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the angel who guards the dwelling: 'Ask leave for us to enter.' He will report this to the
doorkeeper. The latter will reply: 'It is difficult for me to ask leave for you, because he is in
private with his lady.' When Muslims desist from eating and drinking and other pleasures, they will
say: 'Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds.'
It is quite clear that in such a paradise the immortal spirit of man, which can be rendered truly
happy only through attaining to the knowledge of God, through love of God and nearness to Him,
through pleasing Him, and through His favour, will never be able to be happy or to enjoy peace and
rest; because in that kind of paradise only the desires of the five senses and sensual lusts can
find their satisfaction. Such a paradise does not in any way accord and agree with a real, spiritual
world. It resembles this unreal, carnal, material world, and accords only with sensual pleasures and
carnal desires. Hence a man who has renounced sensuality and fleshly delights, and has attained to
the true, spiritual happiness which we have described, could not find any rest or comfort in such a
paradise as that. On the contrary, that kind of a paradise would be a hell to him. The hope of a
paradise of that description does not make the man willing and ready to forsake carnal desires and
fleshly lusts nay rather the thought of it augments in his heart fleshly desires and sensual wishes.
This renders it very evident that the Most Holy One has not
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THE RESULTS OF SALVATION
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created for men any such delusive and vain paradise, nor has He promised to His redeemed
any such foul and polluted abode, but that it has been conceived of only by unwise and carnal-minded
men, misled by their own evil hearts and unclean thoughts.
God Most High created man to serve Him lovingly and faithfully and to enjoy true, spiritual
bliss, not to wallow in fleshly and sensual pleasure. This is clear from the teaching of reason and
conscience. For sensuality and vile gluttony unworthy of the beasts that perish are still more
unworthy of man made in spirit and mind in the image 1 of his All-Wise and All-Holy
Creator. As they cannot give a man true and lasting happiness, appealing, only to his body and not
to either mind or spirit, it is clear that God did not intend them to do so, for God Almighty and
All-Wise makes no mistakes. The fact that the joys of heaven described in the New Testament are
worthy of both their Divine Giver and of His creatures who are to receive and enjoy them, that they
are such as bring no satiety, and elevate instead of degrading men, enabling them for all eternity
to grow in likeness to God and in love for Him, all this is a great proof that the teaching of the
holy Scriptures is due to divine inspiration
(الهام) and is true and reliable. But the fact that both in
the books of the Hindus and in those of certain other religions a carnal and material paradise is
promised shows clearly that such books
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