By: Everest John
People often ask, will heaven be perfect? The answer of course is “Yes.” But does that mean, people will live in a sinless environment. Doesn’t seem so, after all Adam and Eve proved that they lived in a sinless environment, yet they sinned for which they were driven out of the Garden of Eden. That brings us to the question of human rights in heaven: will there be any, if at all? This is very philosophical and in order to understand that we will need to put in its spiritual perspective, precisely, the consummation of the plan of God for mankind. The biblical narrative is clear. There will be a final day of resurrection, we will all be resurrected, God will come down to be with us, in the new creation, the new heaven and the new earth. His dwelling will be with us on the new earth; not “we with God,” but “God with us.” That is the interpretation of Revelation 22:3. And this is a consensus of this view among Plato, Philo and Judaeus (Jewish) scholar. But the purpose of my article today is not to propagate their theory, but to put an idea in our mind that when we go to heaven, we should not be astonished by seeing those people there whom in this World, we thought could not be in heaven.
How did the idea of going to heaven clink to my mind? This is my story; I told “her” why don’t we play our childhood game, namely: “hide and seek.” I will go to hide in the other world, and you come to find me there. I went to Paradise or Janat (جنت) Urdu, and she did not come. When I walked through the door, I was surprised. I fell into despair and was worried that the paradise I had been hearing about all my life would be a desolate place. No welcome stall, no name registration, no security check-up, no pick-up angel, no fancy decorations, and no twinkling of lights. Perhaps the angels are busy with their other guests, like many others I too was an uninvited guest who has come here to run away from the earth to hide, the fault is mine. I believe that each person has a fixed time to come here. May be people here are those who are not supposed to be here. Are they on a vacation, some leisure trip or Disney trip? Maybe they will go back after a short walk, it all seemed like a big mess up.
But who are these people in heaven? Oh, look here, this is my 7th grade classmate. A very naughty boy who used to steal my lunch and take money out of my bag. Oh, look at that, my old neighbor, such a rude person. When our cricket ball shot at his house, whoever jumped in to pick it up, he would unleash his dogs behind. Hello, here is the quarrelsome women of our neighborhood, who used to abuse everyone passing through her sidewalk, she is here too.
Surely all of these, deserved to rot in the fire of hell. As I walked further, I found several criminals whose stories of corruption were in national newspapers, some had been in jail, some served long sentences and some others there who had been convicted of other crimes. I wondered if I had mistakenly come to a different place or perhaps to another star in the galaxy.? No, it is not like that, because there were also good people who were famous for their good deeds, many whose names I did not know. But inside of me, I had a very strange and unsettling feeling: why on earth was I so careful in my deeds, why I shouldn’t hurt anyone’s heart, just so i could go to heaven, but the environment here is different, it’s totally beyond my understanding. I have many questions in my mind, whom should I ask? No one here is in charge.
I had come here playing a game of hide and seek, but seeing this environment, I forgot my game but fell into a different game that cannot be played. I am reminded of the statement of the Apostle Paul, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). Incidentally, no person in the world thought that such people would be found in heaven. Well, God only knows. I was bowing my head and thinking that a shadow was standing in front of me, I raised my head and saw that my childhood friend “Manu Bhai” was standing. His question put my mind to rest, that if, I am disturbed by these unexpected people, they are also disturbed by my presence here, as they did not expect my arrival. In great anxiety, I asked my friend, Manu Bhai, please tell me, what is the business of sinful people here? He replied, go to that big building you see in front of you, you will get the answer to your question. I walked towards this building, when I arrived there, it was written on the board above the building, “Organization of Human Rights in Paradise”. There was a long line, I also joined the line, when it was my turn, a beautiful girl took me in, never seen such a beautiful girl on earth. Maybe she was an angel.
After asking me to sit in the chair in front of the table in the room, the girl said, tell me what is your request? I’m worried again, what kind of request? She said, your application for registration in heaven. Ma’am, I have come here playing hide and seek and waiting for my partner, I replied. Then I asked what is the function of this organization in heaven? In many countries on earth, such organizations provide asylum to those fleeing from their country. She replied that it is the same here. These are the sinful people who asked for forgiveness for their sins many times, repenting and regretting what they did, but their own people there, the authorities, the courts, the religious leaders did not listen to them, and they condemned them to be sinners. She declared, those people are from hell, maybe they had no authority to forgive anyone, but surely we’re here. Our organization advocates for such sinners and the ultimate decision of pardon are to be taken by the Supreme Judge, therefore we arrange asylum in heaven for them. Seeing such a heavenly system of justice and the services of this organization, my mind wondered. I dared to ask again that there are people of many religions living in the world, to whom various promises have been made for them when they go to heaven, to some, the promise of beautiful women (hoors حُور), to some the promise of rivers of milk and honey, to others, the promise of eternal happiness, as they have been taught by their religions. So, how do you fulfill all of these promises made to people from different religions. Do you even have the capacity and to meet all of these expectations? This angelic looking girl said, we have the solution for all the religious promises here. We have created separate paradises for each religion. “Paradise” according to their faith for Muslims, “Paradise” according to their faith for Christians, “Eden” according to their faith for Jews, “Swargaloka” according to their faith for Hindus, “Sukhavati” for Buddhists, to accommodate all such religions, so that they do not criticize each other’s heavenly facilities and then a religious war does not break out here. And if someone has no religion, but they have repented of their sin and have confessed it on earth before coming here, there is also “Paradise” for them. Now tell me which heaven you want to go to? I said my partner will come to find me, I will consult her for and let you know. After a while, my eye-catching companion came there (you must have guessed who she might be), and started asking me, why is it so quiet here? Why are these sinful people here? Has God made a mistake? Was our religious education wrong? Like my friend Manu, I pointed to that girl and said, “Go and “ask her”.
My brothers, in the context of this surprise of heaven, it is very important to say how often we are quick to judge others, without knowing how much they repent for their sinful actions. And how many times have you asked God for forgiveness? Our measure of justice is not the same as God’s. We don’t tolerate each other in the world, and we want to maintain the same attitude in heaven too, “Why here”, we ourselves become judges of the heavenly destiny for others. We do not know who is going to heaven and who is not. We can only see their lifestyle. But do we know anyone’s heart. We have no authority to impose on someone’s lifestyle like the police, we should take care of our own lives not of others. Are we ashamed of our ungodly deeds? Have we asked God for forgiveness? If so, remember that even though you are a sinner, many angels or “Human Rights Organizations in the heaven” are ready to advocate for you. Yes, we know that we will be surprised to go to heaven and others may also be surprised to see us and everyone will be saying “how is it here” but the answer is only “with them in that building” or the person who made heaven.
Yes, asylum is made available in almost every country, but there’s no right or privilege for asylum seekers. Likewise, we have no right or privilege to heaven. This discretion belongs only to the Creator of Paradise. But remember that the human rights organization in heaven will help you because you have a certificate of repentance, they know your hearts, that is you’re a bonafide repentant!
As for me and my partner, we still haven’t decided whether we can live in heaven or not. Because we do not have the paperwork for asylum in heaven, we will either be sent back to earth or pushed to hell. I now understand that this is all a divine arrangement, not a “hide and seek” game.
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