seeking, love, and desire depend on awareness, sensation, and conception. A person cannot seek, love, or desire anything of which he has no conception, sensation, or awareness. Paradise contains both kinds.

As Allah Most High says:

“They will have whatever they wish therein, and with Us is more.”

And He says:

“And therein is whatever the souls desire and the eyes delight in.”

Thus, Paradise contains what they desire, and it contains still more: things beyond their knowledge, which they therefore could not desire. As the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“What no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human heart has imagined.”

This is a vast subject. Once you understand this “premise,” consider the statement: “Contentment means not asking Allah for Paradise or seeking His protection from the Fire.” If the speaker means that you should not ask Allah for anything included within the meaning of Paradise in revelation—that you should not ask Him to gaze upon Him, or for anything else sought by all the prophets and Allah’s close friends, and that you should not seek His protection from His veiling Himself from you or from His punishing you in the Fire—then this statement, besides contradicting all the prophets and messengers and the rest of the believers, is internally contradictory and unsound according to plain reason.

For someone who refrains from asking out of contentment does so only because he is content with Allah; and his contentment with Him comes only after knowing Him and loving Him. If neither contentment with Allah nor love for Him remains, it is as though the speaker were saying: “He is content not to be content.” This combines two contradictory states. Undoubtedly, these are the words of someone who has neither conceived nor understood what he is saying. This becomes clear when we consider that a contented person is only moved to endure hardships and pain by