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T
HIS
L
IFE
: A P
RISON OR
P
ARADISE
?
I was at the airport. Standing in the security line, I awaited
my ritual interrogation. As I stood there, I looked over at a
little girl with her mother. The girl was crying. She was
clearly sick. The mother reached into a bag to give the girl
some medicine. I was struck by how miserable the little
girl looked and suddenly I saw something. I felt as though I
was looking at someone who was trapped. This innocent,
pure soul was imprisoned by a worldly body that had to
get sick, feel pain, and suffer.
And then I was reminded of the hadith in which the
Prophet
said: “This world is a prison for the
believer and a paradise for the disbeliever” (Sahih
Muslim). And for the first time, I understood it very
differently than I had before. I think many people
misinterpret this hadith to mean that the disbelievers get to
enjoy themselves in this life, while the believers have to
be restricted in this life by haram (prohibited) and halal
(permitted), and have to wait until the next life to enjoy
themselves. Or perhaps, some think it means that this life
is miserable for the believer, while it is bliss for the
disbeliever.
But, I don’t think that’s it at all.
And suddenly I felt as though I was seeing the reality of
this hadith in the little girl. I saw what looked like a soul
imprisoned because it belongs to another world—a better
world, where it doesn’t have to get sick.
But what happens when it’s the opposite? What happens
when the soul already thinks it’s in paradise? Would that
soul ever want to be somewhere else? Somewhere better?
No. It is exactly where it wants to be. To that soul, there is
no ‘better’. When you’re in a paradise, you can’t imagine
being anywhere greater. You yearn for nothing else.
Nothing more. You are satisfied, content with where you
are. That is the condition of the disbeliever. Allah says:
“Indeed, those who do not expect the meeting with Us and
are satisfied with the life of this world and feel secure
therein and those who are heedless of Our signs.” (Qur’an,
10:7
)
For the disbelieving soul, this inevitably painful,
disappointing and temporary world IS their paradise. It’s
all they know. Imagine if a world where you have to fall,
bleed and eventually die was the only paradise you knew.
Imagine the agony of that.
The one who does not believe that there is any place better
—who believes that this world is the best it can get—will
become very impatient when this life isn’t perfect. They
are quickly angered and quickly devastated because this
life was supposed to be a paradise. They don’t realize
there is something greater. And so this is all they want.
This is all they strive for. Every effort, every ability,
every opportunity, every gift endowed to them by their
creator, is employed for the sake of seeking this life—of
which nothing will come to them except what is written.
Their soul is attached to the worldly body because it
thinks that body is the only paradise it has. Or will ever
have. So it doesn’t want to let go. At any price, it wants to
hold on. To take the soul from its ‘paradise’ at death is the
greatest torture possible. God describes the death of the
disbelievers as a tearing of the soul from the body. Allah
says:
“By the (angels) who tear out (the souls of the wicked)
with violence…” (Qur’an,
79:1
)
It tears because that soul doesn’t want to leave. It believed
it was already in its heaven. It didn’t realize that there is
something greater. So much greater.
For the believing soul, it’s different. The believer is in
prison—not paradise. Why? What is a prisoner? A
prisoner is someone who is trapped. A prisoner is kept
from his home, stuck, while he wishes to be somewhere
better. The worldly body is a prison for the believer, not
because this life is miserable for the believing soul, but
because that soul yearns to be somewhere greater. It
yearns to be Home. No matter how wonderful this life is
for a believer, it is a prison compared to the Perfect life
that awaits them. This soul’s attachment is to God and the
true paradise with Him. It wants to be there. But this
worldly life is what keeps that soul from returning—for a
while. It is the barrier, the prison. Although, the heart of a
believer holds the only true paradise of this life, the soul
still seeks what is beyond. The soul still seeks its Home,
but this soul must remain in the bars of the body for an
appointed term. It must ‘do the time’, before it can be
released to go Home. The attachment of the believing soul
is not to the imprisoning body. When the sentence is over
and a captive is told he can go Home, he would never hold
on to the prison bars. So Allah describes the death of the
believer very differently. God says:
“By those (angels) who gently take out (the souls of the
believers)…” (Qur’an,
79:2
)
The believing soul slips easily out of the body. Its ‘prison
sentence’ is over and now it’s going Home. It doesn’t hold
on like the disbelieving soul that thought it was already at
the best it can get.
And so I could not imagine a more perfect analogy than the
one used by our beloved Prophet
. Indeed this life is
a prison for the believer and a paradise for the
disbeliever. We will all be called back by the very same
caller. The question is, will we live our life so that when
that call comes we hold on to the bars of the prison? Or
will we live so that the call is a call of release. A call
back Home.
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