A Known Provision

A Known Provision The joys which God’s true servants will experience in Paradise will be a materialization of the joys they experienced in their worship in the world. In this world God does not come out into the open; the joy that comes from realization of His existence and faith in Him is, accordingly, an abstract one. But in the next world God will manifest Himself in all His glory; the joy that will come from beholding Him will become apparent for all to see. It is this realization that is the true aim of the Islamic life. All the actions of Islam are just a means towards conscious discovery of God; they are only ways of establishing contact with the Creator. There is more to our relationship with God than us performing some good deeds and God in heaven being pleased with us in return. It is not a superficial and hypothetical relationship of this nature; it is a deep and direct one. The actions of God’s servant are, in their outward form, obedience to His commandments; but in reality they are a means of conveyance to a place of communion with the Lord. There, one calls upon Him in secret; one implores and beseeches Him for help; one attaches oneself to Him with arduous devotion; one really feels as if one has cast oneself at God’s feet. Discovery of God in this manner is the supreme reality of religion, and all its commandments and injunctions are aimed at achieving this discovery. Whoever discovers God in this world will discover Him in the next world also; but whoever fails to discover God in this world will also fail to discover Him in the next world. This wealth is God’s provision to His believing servants (Quran, 20:131). Outwardly, one’s fulfillment of God’s commandments is in one’s own power; one can do so or not as one feels inclined. But the inner states that one experiences when doing the will of God are not in one’s own power; one cannot create them. Where, then, do they come from? They are the provision of God without which one’s believing personality cannot survive. When the Prophet Zakaria saw this provision in the person of Virgin Mary, enabling her to know God and do His will, he exclaimed: “Where is this from?” “It is from God,” she answered (Quran, 3:37).