In our series we now come to a major passage from the Qur’an dealing with the Garden of Paradise, namely 7:40-51:
To those who reject Our signs and treat them with arrogance, no opening will there be of the gates of heaven, nor will they enter the garden, until the camel can pass through the eye of the needle: Such is Our reward for those in sin.
For them there is Hell, as a couch (below) and folds and folds of covering above: such is Our requital of those who do wrong.
But those who believe and work righteousness,- no burden do We place on any soul, but that which it can bear,- they will be Companions of the Garden, therein to dwell (for ever).
And We shall remove from their hearts any lurking sense of injury;- beneath them will be rivers flowing;- and they shall say: “Praise be to Allah, who hath guided us to this (felicity): never could we have found guidance, had it not been for the guidance of Allah: indeed it was the truth, that the messengers of our Lord brought unto us.” And they shall hear the cry: “Behold! the garden before you! Ye have been made its inheritors, for your deeds (of righteousness).
And the dwellers of Paradise will call out to the dwellers of the Fire (saying): “We have indeed found true what our Lord had promised us; have you also found true, what your Lord promised (warnings, etc.)?” They shall say: “Yes.” Then a crier will proclaim between them: “The Curse of Allah is on the Zalimun (polytheists and wrong-doers, etc.),”
The Companions of the Garden will call out to the Companions of the Fire: “We have indeed found the promises of our Lord to us true: Have you also found Your Lord’s promises true?” They shall say, “Yes”; but a crier shall proclaim between them: “The curse of Allah is on the wrongdoers;-”Those who would hinder (men) from the path of Allah and would seek in it something crooked: they were those who denied the Hereafter.
Between them shall be a veil, and on the heights will be men who would know every one by his marks: they will call out to the Companions of the Garden, “peace on you”: they will not have entered, but they will have an assurance (thereof).
And when their eyes will be turned towards the dwellers of the Fire, they will say: “Our Lord! Place us not with the people who are Zalimun (polytheists and wrong-doers).”
When their eyes shall be turned towards the Companions of the Fire, they will say: “Our Lord! send us not to the company of the wrong-doers.
The men on the heights will call to certain men whom they will know from their marks, saying: “Of what profit to you were your hoards and your arrogant ways?
“Behold! are these not the men whom you swore that Allah with His Mercy would never bless? Enter ye the Garden: no fear shall be on you, nor shall ye grieve.
The Companions of the Fire will call to the Companions of the Garden: “Pour down to us water or anything that Allah doth provide for your sustenance.” They will say: “Both these things hath Allah forbidden to those who rejected Him.
“Such as took their religion to be mere amusement and play, and were deceived by the life of the world.” That day shall We forget them as they forgot the meeting of this day of theirs, and as they were wont to reject Our signs (Yusuf Ali).
The Qur’an denies access to the Garden of Paradise to all who reject Qur’anic revelations through Muhammad. To reject such revelations is regarded as an expression of arrogance. It is as impossible for such people to enter Paradise as it is for the camel to pass through the eye of the needle (presumably, Muhammad had heard some Christians using this metaphor). Rather, Hell awaits them – Hell beneath them as the bed they will lie on for ever, and Hell above them like bed-covers.
By contrast, Paradise is for those who have believed, that is, in the Oneness of Allah. Further, such people are characterized by the fact that they have been workers of righteousness or doers of good. However, here Allah does not demand moral perfection, requiring no more from them than they are capable of doing. The inescapable inference here is that by accepting such people into Paradise Allah will mercifully turn a blind eye to many moral failings. The inescapable conclusion, logically speaking, is that Allah cannot be morally perfect. If he was he would settle for nothing less than moral perfection. However, as we have seen in previous blogs in this series, Allah remains utterly transcendent having no personal relationships with even those Muslims who are admitted to Paradise. This seems to be the way in which Qur’anic thinking conceives the possibility of a morally perfect Allah mercifully admitting morally imperfect people to Paradise. But it is still illogical. For Paradise cannot be a place of perfection if morally imperfect people are its residents. Apparently Allah is incapable of creating a perfect Paradise.
According to 7:43 Allah will remove all “sense of injury” (Yusuf Ali), “mutual hatred” (Khan), “ill-feeling” (Maulana; Shakir), “rancour” (Pickthal; Sherali), “grudges” (Sarwar), “jealousy” (Rashad). Evidently this means that Muslims will harbour no spiteful attitudes to other Muslims who are with them in Paradise. But what is not explained is how Allah will effect the removal of such attitudes. This pious hope involves a simplistic view of moral depravity. The problem and complexity of transforming moral character is not addressed in a satisfactory manner.
The Qur’an envisages that it will be possible for those in Paradise to call out to those in Hell. They will say in effect, “We told you so!” That is, they will rub it in the faces of those dwelling in Hell that the Qur’anic warnings communicated to them have now been realized, just as the blessings promised to faithful Muslims are now being experienced by those in Paradise. A curse will be invoked on all those only fit for Hell.
