees in respect of rewards and the respective spiritual positions of the recipients of heavenly life, has been affirmed in the following verse of the Holy Qur’an: “For all (morally-responsible beings) will be degrees (of rewards) in accordance with that which they did.” (6:132).
to be continued . . . . .
Quranic Foundation & Structure Of Muslim Society In The End Times
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