Anything You Want in Jannah you will get it

The people of Jannah can ask for whatever they want. There are no restrictions. RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam mentions to us an example of this, and it is in Bukhaari. Once the Prophet was narrating (a story), while a Bedouin was sitting with him. “One of the inhabitants of Paradise will ask Allah to allow him to cultivate the land. Allah will ask him, ‘Are you not living in the pleasures you like?’ He will say, ‘Yes, but I like to cultivate the land.’ When the man (will be permitted he) will sow the seeds and the plants will grow up and get ripe, ready for reaping and so on till it will be as huge as mountains within a wink. Allah will then say to him, ‘O son of Adam! Take here you are, gather (the yield); nothing satisfies you.’” On that, the Bedouin said, “The man must be either from Quraish (i.e. an emigrant) or an Ansari, for they are farmers, whereas we are not farmers.” The Prophet smiled (at this). [Bukhaari, 3/39/538] That’s funny What the Bedouin said; he was surprised that anyone would want to farm in Jannah.

In another hadith, in at-Tirmidhi, RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam says, If someone in Jannah wants to have children, the pregnancy and the birth and the growth of the child will be immediate, as he wants. There is a difference of opinion on what this hadith means.

There are some scholars that say that obviously in Jannah, the spouses will enjoy each other, but there will not be any children involved. They say that the meaning of this hadith says that if the person wants this to happen, it will, but the person will not want it. This eliminates a lot of the confusion with questions such as – “If you can ask, can you ask to be elevated? And how far can you elevated?” So this hadith is saying if you were to, though you will not. You will not ask to be elevated to the highest rank in Jannah, because you know you do not deserve it; someone else does. In fact, if you were requested to go to a lower level, you would do so, because you will be having so much fun.

In the hadith of the last man to enter Jannah, there is a narration that says, when Allah gives him 10 times the world and everything in it, his two wives of hoor al ‘ayn will come to him and say, “Praise be to Allah, Who has bought you to us, finally.” When he hears that, he will say, “Allah subhaana wa ta’aala has blessed me and given me what He has not given anyone else!” He is so happy with what Allah has given him.

RasulAllah sallalallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam says that there is a sooq in Jannah – a marketplace. Keep in mind that a lot of the descriptions of Jannah were given for the first generations of Muslims to understand. So many of the descriptions were associated with what they know. For example, for a man who gave a camel for the sake of Allah, RasulAllah told him he would be given 700 camels in Jannah. Camels were used as an example for them, but say a person gave cows – would he be given camels? Now, he would be given cows.

The marketplace was also a cultural centre for the Arabs. The poetry, the competitions in language and in speeches, etc was the marketplace as well. They used to go there for trade and business; the poets would give public speeches there. It is mentioned in the hadith that RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam would give da’wah in the marketplace. The people of Jannah will have similar places in Jannah. The intent is not for business, but it is for people to meet. Similarly, there are places in downtown, etc that are business districts, but people go there at night to have fun, meet, go to restaurants, etc.

RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam says in a hadith in Muslim, “In Paradise there is a street to which they would come every Friday. The north wind will blow and would scatter fragrance on their faces and on their clothes and would add to their beauty and loveliness, and then they would go back to their family after having an added lustre to their beauty and loveliness, and their family would say to them: By Allah, you have been increased in beauty and loveliness after leaving us, and they would say: By Allah, you have also increased in beauty and loveliness after us.” [Muslim, 40/6792] Jannah only gets better and better by the passage of time.