Seeker of Paradise

Human nature is calling out at every moment: ‘O Man! Run away from Hellfire, and be a seeker of Paradise.’ Successful is the one who hears this call and follows it.

In a tradition of Prophet Muhammad, he wondered that those who should be running away from hell are sleeping and those who should be striving to attain such a precious thing as Paradise are sleeping. (Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith No. 2601) In this tradition of the Prophet of Islam, the phrases haarib-e-naar (running away from hell) and taalib-e-Jannat (seeker of Paradise) have been used. The choice of the phrases is very meaningful. It indicates the fact that man has been created in such a way, that because of his upright nature, he will run away from hell and be a seeker of Paradise. But because of the deviation of his human nature, he becomes a totally different person: he runs away from Paradise and runs towards Hell.

Man finds it difficult to tolerate suffering. Any kind of misery is the most disagreeable thing for human beings. Man wants comfort with all his heart, he is an extreme lover of happiness and pleasure. Therefore, his entire life revolves around these two things that is saving himself from miserable situations and ensuring all worldly comfort for himself. But experiences of history show that in the present world it is not possible for a person to save himself from woe and misery completely and neither is it possible for man to have comfort and happiness in the real sense. Even after striving for the whole of his life, he fails to achieve these goals.

On the one hand man has this inner craving for a life of comfort and happiness, while on the other hand this goal is unattainable in the present world. If we examine this situation, we come to know that man’s real direction was towards the Hereafter, man deviated from this course and turned towards the present world. Human nature is calling out at every moment: ‘O Man! Run away from Hellfire, and be a seeker of Paradise.’ Successful is the one who hears this call and follows it. The failure is the one who does not listen to this call and finally falls down into the pit of eternal regret and despair.