What Every Person Needs To Know About Jannah (Paradise) Episode 41 The Greatest Delight: Ridwaan Allah and Looking At His Face

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*What Every Person Needs To Know About Jannah (Paradise)*

*Episode 41*

*The Greatest Delight: Ridwaan Allah and Looking At His Face*

"Some faces that Day will be Nadhirah [shining, radiant], Looking at their Rabb."

[75:22-23]

Ibn al-Itheer said, "Seeing Allah is the ultimate joy in the Hereafter, the most precious gift of 

Allah. May Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala) help us reach that goal." [Jaami' al-Usool, 10/557]

Muslim and at-Tirmidhi reported from Suhayb ar-Rumi (Radi-Allahu Anhu) that the 

Messenger of Allah (Salallahu Alayhi Wasalam) said: "When the people of Paradise enter 

Paradise, Allah will say: "Do you want anything more?" They will say, "Have You not 

made our faces white [i.e. honoured us]? Have You not admitted us to Paradise and saved 

us from the Fire?" Then the veil will be lifted, and they will never have been given anything more dear to them than looking at their Rabb, may He be Blessed and Exalted."

One report adds, "Then the Prophet (Salallahu Alayhi Wasalam) recited the aayah, "For 

those who have done good is the best [reward i.e. Paradise] and even more [i.e. the 

honour of glancing at the Countenance of Allah]..." [10:26]

Thus seeing the Face of Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala) was interpreted as part of the "more" 

[mazeed] which Allah has promised to al-Muhsinoon [those who have done good]:

"There they will have all that they desire - and We have more [for them, i.e. a glance at 

the All-Mighty, All-Majestic." [50:35]

This is a joy and honour that will be denied to the Kuffar and Mushrikeen:

"Nay, surely they [evildoers] will be veiled from seeing their Rabb that day." [83:15]

Imaam Maalik ibn Anas, the Imam of al-Madinah, used this aayah as proof that "Looking at 

their Rabb" [75:23] literally meant they would see the face of Allah, as some had 

interpreted it as meaning the people would be waiting for their reward. Maalik said, "They 

have lied.... The people will look at Allah on the Day of Resurrection with their own eyes. If 

the believers are not going to see their Rabb on the Day of Resurrection, why did Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala) say that the kuffar would be veiled from Seeing Him?" [See Sharh 

as-Sunnah, Mishkaat al-Masaabeeh, 3/100 no. 5662]

at-Tahhaawi, the great Hanafi Imam, said in his "al-'Aqeedah at-Tahaawiyyah", "This seeing 

[Allah] is true, something that will happen to the people of Paradise; it is not necessary to 

attempt to define it or describe how it will happen. It is mentioned in the Book of Our Rabb 

[75:23]. The way it will happen is according to the will and knowledge of Allah and we have 

to believe in it as it was narrated from the Messenger of Allah in the saheeh hadith. We 

should not interpret it according to our own inclinations and opinions, for no one is sound in 

his deen except the one who submits fully to Allah and His Messenger. What is ambiguous 

should be referred to one who has knowledge (i.e. a scholar)" [Sharh at-Tahaawiyyah, 203]