Allah makes a lot of people enter heaven and grants them a great deal of graces...

Allah makes a lot of people enter heaven and grants them a great deal of graces, to the extent that they get occupied with utilizing and deriving pleasure from those blessings but for a time. (The Prophet’s (S) expression is that Allah grants so many blessings to them that they eventually get tired of them. Of course, this phrasing is common parlance, otherwise there is no tiredness in the Garden of eternal bliss, as the Qur’an states: ...

لاَ يَمَسُّنَا فِيهَا نَصَبٌ وَلاَ يَمَسُّنَا فِيهَا لُغُوبٌ “…toil shall not touch us therein, nor shall fatigue therein afflict us.”[^1] (Therefore, the Prophet’s (S) intention is that they will be granted whatever they want.) All at once these dwellers of the Garden look at their friends who have achieved higher stations, and get surprised. They make a humble petition, saying, “O Lord!

These were our friends with whom we associated in the world, performed the prayers with in the same row and were of the same regiment during divine battles, why have you preferred them over us and granted them higher stations?” They will be answered, “You and them have a great deal of differences, they were hungry when you were full; they were thirsty when you were satiated and they used to go hungry undertaking recommendable fasts.

When you were occupied with reaping the benefits of blessings and permissible foods, they were fasting. Even if you have not committed any sin, still they used to keep their stomachs empty of food and drink in the hot summer.

You used to content yourselves to you discharging obligatory duties and thereafter used to take a rest, but they never went to sleep and were busy with acts of devotion and performing secret prayers to Allah.” In the Qur’an’s statement, they were the people who: کَانُوا قَلِيلاً مِن اللَّيْلِ مَا يَهْجَعُون \* وَبِالأَسْحَارِهُمْ يَسْتَغْفِرُونَ “They used to sleep but a little in the night and in the morning they used to seek forgiveness.” [^2] The Differences in the Gratification Enjoyed by the Dwellers of the Different Stations of Paradise In these statements the Prophet (S) reminds us about the different stations and ranks of paradise.

It has been explicitly stated in a great deal of the verses of the Qur’an and the hadith s that in the same way that hell has levels, heaven too has ranks and stations.

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