Page 23 - Paradise: The Believers' Real Home

This Life Is Not Our Real Life 21

perfect and deficient a place this world really is.
When we look at these imperfections, we can see our
own frailty and understand the transitory nature of all people's
earthly strength and values. Meanwhile, we also can understand
that the people who we adore, try to please, or earn their re-
spect and praise are as weak and imperfect as anybody else.
But as most people cannot understand this or see this
world's great imperfection and flaws, they find satisfaction in
this earthly life. Actually, this is the result of an extreme igno-
rance and lack of intelligence.
The morality of such people is described in the Qur'an as
follows:
So turn away from him who turns away from Our
remembrance and desires nothing but the life of
the world. That is as far as their knowledge ex-
tends... (Surat an-Najm, 29-30)
Those who are unaware of this truth and bound by a pas-
sion for the life of this world are people without "knowledge,"
as the verse says.
But what is this "knowledge" that we must have in this
matter? In truth, it is nothing less than the knowledge of
Paradise, which Allah has promised to us. The most important
steps toward this are to be well-versed in the Qur'an and to

think seriously about what it says.
In the Qur'an, Allah described the believers' real home-
land in these words:
The life of the world is nothing but a game and a di-