SPIRIT OF ISLAM MARCH 2O18

11 Spirit of Islam Issue 63 March 2018 Paradise is a place where there is no nuisance, no noise, free of all kinds of pollution. The inhabitants of Paradise will be positive thinkers in the complete sense of the phrase. recording system is managed by the angels. It is so comprehensive that it can record the intentions, the speech, the behaviour and the dealings of every single person. This system is operative at all times, day and night. The purpose of all these arrangements is to select the kind of men and women who deserve to gain entry into eternal Paradise. At the time of Doomsday, God will appear with His angels and according to the angelic record He will select those men and women who passed the test. What are those qualities that are required for a person to be a deserving candidate for Paradise? In a single word, it is spirituality. Paradise is a spiritual world and only those men and women who have developed spiritual qualities in their personality will be blessed with entry into Paradise. According totheQuranicdescription. “Paradise is the home of peace” (10: 25) . Paradise is a place where there is no nuisance, no noise, free of all kinds of pollution. The inhabitants of Paradise will be positive thinkers in the complete sense of the phrase. The environment of Paradise will be free of all kinds of negative states, like anger, malice, hate, revenge, wrong desires, jealousy, fighting, exploitation and dishonesty, for these negative factors cannot be part of the psychology of the spiritual inhabitants of Paradise. The definition of spirituality given in the dictionary is—the state of being opposed to worldliness. This definition is partly true, for not being driven by worldliness is not just for the sake of not being worldly; it is for the sake of a higher goal. There are two kinds of spirituality—one is to renounce the material world completely which constitutes going into seclusion. This kind of spirituality has no creative role as such. It suppresses all the natural qualities of a human being, who then dies without having made full use of his natural potential. Quranic spirituality is spirituality of the other kind. It means living in the world and trying to derive spiritual food from material things as a matter of intellectual discipline. It means to control rather than kill one’s desires.