Part of It Is Paradise (series completed)
· Lesson 2 of 16
It's heaven | Episode (1) | The start
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Transcript
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In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
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It is Paradise.
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The departure.
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Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.
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And may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon our Prophet Muhammad.
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And upon all his family and companions.
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To proceed:
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In the blessed month of Ramadan,
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The gates of Paradise are opened,
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The gates of Hell are closed,
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And the devils are chained.
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In this noble month,
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Allah bestows His favor upon His servants,
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Freeing many from the Fire,
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And inscribing their names among the people of Paradise.
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The Prophet (peace be upon him) said:
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"May he be humiliated, the one who reaches Ramadan,
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And is not forgiven."
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Truly, the loser is the one who fails to gain in Ramadan.
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Congratulations to those whom Allah has granted a long life,
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Until they reached this virtuous month,
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So that they might increase in righteous deeds,
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Hoping to catch a breeze from the breezes of our Merciful Lord,
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To attain a happiness after which they shall never suffer.
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Brothers in faith,
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In these episodes, we will take you
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On a journey of faith into the expanse of Paradise,
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To the abode that Allah created for His believing servants.
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We shall learn about it and what Allah has prepared for its people therein.
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We will wander through its meadows,
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And rest in its shade.
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For speaking about Paradise
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Is part of belief in the Last Day,
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And belief in it is an obligation.
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How many verses in the Book of Allah
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Have spoken of Paradise,
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And encouraged us toward it.
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The Truth, Glorified and Exalted be He, has spoken.
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And how many a hadith in which the Prophet (peace be upon him) urged
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Us to work for its sake.
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The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said
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One day to his companions:
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"Is there anyone striving for Paradise?
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For Paradise has no equal.
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By the Lord of the Kaaba, it is a shimmering light,
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A swaying aromatic plant,
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A lofty palace,
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A flowing river,
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Abundant, ripe fruit,
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A beautiful, fair spouse,
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And many garments in an eternal abode,
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In joy and splendor,
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In a high, sound, and magnificent dwelling."
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They said, "We are the ones striving for it, O Messenger of Allah."
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He said, "Say: 'If Allah wills.'"
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Come with me, brothers in faith,
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Let us begin this journey from its inception.
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Allah created our father Adam (peace be upon him) with His own hand,
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Commanded His angels to prostrate to him,
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Settled him in the abode of His mercy,
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And comforted him with our mother Eve, his wife.
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He permitted them everything in Paradise,
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To eat and drink from it,
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Until Satan whispered to them,
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And they ate from the tree they had been forbidden to approach.
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Then their Lord called out to them:
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"Did I not forbid you from that tree?
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And tell you that Satan is a clear enemy to you?"
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Our parents realized their mistake,
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Confessed their sin,
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And said:
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"Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves."
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“They said: Our Lord! We have wronged ourselves. If thou forgive us not and have not mercy on us, surely we are of the lost!” (7:23)
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Then their Lord chose them,
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Accepted their repentance, and guided them.
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And He said:
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"Descend from it, all of you, as enemies to one another.
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And for you on the earth is a place of settlement and provision for a time."
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So our parents departed from the abode of bliss to the worldly life,
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They went from the abode of ease to the abode of toil and lamentation,
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From the abode of rest to the abode of hardship,
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And from the abode of happiness to the abode of trial.
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This was for one sin;
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So what of the state of one who persists in sins for a lifetime?
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Yet Allah promised our father Adam and his descendants
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That if they obeyed Him in this world,
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Adhered to His command, and avoided His prohibitions,
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He would return them to their first home,
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To Paradise,
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Where there is lasting bliss and eternal rest.
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He promised them Paradise,
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Where there is complete bliss,
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Which no deficiency mars and no impurity disturbs.
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Paradise,
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Where there is security and safety,
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And the proximity of the Most Merciful.
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That is Paradise,
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Which Allah has prepared for His righteous allies,
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Who shall enter it on the Day of Judgment.
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“And will not be absent thence.” (82:16)
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The strength of faith.
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This is the story of our existence in this abode.
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It is not our true home or final destination.
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We are here at a passing station,
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And shortly we shall move from it to our true home.
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Soon we shall depart,
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And settle our burdens in Paradise, by the permission of our Lord.
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This home of ours
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Does not deserve for us to lean upon it,
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Or feel secure within it,
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Or fight for its sake,
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Or sever our ties of kinship for its fleeting debris.
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We come into this world as equals;
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The child of kings is like the child of the servant here.
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And we leave this world as you see,
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Alike, upon bare graves.
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Our deeds raise or lower our status,
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And our reckoning will be in truth on the Day of the Overwhelming Event.
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Houris, rivers, and high palaces,
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Or Hellfire and scorching flames.
