Dear Muslim friends,
As a follower of Jesus, I am thinking about you and praying for you as you go through these days and nights of Ramadan.
In this time that is so special to you, I am sure that you are thinking even more than usual about Paradise – about Jannah.
We all desire to go to Paradise, don’t we?
We long for it.
Some pray for it, work endlessly for it:
Shahada. Salat. Zacat. Sawm. Hajj. Going regularly to the Masjid. Practicing dawa. Following the Sunnah. Faithfully making duas.
But why?
Why do we long and passionately desire that we might enter Paradise on the Day of Judgment?
Is it to escape hellfire?
Is it to be done with our pain and suffering here?
Is it to be “in gardens and pleasure”?
Is it to satisfy in Paradise what some Muslim men crave such as rivers of wine and Houri women with “wide, lovely eyes”?
Or. . .is there something greater? Something purer? Is there a far better, far higher reason to long for Paradise?
I submit to you as a follower of Jesus that there is. There absolutely is.
It is God. God. . .Himself.
That is the ultimate reward for those who enter Paradise.
Better put, He is the ultimate reward of Paradise.
Without God, Paradise would not be. . .Paradise!
Paradise is to be with Him. To see Him. As He is. In His glory and majesty.
Paradise is to experience His perfect love with an intensity that we cannot even imagine in this life.
Paradise is to worship and praise and laud Him for all that He is and all He has done.
Paradise.
It’s all about. . . Him.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
From the Injil, the Book of Revelation, excerpts from chapter 21:
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, ‘Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.’
Nothing evil will be allowed to enter, nor anyone who practices shameful idolatry and dishonesty – but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.”
love you man
you god is mind god. the god of jews and adam and eve and jesus and prophet muhammad pbuh.
we will see the same god , we will have hands in hands and we will dance in front of him. we will be esctatic , incognizant of our surrounding.
i want a mystical friend like you…. we will join rumi there and we will join al hallaj and we will join other muslim mystics.
our reward is freedom from this body , this flesh. this is our subjugation. we are not we see .. i am the sight which the eyes , i am the hearing which ears detect.
i have no shape , i am love … i am nothing ………….
assalamun ala mani taba’a alhuda (السلام علي من اتبع الهدى)
Mr.mark there are many things u have to know abouts muslims:
first is that we LOVE jesus with all of our heart ,and if anyone of us don’t believe in him we are not muslims(believers) , but like the christians, we do not worship him because he is a messanger of GOD not god himself .
second we worship allah JUST to make him satisfy us not to get houri(Woman of jannah) or wine because they ARE rewards.
Third , paradise is not AIM it is REWARD(for doing the good deeds and worshipping Allah and etc…).
Finally, our prophet (pbuh) have once said “we will see ALLAH in jannah with our naked eyes the same as we see Full Moon in a night with clear sky” and he says that it is the greatest reward that our God gives us (inshallah).
Thanks for your sayings about Gaza and the palestinians…….