Will people be allowed to watch the world in Paradise?

Will we be allowed in Paradise to see the countries, cities, etc. in this world?

Dear Brother / Sister,

“To them will be passed round, dishes and goblets of gold: there will be there all that the souls could desire, all that their ayes could delight in: and ye shall abide therein (for eye)." (az-Zukhruf, 43/71) According to the apparent meaning of the verse above, man will watch the scenes of worldly happenings in Paradise.

The following statements of Badiuzzaman Said Nursi give a nice answer to the question:

“The world is a workbench and an arable field raising crops suitable for the market of the hereafter. Just as jinn and men send their actions to the market of the hereafter, so too the other beings in the world perform numerous duties on account of the hereafter and produce many crops for it. It may even be said that the earth travels for them, or even that this is its purpose. This dominical ship traverses a twenty-four thousand year distance in one year, circumscribing the field of the resurrection.

For example, the people of Paradise will surely wish to recall their adventures in this world and recount them to one another. They will be exceedingly curious to see the images and pictures of those adventures, and they will enjoy it immensely if they can watch them like watching a cinema screen. Consequently, as the verse, عَلَى سُرُرٍ مُتَقَابِلِينَ (joyfully facing each other on thrones of dignity) indicates, in Paradise, the realm of delight and happiness, worldly adventures and scenes of worldly happenings will be recalled, amid everlasting panoramas.” (Mektubat, 293- 294)

"If for example all nations are invited to a general congress in America and each boards a huge boat and goes there, in the same way, the globe, which travels the long distance of twenty-five thousand years in one year in the vast ocean of the universe, will take on its people, travel to the field of the resurrection, and disembark them.

Furthermore, the Hell at the center of the earth is indicated by the fact that the earth’s temperature increases one degree every thirty-three meters. That Hell will pour its fire into the Greater Hell, whose temperature of two hundred thousand degrees is similar to that described in Hadith and according to Hadiths will carry out some of the duties of the Greater Hell in this world and the Intermediate Realm. Then at a divine command, the earth will be transformed into a better, eternal form, and will become one of the habitations of the hereafter." (Mektubat, Üçüncü Mektup)

The ship that carries the people of Hell to Hell is the Earth we live in. Just as the ships float in the sea so too does the world float around the ocean of gathering place like a ship.

This means that the world has been proceeding since its first creation, drawing the large and wide gathering place. One day it will definitely disembark the people in the terminal, which will be Paradise or Hell.  

So to speak, he says the world is such a cruise ship that it will disembark the people of Paradise and the people of Hell in the gathering place. We understand the following from this statement: Hell is under the gathering place; those who will go to Hell will go down to Hell with their heavy bodies from the gathering place. The people of Paradise will fly to Paradise.

On the other hand, the world will not disembark only the people in it but also the mass of fire called the magma in the center, which is described as little Hell. Acting like a cargo ship, the world we live in will eventually deliver every load to their address.

The world, which will pour the fire in it into Hell, will be transformed into a more beautiful and permanent form with the permission of Allah Almighty and will be, so to speak, a place of accommodation in the hereafter. Maybe it will be a visiting place for the people of Paradise.  

Would we not like to see the world, where we live, where we have many good and bad reminiscences, which hosts the blessed places of our religion like Masjid al-Haram and Masjid an-Nabawi, as a place of residence and sightseeing?

The people of Paradise would definitely like to see the places where the struggle between belief and unbelief took place and will take place from the time of Hz. Adam to Doomsday. Remembering the legitimate reminiscences is a worldly and harmless pleasure; the pleasures much better than them can be given to people of Paradise like all of the other boons.

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