BEYOND EXCUSES

where increase is not exhausted, where fulfilment does not grow stale. Our caravan is being guided towards that world of eternal expansion, and the promise “And there is even more with Us” is not a poetic flourish but a reality waiting just beyond the horizon of time. Consider our fascination with zoom: we lift a camera and draw the distant close, sometimes joking that we can “zoom to the moon.” Today our tools bring far-off wonders near. Tomorrow, in Paradise, the addition will not be in the gadget but in the soul itself. Capacities that are now outside us will be placed within us; horizons that feel unreachable will be brought into intimate reach. The Quran voices this hope with a tenderness both stirring and exact: “Those who do good works shall have a good reward and more besides.” (10: 26) “good reward and more besides”: a promise that material delights will be perfected, yes, but also that spiritual vision, love, and nearness will be opened to an extent our present words cannot fathom. The world teaches us a clear lesson: premium features come at a premium price. We accept this without protest in our technology and our comforts. Why, then, do we hesitate when the same law appears in the spiritual realm? Paradise has a price—not of coins, but of character; not of currency, but of commitment. The Prophet Muhammad said, “Be aware! The merchandise of God is costly. Be aware! The merchandise of God is Paradise.” (Jami‘ al-Tirmidhi) Costly, not because God is distant, but because He invites us to rise—above whim to will, above distraction to remembrance, above the fleeting to the eternal. Paradise is the world of additions. Knowledge will widen without edge; life will lengthen without weariness; culture will blossom without decay. It is the journey from the narrow corridor of time into the vast gardens of forever. Our desires, which here outstrip our means, will there find a home large enough to hold them without disappointment. The Quran calls us, with both command and consolation, to a Garden “for a Paradise as vast as the heavens and the earth” (3: 133). A vastness that refuses to be measured, a generosity that refuses to be counted. And yet, there is a tender caution: do not mistake the road for the destination. The flagship smartphone, for all its wonder, is still a signpost, not a home. The delight we feel at a smoother interface or a crisper image is real, but it is a borrowed joy—