Page 177 - The Miracles of Smell and Taste

175

There is considerable wisdom behind this. One aspect of this is to remind
us that the life of this world is merely transitory, and that it is a mistake to
forget the Hereafter and become excessively attached to this life. Paradise
is where the originals of the flavors in question persist throughout all eter-

nity. This feature of Paradise is revealed in a verse:
An image of the Garden which is promised to those who guard
against evil: in it there are rivers of water which will never spoil and
rivers of milk whose taste will never change and rivers of wine, de-
lightful to all who drink it, and rivers of honey of undiluted purity; in
it they will have fruit of every kind and forgiveness from their Lord.
Is that like those who will be in the Fire timelessly, for ever, with boil-
ing water to drink which lacerates their bowels? (Surah Muhammad:
15)

Some people do not know how to thank others enough for giving
them food when they are hungry, entirely forgetting that our Lord gave
them their splendid senses of smell and taste. The foods to be eaten by
those who are ungrateful to God, Who has created countless blessings, are
described thus in the Qur’an:
Hell, where they will roast. What an evil resting-place! This! So let
them taste it—boiling water and scalding pus. (Surah Sâd: 56-57)

[The inhabitants of the Fire will be] drinking from a boiling
spring. They have no food but a bitter thorny bush which
neither nourishes nor satis-
fies. (Surat al-
Ghashiyya: 5-7)