The First Moments in Paradise and What We Have Prepared for Them

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on 24 May 2018 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

Praise be to Allah, and prayers and peace be upon the servant of Allah, His Prophet and Messenger, our master and our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and upon his family and Companions, with abundant peace.

O Allah, we ask You for the good of this day, the good of what is in it, and the good of what comes after it, and we seek refuge in You from the evil of this day, the evil of what is in it, and the evil of what comes after it. O Allah, set right for us our religion, which is the safeguard of our affair, and set right for us our worldly life, in which is our livelihood, and set right for us our Hereafter, to which is our return. O Allah, make life an increase for us in every good, and make death a rest for us from every evil. Protect us from the evils of our souls and the misdeeds of our actions. O Allah, preserve for us our faith, our religion, and our taqwā, by Your mercy, O Lord of the worlds.

Among the things for which I praise Allah, the Most High, is that He kept me alive to see you once again. And I ask Allah, the Most High, the Almighty, to make my love for this place and those in it an intercessor for us to Paradise. By Allah, I love you for the sake of Allah, and I ask Allah, the Most High, to grant you blessing, well-being, security and safety.

A Message About Paradise

Yesterday I received a message of what Shaykh an-Nābulusī, may Allah preserve him, had written, and in truth I found enjoyment in it as I read it, as though I were soaring in the sky and living the moments he recounts. He says: The first moments in Paradise will be dazzling. And before we continue, let each of us close his eyes and imagine: when he enters Paradise, God willing, what will be the first thing he sees?

So what do you live for? This is the question that, if it were put to each one of us and he found his answer to it, he would be at rest and give rest. If you know why you live, you are at ease, and you receive all the hardships of life with an open heart and a wide mind, and you will never find a problem before you.

And the second question: with whom do you live? You live for a goal, so who accompanies you to achieve this goal? If we are on a journey, I have a companion who is with me. So if you know that you live with Allah, nothing will be hard for you, no worries will weigh on you, and no matter will shake you however severe it is, because you are with the One who created the causes and subjected them, who brought the universe into being and established its principles, causes and laws. He is the Doer, He is the Commander, He is the One who does what He wills, glorified, high in His majesty.

The First Moment of Meeting

He says: The first moments in Paradise will be dazzling, when we see the rivers, the palaces, the fruits, the tents, the gold, the pearls and the silk, and when we meet loved ones who died long ago and were absent from our eyes. And what hurts people most in a foreign land is that someone you love dies and you do not accompany him to the grave, or you wished he would be the one to accompany you, because you cannot bear separation from him. So when you imagine that the moment of meeting has come, and that there are embraces, strong, tight hugs full of warmth and faith, this is a different matter.

And he says: when we behold the angels with our own eyes, in plain sight. Have you ever tried before to imagine what the angels look like? Have you tried to live with them even for a moment? And when we see the Companions, the scholars of the Ummah, and the martyrs whose history is told to us, when you see them, the matter then is truly dazzling. When it is said to us: This is Abū Bakr, and that is 'Umar, and that is 'Uthmān, and this is Ṭalḥa, and the one sitting under the tree over there is Khālid, the Sword of Allah, when each is called by his name. And when you remember that and imagine that soon you will look around to see where the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is, and then comes the added longing to gaze upon the noble Face of Allah: ﴿وُجُوهٌ يَوْمَئِذٍ نَّاضِرَةٌ إِلَىٰ رَبِّهَا نَاظِرَةٌ﴾ (Some faces, that Day, will be radiant, looking at their Lord).^[1]

And when you see the People of the Trench, the People of the Cave, the People of the Ship, and when you see the believer from the family of Pharaoh, the believer from the people of the town, and Dhū al-Qarnayn, and when you see the interpreter of the Qur'an, Ibn 'Abbās, may Allah be pleased with them both; when you see these and realize that the first moment in Paradise will be dazzling, the question remains: What have we prepared for it?

What Will You Say About Yourself?

And is that hypocrisy with which we flatter some people of any use when we are in Paradise? And when you stand before creation so that your turn comes to speak of your achievements in your worldly life, as we introduce ourselves here, where the brother so-and-so says: I am so-and-so, I work in such and such. So if you introduce yourself in Paradise before these people, what will you tell about yourself? Will you say: I was good at flattering people, or if you like, at being hypocritical toward them? Will you say: I used to cover up my faults, those whose faults I knew were serious within society, and yet I covered for them so that I would not be the "monster" in the world? "Go along with people, get by, that's how the whole world is." What will you express your identity with?

Many questions revolve in my mind and in the minds of many when Paradise is mentioned.

A Month in Which the Gates of Paradise Are Opened

I wanted to say these words and repeat them because we are in the month in which the gates of Paradise are opened. And what does that mean? It means that it is as if Allah, the Most High, commanded Paradise to show itself to people, to present itself to creation so that people may see it with their hearts even if their eyes do not behold it, so that they feel it in their inner being, even if they are not yet able to actually eat of its fruits. They imagine it in their prostration and their standing in devotion, and they imagine it in their hunger during their fasting, in hearts that have believed in Allah.

Have you seen, servants of Allah, when the Prophet ﷺ said: «من صام رمضان إيمانًا واحتسابًا» (Whoever fasts Ramadan out of faith and seeking reward)?^[2] Had we thought about this sentence before? Seeking reward: I do not do it for anyone but for Allah, I practice it for Allah, out of faith and seeking reward. Effort expended, sweat, fatigue and pain, but it is for Allah and not for anyone else, not for a worldly goal, and with no striving except for the Hereafter. Glory be to Him who created the world and made the Hereafter the abode of the believers.

I will not take too long with you; I know you have things to do. I ask Allah for blessing for us and for you, O Lord of the worlds, and I ask Him, mighty and majestic, to bestow on us again and again His noble requests, not to deprive us of your love, and that on the Day of Resurrection we be among those who are sheltered in the shade of the Throne of the Most Merciful by this love and by the good of its causes. I ask Allah for you good, well-being, blessing, security and a good final abode, and the guarding of the eye from trials, desires and bad company, and that He make your spouses pleased with you, bring together the unity of our homes and give Satan no way into them, keep our hearts filled with faith, give our minds sound judgment, and take us by our forelocks to what pleases Him, glorified, high in His majesty. And send blessings, O Allah, upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon his family and Companions, with abundant peace.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: Sūrat al-Qiyāma, verses 22–23. The speaker mentioned the verse at this point and recited of it what we have recorded. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: An agreed-upon ḥadīth from Abū Hurayra, may Allah be pleased with him: «من صام رمضان إيمانًا واحتسابًا غُفر له ما تقدم من ذنبه»; the speaker confined himself to its opening.