THIS LIFE: A PRISON OR PARADISE?
I was at the airport. Standing in the security line, I awaited my ritual interrogation. As I stood there, I
looked over at a little girl with her mother. The girl was crying. She was clearly sick. The mother
reached into a bag to give the girl some medicine. I was struck by how miserable the little girl looked
and suddenly I saw something. I felt as though I was looking at someone who was trapped. This
innocent, pure soul was imprisoned by a worldly body that had to get sick, feel pain, and suffer.
And then I was reminded of the hadith in which the Prophet said: “This world is a prison for
the believer and a paradise for the disbeliever” (Sahih Muslim). And for the first time, I understood it
very differently than I had before. I think many people misinterpret this hadith to mean that the
disbelievers get to enjoy themselves in this life, while the believers have to be restricted in this life
by haram (prohibited) and halal (permitted), and have to wait until the next life to enjoy themselves.
Or perhaps, some think it means that this life is miserable for the believer, while it is bliss for the
disbeliever.
But, I don’t think that’s it at all.
And suddenly I felt as though I was seeing the reality of this hadith in the little girl. I saw what looked
like a soul imprisoned because it belongs to another world—a better world, where it doesn’t have to
get sick.
But what happens when it’s the opposite? What happens when the soul already thinks it’s in paradise?
Would that soul ever want to be somewhere else? Somewhere better? No. It is exactly where it wants
to be. To that soul, there is no ‘better’. When you’re in a paradise, you can’t imagine being anywhere
greater. You yearn for nothing else. Nothing more. You are satisfied, content with where you are. That
is the condition of the disbeliever. Allah says:
“Indeed, those who do not expect the meeting with Us and are satisfied with the life of this world and
feel secure therein and those who are heedless of Our signs.” (Qur’an, 10:7)
For the disbelieving soul, this inevitably painful, disappointing and temporary world IS their
paradise. It’s all they know. Imagine if a world where you have to fall, bleed and eventually die was
the only paradise you knew. Imagine the agony of that.
The one who does not believe that there is any place better—who believes that this world is the best
it can get—will become very impatient when this life isn’t perfect. They are quickly angered and
quickly devastated because this life was supposed to be a paradise. They don’t realize there is
something greater. And so this is all they want. This is all they strive for. Every effort, every ability,
every opportunity, every gift endowed to them by their creator, is employed for the sake of seeking
this life—of which nothing will come to them except what is written.
Their soul is attached to the worldly body because it thinks that body is the only paradise it has. Or
will ever have. So it doesn’t want to let go. At any price, it wants to hold on. To take the soul from its