What is Heaven?
Translated from the book "Political Islam' by Dr. Mustafa Mahmoud.

There is nothing more beautiful than Heaven or talking about it...We depart with it from the hell of this world which we live in.

Most translators understand the verses which talk about the pleasures, luxury and joy of heaven in an 'Earthly' meaning. It is palm trees, and grapes and fruits and pomegranate and cold springs bursting with pearly waters, and rivers from milk, and rivers from honey, and rivers from wine and virgin women of heaven...

However, the Quran clarifies this 'limited' understanding for us. The Lord GOD tells us: 'What is mentioned of heaven is nothing but an EXAMPLE and not a reality'.

"The example of Paradise that is promised for the righteous is this: it has rivers of unpolluted water, and rivers of fresh milk, and rivers of wine-delicious for the drinkers and rivers of strained honey..." (47:15)

All these depiction's are nothing but an 'example', as for the reality, it is beyond depiction and beyond imagination. Our Lord also tells us in another verse:

"No soul knows what is hidden for them of joy and happiness as a reward for what they did." (32:17)

Therefore, the matter is 'hidden', as is the matter of 'hell'. In Hell is a tree that grows from the center of fire which is the 'Zaqoum' tree in which there is 'burning water'!.

Have we ever seen a fire from which a tree grows or contains water?.

The discussions of these attributes from a 'worldly' perspective of heaven & hell is merely a confusion and lack of understanding.

As for those who imagine heaven from perspective of their reproductive organs, we say to them: There will be NO reproduction or pregnancy or birth in heaven...therefore, there will be no need for your re-production organs, nor will there be a need for your rectum since we will not excrete food. That is why our Lord calls this the '2nd creation' (Nash'a Ukhra) to distinguish it from the '1st creation' we are now in.

And for every 'creation' there is a different structure and system for the type of surroundings given to it...

Can we imagine the need for an 'immune system' as we now have in the liver and bone marrow and blood vessels in the hereafter?. All these are but devices created for our defense against bacteria, microbes, viruses, funguses and other harmful factors. As for the 'hereafter', what purpose will these 'immunity systems' serve?. We cannot imagine that heaven will have bacteria, viruses, funguses and cancers...for it is called the 'Abode of Peace'! (Dar El-Salam).

"We remove all jealousy from their hearts. Like brothers, they will be on adjacent furnishings." (15:47)

This means that the 'internal structure' will be different. We are therefore looking at a new birth with new structures, new bodies and a new creation.

"Some faces, on that day, will be happy. Looking at their Lord." (75:22-23)

Such is new pleasure of a 'higher' nature of which we know nothing today in our Earthly life...The pleasure of looking to the face of GOD.

Our Lord acknowledges this pleasure when He speaks of the evil doers:

"...GOD will not speak to them, nor look at them, on the Day of Resurrection..." (3:77)

Such will be a great punishment and suffering which the evil doers will know on that day...

How can we look unto GOD?. Shall it be with our human eyes that can only see distances and shapes?. Or shall it be that we see Him with our hearts or being, or soul!. These are mysteries which will not be revealed except at their appointed time; and such will be the greatest of pleasures and ultimate happiness, a 'hidden' pleasure we cannot yet fathom...

Heaven and Hell are all 'hidden', and what has been related of them is nothing but 'examples' and 'indications'. And to relate to what our Lord is telling us, is the example of the beautiful colorful butterfly, which exits its cocoon after only yesterday being an ugly worm which ate remains, but now, it is a totally different creature. Such are similar examples to what our Lord sites as the '1st' and '2nd' creation.

But there is nothing more despicable or despise-able, then those translators who read the following verse:

"Serving them will be immortal young boys. When you see them, they will look like scattered pearls." (76:19)

And there sick sexual driven imagination takes them to think that heaven is full of gay pleasures; as such, he only sees in heaven what is the lowest of morality of Earth.

The natural interpretation is to understand the 'young boys' as a replacement in this new world in which there is no reproduction or children. As such, these young ones are the pleasure that we all derive from seeing and hearing these children as a replacement to our own which we had on Earth...where we loved them and played with them, but now there is no way to reproduce them.

Anyone of s would be lying about the messenger of GOD if he/she though they understood truly hat heaven would be or look like..for it is the 'hidden of hidden', and we abide by our Lord's words:

"No soul knows what is hidden for them of joy and happiness as a reward for what they did." (32:17)

And we do not say what the traditional translator said: "That heaven is lying between the trees, eating fruits, and defiling virgins...!". Such is a 'physical' lazy imagination and a limited 'vision' not going beyond the needs of the stomach and sexual organ.

This person apparently did not read the Quran in its fullness and depth, nor did he look to its verses and what lies between, nor did he try to understand, or contemplate, or think to what it contains. And what is the next life but a 'continuation' of the journey towards GOD:

"O humans, you are irreversibly heading for a meeting with your Lord." (84:6)

And GOD is ever-living and everlasting...as such, the journey to Him can have no end, nor length to it. And the hereafter is nothing but a journey to him in pleasure or in pain depending on what each has done. The believing men and women in heaven will say:

"...Our Lord, perfect our light for us..." (66:8)

This means that, the journey will continue, and that 'completion' will not happen yet, and that there is still something lacking in the hereafter...and there is a longer journey still ahead to know GOD and to become closer and more radiant...there is no end except to GOD...and the journey continues...

To your Lord is the end.