“They hear therein no vain or sinful talk but only the saying, Peace! Peace!” (56:25-26).

Quite in accordance with this description of Paradise, one of the names by which Paradise is mentioned in the Holy Qur’ān is abode of peace31 (dār al-salām).

Liqā Allāh or the meeting with God

The ultimate object of the life of man is described as liqā’ Allāh which means the meeting with God. In one of the earliest chapters we are told: “O man! Thou must strive a hard striving (to attain) to thy Lord until thou meet Him” (84:6). But this object cannot be fully attained in this life; it is only in the life after death, the higher life, that man is able to reach this stage. Hence it is that those who deny the life after death are said to be deniers of the meeting with God: “And they say: When we are lost in the earth, shall we then be in a new creation? Nay, they are disbelievers in the meeting with their Lord” (32:10). To be content with this life, and not to look forward to a higher goal and a higher life, is repeatedly condemned: “Those who expect not the meeting with Us, and are pleased with this world’s life and are satisfied with it, and those who are heedless of Our communications — these, their abode is the Fire” (10:7, 8); ‘We leave those alone who have no hope of meeting with us, in their inordinacy, blindly wandering on (10:11); “And those who disbelieve in the messages of Allāh and the meeting with Him, they despair of My mercy, and for them is a painful chastisement” (29:23); “They know the outward of this world’s life, but of the Hereafter they are heedless. Do they not reflect within themselves? Allāh did not create the heavens and the earth and what is between them but with truth (and) for an appointed term. And surely most of the people are deniers of the meeting with their Lord” (30:7, 8). Only those who are sure that they will meet their Lord work on patiently for this great object: “And seek assistance through patience and prayer, and this is hard except for the humble ones, who know that they will meet their Lord and that to Him they will return” (2:45, 46). The meeting with the Lord is the great goal to attain for which all good deeds are done: “So whoever hopes to meet his Lord, he should do good deeds, and join no one in the service