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So choose for yourself what you love and desire,
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As long as your days and nights remain.
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Tomorrow is your destiny, with no turning back,
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Either the Gardens of Eternity or the Abyss.
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Brothers in faith,
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Allow me to speak to you in the first person.
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We shall all adopt the persona of the people of Paradise,
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And we shall be together on this journey,
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Wandering through the expanse of Paradise,
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As if we have already entered it and become its people.
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This is our expectation of our Lord,
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And He, Glory be to Him, is as His servant expects of Him.
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It is also a matter of optimism that we shall be among its people,
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And Allah, Glory be to Him, loves good optimism.
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We ask Allah, the Generous, for His great bounty.
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So, O people of Paradise,
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Allah has decreed for us to remain in this world for a term,
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Then we die, enter the grave, and dwell in the niche.
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We remain as long as Allah wills us to remain,
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Then we are resurrected for the Day of Resurrection,
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The day of recompense and reckoning.
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We shall emerge from our graves disheveled and dusty,
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Barefoot, naked, and uncircumcised.
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Then we shall stand on a day the length of which is fifty thousand years.
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We shall experience great terrors and severe hardships,
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We ask Allah to make it easy for us by His grace,
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And facilitate it for us by His mercy.
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O Allah, answer our prayer.
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On that day, the scales will be set up.
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“And We set a just balance for the Day of Resurrection so that no soul is wronged in aught. Though it be of the weight of a grain of mustard seed, We bring it. And We suffice for reckoners.” (21:47)
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Whoever does an atom's weight of good or evil
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Will see it present before him.
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Woe to the wrongdoers on that great day.
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And what joy for the righteous workers!
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The records will be spread open,
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The happy one will take his book in his right hand,
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And the wretched one will take his book from behind his back in his left.
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He will cry out, "I wish I had not been given my book,
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And had not known what my account was."
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On that day,
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The Bridge (Sirat) will be set over the back of Hell.
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That Bridge, my brother,
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Is sharper than a sword,
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And thinner than a hair.
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And upon it are hooks,
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And there is no light on that day.
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Then we will be commanded to cross the Bridge,
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In an impossible mission.
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It is a journey on the Bridge,
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Enveloped by dangers,
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And surrounded by the Fire.
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But crossing it is inevitable,
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And salvation upon it is according to one's righteous deeds.
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So increase your good deeds,
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To be saved from the terrors of that dreadful day.
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O people of Paradise,
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After we have crossed the Bridge,
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We will be detained on a bridge before Paradise,
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Called the Qantarah.
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There, our hearts will be purified,
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And resentment will be removed from our chests.
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None of us will harbor anything in his soul
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Against his brother among the people of Paradise.
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We shall become loving brothers.
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O people of Paradise,
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Now,
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After our souls have been refined,
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And have become fit to enter Paradise,
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Where there is security and safety,
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And the proximity of the Generous, the Most Merciful,
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Now,
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People will be distinguished,
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Becoming groups according to their deeds,
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And the people of every deed will be distinguished by it,
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Gathered together,
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A group followed by a group,
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Driven in throngs toward it,
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Where the meeting of good awaits them,
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And the birds sing upon it.
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"Enter it in peace, eternal."
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O Allah!
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Here we are, among the throngs of people,
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our hands joined together,
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prepared to depart for Paradise,
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for we yearn for it,
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and it yearns for us as well.
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But suddenly,
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we behold something we had not anticipated:
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magnificent she-camels,
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the likes of which creation has never seen,
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adorned with saddles of gold,
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drawing near for us to mount,
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that they may carry us to the Gardens.
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Our Lord, Exalted is He, says:
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"The Day We will gather the righteous
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to the Most Merciful as a delegation."
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And when a delegation arrives before the Generous One,
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they do not arrive on foot;
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rather, the finest mounts are prepared for them,
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and they are escorted in the grandest of processions.
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We shall then mount those she-camels,
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and they will draw us toward Paradise.
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And Paradise, in its longing,
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will draw near to us.
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Did Allah not say:
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"And Paradise will be brought near
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to the righteous, not far"?
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So hasten to the Gardens of Eden,
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for they are
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our original homes,
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and therein is our true dwelling.
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Yet we have been taken captive by the enemy;
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so do you think
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we shall return to our homelands
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and find peace?
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It has been claimed that the stranger, when he wanders far
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and his homelands become distant,
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is truly distraught.
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And what estrangement is there
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greater than our own,
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over which the enemies have laughed,
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and over us they have gained control?
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O Allah, grant us Paradise.
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O Allah, we ask You for the highest
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level of Paradise,
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without reckoning and without prior punishment.
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O Allah, answer our prayer.
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And this journey has a continuation;
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it is Paradise.