Paradise, Hell and all that lies beyond death properly belong to the category of what is known as al-ghayb (the Unseen). Muslims believe in the existence of a world that is not immediately visible to us because it has been veiled from us. The realities of this world transcend the confines of the material world surrounding us.
It goes without saying that Paradise is the greatest aim of every believer. Every Muslim strives to live in this abode of eternity and everlasting happiness. Paradise, as described by the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), is the infinite bliss and the highest aim and the greatest joy unequalled by any other joy or blessings. In it, people see things never seen before, hear things never heard before and never thought of, since the human perception is still nothing compared to the power of Allah.
Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states: Paradise, as we are told, is where all of our dreams and desires find ultimate consummation and fulfilment. It is where we shall experience such eternal bliss, “the like of which no eyes have ever seen, no ears have ever heard about, and no mind has ever conceived” (Al-Bukhari and Muslim).
Many philosophers thought that the pleasures of Paradise are purely intellectual, as they considered only such pleasures as worthy of mention. Others reduced it to purely physical pleasures, and still others to pure spiritual ecstasy. The sound approach to take, if we are to do justice to all of the evidence in the scriptures describing the pleasures of Paradise, is to say that in Paradise all of our desires will find ready fulfilment.