Seeing Tomorrow

 أَعُوذُ بِٱللَّهِ مِنَ ٱلشَّيۡطَٰنِ ٱلرَّجِيمِ، بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ

An encapsulation of hope

I don't think any of us can truly do justice to what Jannah is. Our tradition tells us it is a place that contains what no eyes have ever seen, what no ears have ever heard, and what no heart has ever imagined. So it's easy to understand and accept a sense of beyondness when it comes one of the most written-about locales ever. But, I think this same sense also leads humanity to be dismissive of Jannah, something unknowable or far off, nearly mythical.

So, I decided to write this and counter that position by describing the Garden as an aim closer to the heart, something more complete and inclusive of experience. My own reaching for Tomorrow includes within it my beacons, beloved pieces of the self that my Rabb in His infinite wisdom decided to keep (usually) apart from me. But still, I want them to seek what I seek, an incomparable bliss and infinitude of potential. However, reality has us taking different paths to what I pray becomes a unified goal. In order to crystallize this more deeply for my beloved, it might be helpful to bridge this life with the Next, on an particularly personal level. InshaAllah the train of thought is clear enough on paper as it is in my mind.

Perhaps the most prominent descriptor of Jannah that has always resonated with me, here mentioned (among other places) in verse 35 of Surah Qaf:

 

لَهُم مَّا يَشَآءُونَ فِيهَا وَلَدَيْنَا مَزِيدٌلَهُم مَّا يَشَآءُونَ فِيهَا وَلَدَيْنَا مَزِيدٌ

 Whatever they wish. For a dreamer, there could be no more beautiful words than this to serve as a pull towards something higher. Maybe if one's vision has been dimmed by reality, or this life never really let it blossom alongside an imagination, then I could see how these words don't mean much to them. But if vision has not dimmed, if imagination has not been tamed, then the possibilities are truly glorious. This life tries its best to suffocate the parts of us that seek to roam free, to conceive without shackles or preconceptions. For as long as I can remember, I have sought to be against the grain, to be not only a contrarian to what is thought of as common or adequate, but somehow, by Allah's permission, retain my own identity and core parts of my DNA along the way, despite whatever the winds of time bring. What I chase, I will do my damnedest to ensure that no person or force on this earth can alter its trajectory. It is a thing originated from the skies, and I'd keep that aim preserved for as long as breath can be drawn. 

I think the biggest misstep on a conceptual level made by people when they think of Jannah, is that they superimpose earthly prohibitions/limits on top of heavenly potential. That is absolutely a mistaken approach. All of the laws and limits that our Rabb commanded His slaves with, are intended solely for dunya as the mechanism for our trials and to serve as proof for or against us on the Last Day. There is no fasting, no prayer in Jannah as we know it, because by Then, the time for worship (as a test of the slave) has long passed. His Gardens, they exist simply for one reason and one reason alone: that His slaves may be rewarded and find peace and joy in permanence. That is it. Allah never describes His Gardens in terms of what cannot be done there, rather it is always described in terms of what people may choose to do, what they may delight in.

Jannah is not like this earth, at all. We must separate our conceptions of these two. If one took the most beautiful and relaxing garden on this planet, and raised its gloriousness to the power of infinity, then we might have an approximation. But, these are just superlatives trying to make relatable what is indescribably amazing.

With that said, there is a particular reason for making the above point I would like to mention here, and sort of tie some threads back with what I mentioned before about different paths leading to the same unification. Before I make that point, there is one hadith that belongs here, referring to proximity in akhirah:

The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "You will be with the one whom you love."

-parts of a hadith from Bukhari, and other collections

 Our Rabb did not make our paths in this life linear, as straight lines. He made them diverse, evolving from relationship to relationship, full of ups and downs, here's and there's. None of my beloved have I been able to know or be with as I would have chosen. This is fine with me, because that simply ensured that I'd end up chasing my beacons all the way through this dunya, through death, into the akhirah. If you knew my nature, and how Allah weaved my nature and my aims and (iA) my destiny together, maybe the level of unbelieveability could be shared and we could just exclaim wow's together. But, back to the point. It would be silly and presumptuous of me to think that, in such long and winding roads across our lifetimes, I'd be the only beloved of my beacons. Heck, look at me. How many beacons did He cause to light my road up until now? Could I be content with loving each and every of them uniquely, but only for myself? I own no one, rather I have always been owned by Him, as His slave, as are each of my beloved, all His slaves. It would not be fitting for me to want to hold my beacons, and also wish them apart from whomsoever else (iA) brought light and khair into their lives.

So that part is said, in order to say: worry not about any complications, fear nothing of having to choose for yourself something in Jannah that is only part of what you'd want to have. You would have everything of it, including all the ones whom you love, for Eternity. While this life may have made such an arrangement impermissible in the deen, there is no such law in Jannah. 

Some of my beloved had asked me before, jokingly and perhaps otherwise too, about who did I think they would choose, between myself or a significant-other in a hypothetical scenario of akhirah. Well, we need not choose just one. If there is one phrase that can completely capture the essence of Jannah, it is that one will have her/his cake and fully eat it too.

After simply being near to our Rabb, this completion is the strongest reason to strive for the Garden, as high as we can go.