Page 173 - Matter: The Other Name for Illusion

... You will have there all that your selves could wish for. You will have
there everything you demand. (Surah Fussilat: 31)

If those in Paradise wish it, God will show them every worldly image and
occurrence that will give them sorrow but will make them happy and joyous.
This is a great blessing that God has prepared for His worthy servants in
Paradise.

The Importance Of This
Matter For Human Beings

This matter is of great importance for human beings because everything
that happens to us in a day, even things we have forgotten by the time evening
comes, the way we act, our attitudes and every thought that crosses our minds
are unforgotten and kept in God's sight.
For example, a person gossiping with his friend forgets this; it is not
important to him. But that moment when he gossiped remains forever in God's
sight. Or if a person has a negative thought about Muslims, that thought, the
moment he thought it, the expression on his face and the sentences he used all
remain forever in God's sight. Or the self-sacrifice with which a person feeds
his friend although he himself is hungry will remain eternally in God's sight
together with the circumstances of that moment, and the attitude and the
thoughts that were expressed. Or a person who remains patient in a difficulty
for God's sake and speaks kind words to the one who is troubling him will not
have his fine moral behavior lost, but kept for eternity. And on the Day of
Judgment, God will question all the good and evil deeds that a person has
committed; those things which people have done but forgotten will confront
them unforgotten and unchanged. Some people will even be surprised that the
book they are given in the course of the reckoning is so detailed and they will
say,

The Book will be set in place and you will see the evildoers fearful of
what is in it. They will say, "Alas for us! What is this Book which does
not pass over any action, small or great, without recording it?" They will
find there everything they did and your Lord will not wrong anyone at
all. (Surat al-Kahf: 49)

For this reason, a person aware of this reality must never forget that his
every act and thought are locked for ever in God's memory and will continue
to exist there; he must take care and fear the Day of Judgment.

Eternity Is Hidden in God's Memory 171