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.