The Qur’an also speaks of those Hell-dwellers who sought to dissuade people from living as Muslims, evidencing their disbelief in the Day of Judgment as presented in the Qur’an.
At 7:46 the Qur’an speaks of a “veil” or “barrier” or “screen” or “partition” between those in Paradise and those in Hell. On this wall, named Al-A’raf, are elevated places on which stand men who are between Paradise and Hell, because their good and evil deeds balanced each other out. They recognize both the dwellers of Paradise and those of Hell by “their marks”. According to Islamic tradition this means they see that the dwellers of Paradise have white faces, while Hell-dwellers have black faces.
Those who are situated in this intermediate position call out to those Muslims dwelling in Paradise, “Peace on you!” 7:46 is somewhat ambiguous about the eternal prospects of these people. Some translations, such as Yusuf Ali’s, indicate they are assured of eventually entering Paradise. Others, however, suggest that while this may be their hope it is by no means certain it will be realized. Certainly, as 7:47 points out, they desperately cry out to Allah in prayer that they will not be consigned to Hell. They will also seek to distance themselves from Hell-dwellers by rebuking them for reliance on their numbers of supporters and for the arrogance they have shown in rejecting the Qur’an.
A further ambiguity is presented by 7:49. Many translations take it that those dwelling on Al-A’raf are being addressed. While it might be thought that Allah would never show them mercy he will in fact invite them too to enter Paradise. However, other translations take it that it is not those on Al-A’raf who are the addressees but those Muslims whom Allah has in fact invited to enter Paradise. According to this understanding of 7:49 it had been assumed that these Muslims would not experience Allah’s mercy but have in fact experienced it by their admission to Paradise. Consequently, depending on how 7:49 is construed, it either grants assurance of salvation to those on Al-A’raf or else leaves them still in a state of complete uncertainty as to their eternal destiny.
The wording of 7:50 strongly suggests that at some stage Muhammad had heard some version of the parable taught by Jesus at Luke 16:19-31 concerning the rich man and Lazarus. In this parable the rich man, in Hell, begs Abraham – note the irony here, it was Lazarus who was begging during life on earth – to send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water to cool his tongue (v24). Abraham replies:
And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us (v26).
Similarly, at 7:50 those in Hell ask those in Paradise to share with them some of their water and other blessings, only to be told Allah has forbidden any such thing. Those dwelling in Hell are depicted as religious people, but people who were deceived by what the world had to offer, so that their religion was but a game, a diversion, which expressed their rejection of the Day of Judgment as presented in the Qur’an and, indeed, their rejection of Qur’anic revelation.
There are enormous differences between this depiction of the after-life and that found in the Bible. These include:
1. The Bible rules out the very possibility of any book written at some stage subsequent to biblical writings providing the basis upon which people will be admitted to or excluded from Paradise. Not only does Hebrews 1 clearly teach that Jesus is the final, climactic, ultimate and conclusive revelation of God, but the last book of the Bible ends with these sober words:
“I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book” (Revelation 22:18-19).
In short, the Bible effectively teaches that by the very act of treating the Qur’an as the basis of one’s admission to Paradise or not one is actually ensuring exclusion from Paradise.
2. Only biblical revelation is able to provide a satisfactory basis on which a perfectly holy God can admit forgiven sinners (those who had lived sinful lives) into Paradise as morally perfected human beings. This is why the propitiatory and atoning death of Jesus is of such fundamental importance, revealing how God can be righteous and at the same time justify the ungodly. Only the resurrection of Jesus and the workings of a Triune God can satisfactorily explain how the lives of sinners can be transformed and how, when Jesus returns, even the presence of sin can be completely removed from their lives. Therefore, God is able to admit morally perfect human beings to Paradise. Paradise is indeed a perfect place and especially because it is the realm within which a perfectly holy God intimately relates with morally perfected human beings. The God of the biblical Paradise is not transcendentally removed from relationships with those he has saved, but in intimate relations with them.
3. In contrast to the Qur’an the Bible, as indicated by the Luke 16 parable, shuts out any possibility of Hell-dwellers and those dwelling in Paradise being able to communicate with each other.
4. Although Roman Catholicism teaches a doctrine of purgatory, this is based entirely on extra-biblical texts and church tradition. It has no foundation in the Bible. The Bible recognizes no in-between state, nothing akin to Al-A’raf. The reason why Islam, like Roman Catholicism, has a purgatory-like state, is because it presupposes that admission to Paradise is based on whether one’s good deeds outweigh one’s bad deeds. But the Bible is adamant that no-one will be saved by their works, only by God’s grace (Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:4-7).
5. In the Bible assurance of salvation is entirely based on knowing Jesus and depending on who he is and what he has done (e.g. John 6:40; 1 John 5:11-13).
Posted July 4, 2009
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