Malfuzat - Volume IV — Page 67
67 Malfuzat – Volume IV they feel a sense of pleasure in these difficulties. This is the ultimate stage of faith. The Reality of Paradise and Hell The fundamental categories of faith are seven, and aside from these, there is one final stage which is bestowed through divine conferral. This is why paradise also has seven gates and the eighth one is opened through the grace of God. Therefore, it ought to be remembered that the paradise and hell that will be present in the next world will not be some new paradise or hell. In fact, they are a reflection of a person’s faith and deeds. This is their true philosophy. They are not something that will be given to a person from external existence, because in actuality, they spring forth from within a person. In all circumstances, paradise is present for a believer even in this very world. The present paradise of this world is a promised paradise in the next world. How true and clear it is that the paradise of every individual is their faith and good deeds, the pleasure of which one begins to feel in this very world; it is this very faith and these deeds which manifest themselves in another form as gardens and rivers later on. I truthfully proclaim, and I say from experience, that gardens and streams are seen even in this world; in the next world, also, these gardens and streams will be felt manifestly. Similarly, hell is the result of man’s faithlessness and wrongdoing. Just as the example of grapes, pome - granate and other such wholesome trees are given, the tree present in hell is called Zaqqum. Just as paradise will be full of rivers and Salsabil, and streams of ginger and camphor, in the same way, it is said that streams of boiling water and pus will run through hell. Upon reflecting on this, it becomes clearly apparent that just as faith is cultivated through humility and by relinquishing one’s opinion, in the same way, faithlessness sprouts from arrogance and self-conceit, and so as a result, the tree of Zaqqum is present in hell, and the wrongdoings and acts of insolence which result from arrogance and vanity are the same boiling water and pus that the inmates of hell will receive. Now, it is manifestly clear that just as a life of paradise begins in this very world, so too it is from this very world that a person takes their hell. As such, in relation to hell, Allah the Exalted states: 1 ِ ٍة َ ْد ِ � ى ْ َف َ ا ْلْا َى ٰل َ ِع ُ َع ِ ُل َ ْط َ َّت َِْتِْي ْل ُ ا ٍة َ ْد َ ُق ُْوْ َم ْلْ ِ ا ُهلل ُرُ ا َا َّن It is Allah’s kindled fire, which rises over the hearts. 1 al-Humazah , 104:7-8 p. 340