Page 15 - The Vision of Islam

The Vision of Isla m

feelings take the form of a spiritual anguish, they are more piquant
by far than anything in this world. They cannot be compared with
worldly delights. Intuition tells us that these inner feelings are
reflections of that superior, divine reward which is called Heaven.
It is said, therefore, in the Quran that the Heaven into which the
believers will enter in the Hereafter will be a “known provision”
(37:41) to them. It will not be a thing unknown, but a thing with
which they were already acquainted in the life of this world:
“He will admit them to Paradise He has made known to them”
(47:6).
According to Abu Saeed Khudri, the Prophet once said: “The
man who goes to Heaven will recognize his home even better than
he recognized his house on earth.” (Bukhari).
When men give charity “with their hearts filled with awe…”
(23:61); when they are able to recite the Quran in such a way that
their eyes are “filled with tears” (5:86); when, while intensely
remembering God, they “forsake their beds to pray to their Lord in
fear and hope” (32:16); when they experience such painful moments
as realizing the truth of what is stated in the Quran: “…and the
love of God is stronger in the faithful” (2:165); when they have the
most sublime spiritual experiences; when some hidden truths are
unveiled before them; when, with restless hearts and quivering
lips, they call their Lord with such inspired words as had never
before come to their lips, then they are actually receiving divine
provision from their Lord. They are tasting one of the many fruits
that their Lord has reserved for them. In this world these fruits
take the form of spiritual experiences; in the next world they will
take the form of heavenly rewards. Then the faithful will feel that
these are the very things of which they had been given a foretaste
on earth: “Whenever they are given fruit to eat, they will say: ‘This
is what we were given before,’ for they shall be given the like.” (2:25)
What the people of Paradise are going to receive in the life
hereafter has already been introduced to them in the life they
left behind. How foolish it would be if they imagined that in the
next life they would be introduced to tastes, with which they had
14