Heaven – a short aside...being an excerpt from a letter to a Muslim convert friend
This is a concept which I have always found immensely difficult. We discussed the punishment awaiting sinners and I’d like to return to it later. However, what intrigues me for the moment is the paradise described in the Qur’an to which I alluded briefly and which seems to be, inter alia, worryingly misogynistic. For example, Surah 56 verses 12- 39 reveals what awaits the faithful:
"They shall recline on jewelled couches face to face, and there shall wait on them immortal youths with bowls and ewers and a cup of purest wine (that will neither pain their heads nor take away their reason); with fruits of their own choice and flesh of fowls that they relish. And theirs shall be the dark-eyed houris, chaste as hidden pearls: a guerdon for their deeds... We created the houris and made them virgins, loving companions for those on the right hand..."
What does your wife make of the fact that you are promised a selection of comely virgins? Does this not seem to you a rather parochial, prosaic and literal vision of the hereafter, not to mention just a little sexist? And what’s with the obsession with virgins?? Is this not more evidence that the Qur’an is the product of a man, not of an omniscient deity ?(who you think might have given more thought to the female side of his creation when designing an eternal paradise for them ...Although given some of the other references to women, perhaps it’s not so surprising after all. But more of that later.)
A muslim is a believer who believes in the Quran which is a gift from Allah the Almighty to humanity. If your faith is not that strong and do not believe in the word of Allah{GOD} then there is only one option left, wait and see what happens when one dies, you either go to hell or heaven, but then it will be too late to make amends cause Allah has given you the guidance that is the Quran and sent prophets to guide us to the right path and to warn us, but inspite of that you still choose to disbelieve then you face the consequences on the Day of Judgement.
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