case with the rivers of water, milk and honey all of which are plainly spoken of as a parable;17 the thrones, the cushions and carpets;18 the ornaments, the bracelets, the silk robes19 — all these are not things of this life, but are mentioned simply to show that whatever may serve to perfect the picture of the happiness of man, will be there. As for the exact form they will take, that cannot be made known to man, because his senses are incapable of perceiving it. All descriptions of the blessing of the next life are only a likeness or a parable (mathal) as is explained in the Holy Qur’ān.20
As already stated, the Resurrection means quite a new life and a new order of things, a new heaven and a new earth. A little consideration will show that our ideas of space and time are inapplicable to the next life. Paradise extends over the whole of the heavens and the earth, that is to say, the whole of this universe: “And hasten to forgiveness from your Lord and a Garden as wide as the heavens and the earth” (3:133; 57:21). And when the Holy Prophet was asked where was Hell, if Paradise extended over the whole of the heavens and the earth, he replied “Where is the night when the day comes?”21 This shows that Paradise and Hell are more like two conditions than two places. Again, notwithstanding the fact that the two are poles asunder, the one being the highest of the high and the other the lowest of the low, they are separated only by a thin partition: “Then a wall, with a door in it, will be raised between them; within it shall be mercy and outside of it chastisement” (57:13). And elsewhere, speaking of the inmates of Paradise and the inmates of Hell, it is said: “And between them is a veil” (7:46). It is impossible, with our present ideas of space, to conceive of these two things at one and the same time. Again, a “vehement raging and roaring” of hellfire is repeatedly mentioned,22 but those in Paradise shall “not hear its faintest sound”23 while they will hear the call of the inmates of that fire: “And the companions of the fire shall call out to the owners of the Garden: Pour on us some water or some of that which Allāh has provided for you. They say: Surely Allāh has prohibited them both to the disbelievers, Who take their religion for an idle sport and a play, and this world’s life deceives them” (7:50, 51). Thus those in Paradise shall hear the talk of those in Hell, but they shall
17 47:15.
19 18:31.
21 RM. 1, p. 670.
23 21:102.