into the sky.﴾ [al-An'ām: 125]. What they enjoy merely gratifies the body, not the soul. Moreover, it is also a bane to them, for Allah Most High says concerning them: ﴿We shall gradually draw them toward destruction in ways they do not know, and I shall grant them respite. Indeed, My plan is firm.﴾ [al-A'rāf: 182–183]. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Allah grants respite to the wrongdoer, but when He seizes him, He does not let him escape.” (1) He then recited the words of Allah Most High: ﴿Such is the seizure of your Lord when He seizes the towns while they are wrongdoing. Indeed, His seizure is painful and severe.﴾ [Hūd: 102].

These people have received their good things in advance during their worldly lives. Even so, this world is a paradise for them compared with the Hereafter. It is related that Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalānī—the commentator on al-Bukhārī whose commentary he entitled Fath al-Bārī, and who served as Chief Judge in Egypt—was once riding in his mule-drawn carriage with people around him when he passed a Jewish ghee merchant, meaning a man who sold ghee and oil. It is well known that someone who sells ghee and oil has soiled clothes and lives in poor circumstances. The man stopped the carriage and said to Ibn Hajar, “Your Prophet says, ‘This world is the believer’s prison and the unbeliever’s paradise.’ (2) How, then, can I be in this condition while you are in yours?”

Ibn Hajar immediately replied, “Compared with the reward and bliss Allah has prepared for the believers, I am in a prison, for this world is nothing compared with the Hereafter. The Prophet, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him and his family, said: ‘The space occupied by a whip in Paradise is better than this world and all it contains.’ (3) As for you, O Jewish man, you are in a paradise compared with the punishment prepared for you if you die in unbelief.” The Jewish man was persuaded by this, and it became the reason for his acceptance of Islam. He said, “I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.”