Life Supreme — Page 86
LIFE SUPREME 89 exact manner and at the very same time. Such an experience may also happen when asleep. . God is Merciful and in His Mercy He has decreed that the punishments of hell will not be everlasting. Wrong-doers will suffer their condign punishments more or less as do convicts in prison after which they will be released and allowed to enter heaven where grades and stages of spiritual rewards and attainments are innumerable. God says in the Holy Quran: "And for all are grades of rank according to what they did. " (46:20) "Behold, how We have created some of them over others in the present life; and surely, the Hereafter shall be greater in degrees of rank and greater in excellence. " (17:22). The Holy Prophet Muhammad (may peace be on him) has said: ""There are a hundred grades in paradise prepared by Allah for those who fight in the Path of Allah and, in between each, is as great a distance as between earth and heaven. " (Bukhari). The Holy Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement-Hazrat Mirza. Ghulam Ahmad-has also said: ""Those who accept God here, who lose themselves in divine love and who take their stand on the right path, have in store special honours which would not be attained by other people. " (The Will). . The spirit of Islam demands that a sincere and earnest Muslim should never rest content with the thought that he has achieved or done sufficient to earn himself a place in paradise. Keeping in mind that he is immortal he should diligently attend to the development of his real self and not allow the desires of his physical body to interfere with this his noble aspiration. May Allah protect us from the incitements of the devil.