of his Lord” (18:110). And what is Hell itself but being debarred from the Divine presence: “Nay, rather, what they earned is rust upon their hearts. Nay, surely they are that day debarred from their Lord. Then they will surely enter the burning Fire” (83:14-16). Paradise is therefore the place of meeting with God, and life in Paradise is above all corporeal conceptions.

Advancement in the higher life

That, however, is only the beginning of the higher life. The goal has been attained, but it only opens out wide fields for further advancement. If man has been granted such vast capabilities even in this physical life that his advancement knows no bounds, that advancement could not cease with the attainment of the higher life. In accordance with the idea of the Resurrection as the birth into a higher life, the Holy Qur’ān speaks of an unending progress in that life, of the righteous ever rising to higher and higher stages. Rest and enjoyment are not the goal of human existence. Just as there is a desire implanted in the human soul to advance further and further in this life, even so there will be such a desire in Paradise: “O you who believe, turn to Allāh with sincere repentance. It may be your Lord will remove from you your evil and cause you to enter Gardens wherein flow rivers, on the day on which Allāh will not abase the Prophet and those who believe with him. Their light will gleam before them and on their right hands — they will say: Our Lord, make perfect for us our light and grant us protection; surely Thou art possessor of power over all things” (66:8). It is clear from the first part of this verse that all evil is removed from those who enter into Paradise, and as is clear from the concluding portion that the soul of the righteous shall still be animated by a desire for more and more light, which evidently indicates a desire to attain to higher and ever higher stages of spiritual life. And there shall be means of fulfilment of every desire in Paradise: “They have fruits therein and they have whatever they desire” (36:57). So the desire to attain to higher and higher stages cannot remain unfulfilled: “But those who keep their duty to their Lord, for them are high places, above them higher places (still), built for them” (39:20). The new life granted to the righteous in Paradise is thus the starting-point for a new