—spoiled and embittered (1). It is, in truth, nothing more (2) than a jumble of confused dreams, or a passing apparition enjoyed by its visitor (3) in a dream (4)—instead of a pleasure that ranks among the greatest of pleasures, a joy and happiness of the highest order (5), everlasting, never fading, never perishing, never cut off. Yet he sells that for this transient, withering pleasure—stuffed with pain, obtained only through pain, and followed by pain. If a rational person were to weigh its pleasure (6) against its pain, its harm against its benefit, he would feel ashamed before himself and his own reason: how can he pursue it and waste his life absorbed in it, let alone prefer it to “that which no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and has never crossed the heart of any human being” (7) (8)?
And Allah—exalted is He—has purchased from the believers their very selves, making (9) His Paradise the price (10), and He concluded this (11) contract through the hand of His Messenger, His intimate friend, and His chosen one
(1) Manuscript C reads “transitory” instead of “embittered.”
(2) The phrase “it is only distressing” is omitted from manuscript C.
(3) The base text and manuscript B read “visited him.”
(4) The phrase “or like a phantom enjoyed by one who visited him in a dream” is omitted from manuscript C.
(5) The phrase “and its joy and delight are among the greatest of delights” is omitted from manuscript C.
(6) Manuscript B reads “for their own sake.”
(7) A quotation from the hadith qudsi, agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim, describing Paradise: Sahih al-Bukhari, Book of the Beginning of Creation, chapter 8, “What Has Been Reported Concerning the Description of Paradise,” 4:103, no. 3244; and Sahih Muslim, Book of Paradise, 4:2174, no. 2.
(8) The passage from “neither perish nor cease” to “the heart of a human being” is omitted from manuscript C.
(9) Omitted from the base text and supplied from manuscripts B and C.
(10) An allusion to Allah's saying: “Indeed, Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their wealth in exchange for Paradise. They fight in the way of Allah...” [al-Tawbah 9:111].
(11) “This” is omitted from manuscript C.