THE HIGHEST BLESSING:
ALLAH'S GOOD PLEASURE
Allah has promised the
men and women of the believers Gardens with rivers
flowing under them, remaining in them timelessly,
forever, and fine dwellings in the Gardens of
Eden. And Allah's good pleasure is even greater.
That is the great victory. (Surat at-Tawba, 72)
Earlier, we looked at the dazzling blessings
found in Paradise. The picture that emerges is
one of letting people experience the greatest
pleasures and delights of the five senses.
But the biggest blessing of all is Allah's good
pleasure, and the joy and happiness a believer
feels when he or she wins it. As one hadith also
relates: "Allah would say to the inmates of
Paradise: 'I shall cause My pleasure to alight
upon you' " (Muslim). Moreover, being content
with everything that Allah has given and offering
Him continual thanksgiving brings a noble contentment.
The Qur'an draws our attention to this, as follows:
Allah is pleased with them and
they are pleased with Him. That is the Great Victory.
(Surat al-Ma'ida, 119)
The most striking expression of what believers
feel when they win Allah's good pleasure is that
He will manifest Himself to them in a way that
they can see Him. This is impossible in the world
because, as the Qur'an says:
"Eyesight cannot perceive Him" (Surat al-An'am,
10) But according to the Qur'an, in the
next life and in a certain way Allah will manifest
Himself to His believing servants. Only Allah
knows how this will happen. But we are informed
in the Qur'an that the believers'
"faces that Day will be radiant, gazing at their
Lord" (Surat al-Qiyama, 22-23) and "'Peace!'
A word from a Merciful Lord" (Surah Ya sin, 58)
will be heard. Believers will be "on
seats of honor in the presence of an All-Powerful
King" (Surat al-Qamar, 55).
In other words, the greatest possible blessing
that believers can have is the deep sense of Allah's
mercy and will. By winning His good pleasure,
they experience a joy and a happiness that cannot
be compared with any material blessing.
Actually, it is Allah's will that gives value
to Paradise's other blessings. The same blessings
may exist on Earth to a certain extent, but they
have no meaning for believers as long as they
surpass the limits Allah established.
Believers should think carefully about this
extremely important point. The real thing that
gives a blessing its value is something far beyond
its intrinsic pleasure and delight, for its real
value lies in the fact that Allah "granted" it.
Believers who use the blessing and thank Allah
for it feel that they have received Allah's gift;
that the Lord loves, protects, and looks after
them; and gives them a taste of His mercy. They
take real joy from this.
A blessing is not an end; rather, it is a means
to an end. As its purpose is to encourage men
and women to offer greater thanksgiving to Allah,
all of Paradise's blessings have only one goal:
To lead believers to offer eternal thanksgiving
to Allah. This is what gives them their value.
In short, the blessings of Paradise are no more
than a means whereby believers can approach Allah
and attain the indescribable joy of winning His
eternal friendship, love, and approval. This is
why Allah's good pleasure is the greatest blessing
of Paradise and far above all other material pleasures.
Let us consider one of Paradise's most striking
blessings, one that is frequently mentioned in
the Qur'an: beautiful women, who represent the
height of the aesthetic idea. Just to be with
them is a great blessing. The Qur'an describes
the beauty of their faces, their skin, and even
their bosoms. With these magnificent women, one
of Allah's greatest material blessings - sexuality
- can be experienced eternally in the most wonderful
way. In the same manner, unmarried women will
be married to young palace servants. This also
is a free gift to them from Allah.
However, what makes these women so valuable is
not merely their beauty, but the fact that they
are known to be a gift from Allah. Indeed, the
greatest pleasure that can be had is 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,
desired 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 adultery. He said:
"My Lord, prison is preferable to me than what
they call on me to do" (Surah Yusuf, 33).
The fact that he found the prison's extremely
difficult conditions 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 believer's heart. If material blessings present
themselves to a believer 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.
Thus, the human heart can be satisfied only
in Paradise, for it was created to serve Allah
and takes pleasure only in His generously given
gifts. In this world, it takes refuge in places
that are reminiscent of Paradise; that is, in
places whose blessings are used with thanks and
in a way that gains Allah's good pleasure. This
is why Paradise on Earth, the ideal long cherished
by unbelievers and atheists, is impossible. If
you were to take things in this world that resemble
Paradise's material beauties and gather them in
one place, they would have no meaning without
Allah's approval. Moreover, He may also destroy
the pleasure that might be derived from such material
beauties.
In short, Paradise is a gift of Allah and is
valuable only because of that. The people of Paradise
experience eternal happiness and joy because "they
are honored servants" (Surat an-Anbiya', 26).
The
wisest word that can be spoken there is a word
that praises Allah's mighty name: "Master of Majesty
and Generosity" (Surat ar-Rahman, 78).
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