8. THE CONTENTMENT OF THE DWELLERS OF PARADISE WITH THEIR STATUS
I have contemplated an interesting thought. That the dwellers of Paradise realise they are deficient in comparison to those above them, so if they were to think about what they missed, they would feel regret. Yet this could never happen because they are (already) of good residence.
Paradise is not a place of sorrow and each person will be content with his status for two reasons:
First: He never assumes there is more bliss than what he is experiencing.
Second: That his status becomes beloved to him regardless, just as a parent loves his child even if the child is not that beautiful. He still considers him better than a pretty child who is not his own.
There is another nice meaning here, and it is that people have deficient intentions. Some memorise part of the Qur’an but do not seek to memorise it in its entirety.
Others listen to some hadith, others know some fiqh, others are content with the minimum of everything, while others only perform obligations, and yet others are content with praying only two rak’at a night.
If their intendons were high, they would have been keen on acquiring all virtues, and elevated themselves beyond deficiencies. And so they will use their bodies to achieve this intention, as a poet said:
The problem of all bodies is being thin,
But problem o f m v body is my weak intention.
Some people stay up all night listening to music, but are unable to stay up listening to the Qur’an. A person will be resurrected with his intention. He will be rewarded according to what his intention lead him to gain in this life. Just as a person’s intention was content with the minimum status in this life, it will be content with a low status in the Hereafter.
People usually have sound intellect. They know that a person who prayed two rak’at must not hope for the reward of one who prays one thousand rak’at.
If someone says: ‘How could someone not wish for things gained by those who are better than him?’
I say: ‘If gaining it is not conceivable, then why feel sorry for not gaining it?
Have you ever seen a layman feeling sorry for missing out on attaining fiqh? Never.
And so if this were the case, then it would motivate him to seek fiqh. They do not have a strong intention for them to feel sorry. They are content with how they are.’
So understand what I have said, and hurry, this is the field of competition.
“And whatever of misfortune befalls you, it is because of what your hands have earned. And He pardons much.” [al-Shura (42):30]
(Source: al-Hafiz Abu’l-Faraj ibn al-jawzl [d. 597AH] “CAPTURED THOUGHTS being” a translation of his masterpiece ‘Sayd al-K hatir)
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