Jannah: The Garden from the Qur'an and Hadith - Their recompense is forgiveness from theirLord, and Gardens with rivers flowing under them... (Surah Al'Imran: 136)

Allah has created human character such that we can only be at ease in
the Garden and the desires of the heart can only be fulfilled there.
Many verses of the Qur'an make this clear. Allah says in it that the
real life is the life of the Garden and, therefore, every effort
should be expended to attain this abode of endless good and beauty.
Some versesof the Qur'an on this subject are as follows:
The life of this world is nothing but a game and a diversion. The
abode of the akhira – that is truly Life if they only knew. (Surat
al-'Ankabut: 64)
The truly good will be in perfect bliss on couches gazing in wonder.
You will recognise in their faces the radiance of delight. They are
given the choicest sealed wine to drink, whose seal is musk – let
people with aspiration aspire to that! (Surat al- Mutaffifin: 22-26)
Allah expands provision to anyone He wills and restricts it. They
rejoice in the life of this world. Yet the life of this world,
compared to the akhira, is only fleeting enjoyment. (Surat ar-Ra'd:
26)
They will have there everything they want and with Us there is still
more. (Surah Qaf: 35)
In one hadith, our Prophet gives an example to show what a great
blessing the Garden is for human beings compared to the life of this
world:
A space in the Gardenequal to the distance between the middle andthe
end of a bow will bebetter than all that uponwhich the sun rises and
sets. (Sahih al- Bukhari; Sahih Muslim)
Even if a person has no knowledge of this, he can easily understand it
when he thinks of the imperfection of this world and the yearning he
feels within himself for good things. Allah has created many proofsto
show people that the life of this world is not the true life. Starting
with the body itself, one is confronted almost every day with the
imperfections of this world. You may come face to face with sickness,
injury or even death because of the slightest accident. A great part
of life must bespent compensating for the weakness of the body. But in
spite of all these efforts, the body wastes away as the yearspass.
Beautiful flowers, like the human body, also fade with time; the most
colourful and pleasing roses, tulips and violets wither and die. The
tastiest and freshest looking fruit and vegetables become stale and
inedible in a very short time. The most magnificent houses, and the
finest automobiles and other material possessions grow old, break down
and become useless withtime.
These things are just a few of the imperfectionsthat a person has to
dealwith in this world and are enough to make a person understand that
this world is not the place he longs for.
In the face of all this imperfection, a person, in his heart of
hearts, wants to live in a world where perfection is never-ending. He
longs for a world where there is no illness, death, war, conflict,
evil, anxiety or imperfection. With this in mind, he looks for ways to
establish a life within the parameters ofthis world that is happy and
carefree. However, Allah tells us in the Qur'an that this kind of life
can only be had in the Garden. What humanbeings must do to attain the
Garden is very simple: live in a way thatis pleasing to Allah. Then,
if Allah wills, they will find a perfect and endless life happy beyond
all that they could desire or imagine.
Allah says much in the Qur'an about the blessings of the Garden
because He wants people to understand that everything they are looking
for, longing for and everything they loveis in the Garden. In the
following chapters of this book we will look atverses of the Qur'an
and hadith of our Prophet to see the perfect blessings that our Lord
has prepared for us.