Jannah in Quran

Jannah is an unseen place to be seen after death if rewarded for the righteous and devoted actions. It’s an Arabic word described in Quran which is also known as a paradise or Garden of Eden where Adam and Hawa dwelt. Its literal meaning is “to cover or hide something”.

“To the righteous, it will be said], O soul at peace! Return to your Lord, pleased, pleasing! Then enter among my servants! And enter my paradise” (89:27-30) See The Nature of Afterlife (Ma’ad).

The Final Destination after Death

To prepare for our eternal flight to take off from this world after death, we must find out ‘How to Get There’

The Prophet (S.A.W.S) told us that, “Within Paradise are things that no eyes have ever seen, nor ears have ever heard, and that things in it are beyond our imagination and comprehension, but we all have our own personal ideas of what eternal bliss would probably be like.”

Who will enter in Jannah?

Jannah in Quran is also translated as “heaven” in the sense of sky. Sometimes referred to as “seven firmaments” are surrounded by eight principal gates. The highest level is known as Firdaws (Illiyin).

The Quran says that in Jannah ” are rivers of water, the taste, and smell of which are never changed. Rivers of milk, the taste of which will remain unchanged. Rivers of wine that will be delicious to those who drink from it and rivers of clear pure honey. For them will be every kind of fruit and forgiveness from their Lord.” ( 47:15).

To enter one of the eight doors of Jannah, Muslims are required to have the belief in the oneness in God, revealed book of God (Quran) be truthful, fear for the merciful, pray 5 times a day, be free of ego and arrogance, be repentant and raise righteous children.

Several precise numbers are mentioned in the hadith which show the extremely small number of humanity that will qualify for Jannah. For instance, a small select elite group of 70,000 people from the followers of Muhammad will initially enter Jannah without any accountability of their sins.

The name of hell-fire is ‘Jahannam’, appeared in Quran 77 times which is a dark place and looks scary. The literal meaning is to light and stir up a fire-you add fuel and ensure it keeps burning.

Allah says,

“And for those who disbelieved in their Lord is the punishment of Jahannam ” (Qur’an 67:6).

Hutamah is one of the descriptive names of Hell-Fire which means to crush something into pieces.

As humans, we are prone to forget and we are quickly distracted by the glitter of this world. Even though, we are constantly reminded of hell-fire. If we truly understood the nature of the Fire, we would fear it as it should be feared. When we think of normal fire, we think of our stove and fireplace but the Fire of Hell is more intense and severe.

Someone said, “O Allah’s Apostle, this [ordinary] fire would have been sufficient (as a punishment)!” Allah’s Apostle said, “The (Hell) Fire has 69 parts more than the ordinary [worldly] fire, each part is as hot as this [worldly] fire.” (Bukhari)

Whereas Paradise is the ultimate achievement, the epitome of success which is far greater than our minds can ever envision.