No Children in Paradise

Hence, when someone said that he wished to do farming, and asked whether there would be farming in Paradise: you put the seed in and it will grow, and everything will happen the same day. What, then, is the point of farming?

A sister telephoned the other day and said: I have just discovered that there will be no children in Paradise. One cannot have children in Paradise. I have no children here; I do not expect to have children here. That is going to be very sad. The answer given was: do not think of it as though you were still in the world. The farmer asked the same question. And when the Prophet (peace be upon him) told him it would all happen in an instant, he probably — it is not mentioned in the hadith, but he probably — felt: what is the point of that? The whole point of farming is that you put it in, you wait for it to germinate, you tend it and care for it, and then, mā shāʾ Allāh, you have it and are delighted. What is the point if you put it in and it is all done? Would one even wish to do that? Allah knows best. Allah knows best. Of course a man may do whatever he wishes. But it is a time of enjoyment. Why would one wish to do such things? It is a time of enjoyment.

People think that their enjoyment lies in this world. Well, if that is what a man wants, Allah will give it to him, if He wills, and in that way. But there are certain things mentioned in hadith, and there will be no children in Paradise. There will be the children of Paradise, but not biological birth in Paradise. The whole body is to be re-kitted. There is no intestine. One does not — what is it called — one does not dissolve; the manner of digesting food is not as it was, the whole body being re-kitted to produce something like a perspiration of musk. Not stool. Not defecation. It is an altogether different scene.

So wait. Ask Allah: O Allah, I want You to give me Paradise, and I want to be happy there. That is what a man should trouble himself about. Then take it at its own level. Take it on its own terms. Do not try to impose your dunyā upon Paradise, for that is a wholly different world. We have seen many times that a man thinks he will keep to his own ways when he goes elsewhere, and when he actually goes there — when in Rome, one must do as the Romans do. He changes, and becomes adjusted. There are many such people. Someone told of her marriage; the husband is a friend, and his wife is from India. She could not eat Thai food, Thai food being sweet, sour and hot all at once, with various flavours in it at one time. For two years she could not eat it. And now she can. How long is one to resist? One becomes like that. And Jannah likewise: enjoy Jannah, and it will come to you very quickly as well, in shāʾ Allāh.