No Recommendation, Only Merit

The present world is designed for the selection of deserving candidates for eternal Paradise. Only those will find entry into Paradise who have proved their merit through their deeds in the present world.

In later times, many unauthentic traditions became prevalent which claimed that entry into Paradise was based on recommendation rather than on merit. For instance, the tradition that when there was a Hafiz or a memorizer of the Quran in a family, he would recommend his family members and, on his recommendation, they would gain entry into Paradise.

Similarly, there is another unauthentic tradition. “The good are for God and the bad are for the Prophet,” that is, the bad will find Paradise on the Prophet’s recommendation. But all these traditions have no basis in reality.

The truth is that the present world is designed for the selection of deserving candidates for Paradise. Only those will find entry into Paradise who have proved their merit by their deeds in the present world. Chapter 53 of the Quran tells us that, in the Hereafter, man will find his place only according to his actions in this world (53:31-32).

Chapter two of the Quran tells us that “the day comes when there will be neither trading, friendship nor intercession” (2:254).

Believing in strategies like recommendation to gain entry into Paradise, is an underestimation of Paradise. The truth is that Paradise is a sublime and very refined place and only men and women of high calibre will be settled there according to the records of human beings being prepared in this world. According to the Quran, Paradise is a place which is in the neighbourhood of God. Here, in this world of truth, only the truthful will find an eternal abode, “in the seat of truth with an all-powerful Sovereign” (54:55).

Inhabiting Paradise is to be in the neighbourhood of God (66:11). The notion that entry into the neighbourhood of God can be had just on the basis of human recommendation is totally baseless.