A glimpse of Paradise

[MuslimInshallah]

Assalaamu alaikum,

(smile) We were in a small date market in Medina. It was hot outside, but ok in the store. We fanned out, looking at all the different kinds of dates, heaped in mounds around the store. Our sheikh started haggling with the owner of the store in order to buy a larger quantity of very expensive dates. Little black dates, not too sweet, dryly moist, whose taste crept up on you, until you suddenly realized that these were very good quality dates, indeed.

I looked around and noticed an open door at the back of the store, and peeked out. There were some crates, and a couple of tables, and... trees. The air was cool and fresh, and there was a hosepipe near the foot of a palm tree, trickling water into a very shallow pool. And I suddenly realized that this was the meaning of the words gardens, under which rivers flow.

These words come up so very often in the Qur'an. And to someone from Europe or North America, they don't make much sense. Why do the rivers flow under the gardens? Why not through? And what is so special about such gardens, anyway? Where I live in Canada, the land is brimming with water and vegetation. But here, it was so clear. Apart from the trees and bushes lining the city boulevards, with many kilometres of pipes to sustain them, so much of the land looks so very barren in Saudi Arabia. I saw no stereotypical sand dunes, but I did see plains and hills that looked like some great devastation had hit the land. There was something lunar about the landscape. Lots of bare rocks and stones and dust, with the occasional tough and scrubby plant struggling to survive.

But amidst all this hot and dry and mostly empty-of-life scenery, there were the oases. Like little sunken forests, located mostly in mini-valleys here and there, the oases gave the eye a welcome rest from the glare of the relentless sun. (smile) And now here I was, excited with a rush of insight, stepping into an oasis! The air felt suddenly cool and pleasant. The smell of the fertile earth caressed my nose. The dappled green and shady light shone on various vibrant green plants that grew around the palms. A cat padded by, and a little further off, protected by streams of light and shadows, I saw a curiously coloured duck (black and white with seemingly random red splotches). I bent down to feel the plants. Unlike other plants I had seen in Amman (on the way to Saudi Arabia), these plants were soft and tender. I saw what looked like the medicinal herb My Lady's Mantle. The other plants, I didn't recognize, but I was later told that goats like to eat them. Humming with life, cool, comforting, delightful to all the senses, and productive of a variety of delicious and nutritious edibles, the oasis felt like a paradise, indeed.

In a land of heat and dryness, surface water will evaporate very quickly, especially if there is no vegetation. In Canada, the trees and attendant greenery are enough to retain the water by their shade and with their roots, but in the context of Saudi Arabia, surely the best way to sustain a lush garden is to have an underground water source, a river flowing close enough to the surface for thirsty roots to tap into it. So the metaphor of Paradise being like a garden with rivers flowing under it suddenly made a lot of sense to me.

And then, another thought struck me while I was standing in that pleasant place, contemplating and enjoying this ayat Allah, this sign from God: Could perhaps this metaphor have another, deeper meaning ? Are not our good deeds in this earthly life like the waters that grow our Paradise?

Is it not a truth, that the more we do in this life, the more wonderful and amazing our experience of Paradise will be? Just by themselves, of course, our good deeds are not enough. But our Kind and Munificent Creator has promised to multiply our good deeds, by a factor Known only by Him, and at His Compassionate discretion. Nevertheless, what we do now influences the result we will have later, like the amount of available water influences the size and lushness of an oasis in a thirsty land.

Gardens under which rivers flow... (sparkle) All Praise and Glory to our Wise and Knowledgeable Creator, who Guides us Gently towards things wonderful and unknown!

If we choose to be Guided.

[BeTheChange]

Walaikumasalaam Sister,

You should be an author :-) You write in a very descriptive manner Alhamdulilah so much so one can vision the scenery you speak of :-)

Am a big fan of dates love them esp. from Saudi Arabia - interesting insight in the infrastructure of the land in this world - I like the fact that some things we can understand in this world but others we can't. I think the last sentence 'If we choose to be guided' is so powerful and so true. The decision is in our hands and we MUST make sure the good outweighs the bad - every day i try and wake up with this intention to do more than what is expected of me in the hope of winning Allah swa pleasure.

I think it’s the small things in life that we take for granted – like you say sis depending on the water intake depends on the structure and size of crops/plants – Alhamdulilah for all the little blessings!

I hope Allah swa guides us and protects us in this world and the next - & i hope we are all given the motivation to succeed in good and bad situations Ameen.