Page 73 - Paradise: The Believers' Real Home

The Highest Blessing: Allah's Good Pleasure 71

that which comes from receiving the love, closeness, grace,
and benevolence of the Giver. No matter how valuable a gift
may be, Allah's gift is more valuable for the pleasure it gives in
being deemed worthy to be of the gifts of Allah, Lord of the

Worlds, and in receiving it.
Accordingly, if they were not Allah's gifts, all blessings
would lose their meaning for a believer. Prophet Yusuf's (as)
great nobility orients a believer's moral sense in that direction.
The Qur'an tells how the wife of an Egyptian governor, de-
sired Yusuf (as) and even forced herself on him. We are told
that Yusuf (as) found her attractive, but avoided this forbidden
relationship due to Allah's sign to him. When she continued to
press him, he preferred to go to prison rather than to commit
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w what they call on me to do" (Surah Yusuf, 33).
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The fact that he found the prison's extremely difficult con-
ditions preferable to what the governor's wife wanted him to
do shows the importance that a believer places upon Allah's
good pleasure. To act in such a manner and to know that you
have gained His approval is the most important thing in a be-
liever's heart. If material blessings present themselves to a be-
liever in a way that goes against Allah's good pleasure, they
lose their value.
In Paradise, all material blessings are approved by Allah.
He especially created beautiful women and gives them as a gift
to believers. Houses, food, natural beauty, and everything else
are blessings that Allah offers, and this is what makes them
valuable.