with the taxi driver—he will ride with him from the far side of town all the way to his own doorstep, saying to the driver along the way, “Turn right here,” and so on until the car stops in front of his house. The driver himself has no idea where the house is, yet the blind passenger knows the route while sitting in the back seat. Glory be to Allah! When, in His wisdom, Allah deprives one of His servants of a particular sense, He usually compensates him with another sense that is unusually sharp and a heightened awareness that offsets, in part, what has been taken away. Allah alone grants success.

ʿAtaʾ ibn Abi Rabah reported: Ibn ʿAbbas—may Allah be pleased with them both—said to me, “Shall I show you a woman who is one of the people of Paradise?” I replied, “Yes, indeed.” He said, “That black woman over there. She came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said, ‘I suffer seizures, and during them my body becomes exposed, so please supplicate Allah for me.’ He replied, ‘If you wish, be patient and Paradise will be yours; or, if you wish, I will pray that Allah cures you.’ She said, ‘I choose patience. But during the seizures my body becomes exposed, so pray to Allah that I not be exposed.’ So he prayed for her.” Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim.

His statement, “Shall I show you a woman who is one of the people of Paradise?” means that he was offering to point out to him a woman whose place in Paradise is assured. The inhabitants of Paradise fall into two categories: those for whom we testify to Paradise on the basis of their characteristics, and those for whom we testify by name. As for those whose entry into Paradise we affirm by their characteristics, every believer, every God-fearing person—indeed, we