and the price granted by Allah is Paradise, while the deed of sale is His own pledge. This is no flimsy sheet of paper that can be torn up and discarded; it is a covenant recorded in the Torah, the Gospel, and the Qur’an—the most trustworthy of all documents. He singled out these three because they are the soundest of the scriptures revealed to the messengers, the Qur’an being the noblest, followed by the Torah and then the Gospel. Such a transaction has no equal: every condition is perfectly fulfilled, and its scale is immense. What the believer pays out—his life and his wealth—comes from him; what is delivered in return comes from the Sovereign, Allah Himself: it is Paradise. Concerning that Garden the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “The space of a whip-length in Paradise is better than the world and everything in it.” A whip-length—about a metre or so—is worth more than the whole world and all it contains. Which world? Not merely your own, which may be riddled with vexation, fraught with aversion, and whose span is short; rather, it is better than the world from the moment it was created until the Day of Resurrection, with all the joy and delight it has ever held. A spot the size of a whip-length in Paradise surpasses the entire world and everything within it.

So which is more precious—your lives and your wealth, or Paradise? Clearly Paradise. The seller therefore comes out ahead, for he parts with life and wealth that must inevitably vanish and receives in exchange everlasting bliss. And who guaranteed this sale? Allah. And who is truer to His covenant than Allah? The question is rhetorical: there is no one more truthful or more faithful to His promise than Allah. Allah, the Mighty and Exalted, has spoken the truth.