Jannah & Jahannum: Their Reality Between Literalism and Symbolism -Mufti Abu Layth

that was a good question that is the kuraki you know like I said and I think some people I don't know if they got an I don't know actually the reaction I think maybe I don't know how people took it but I said look in Islam in the Quran we went Allah speaks of things like heaven and hell all these literal the way I don't mean is the afterlife gonna happen I said that I do believe and Muslims believe that there's gonna be an afterlife but the imagery that's given in the Quran like let's say of little of like servant boys walking around and rivers of alcohol and stuff like this is this

imagery real or is this just to kind of incentivize people so in my understanding this was more an incentivizing method for the first recipient community who would have found a strong attraction in that later Muslims may or may not find an attraction in that so you could say well to me a river of honey is meaningless I would never want to jump in a river of honey what the hell would I want to do that for but I mean to some people that may have been alluring to me like saying if there's a river of milk well great I mean okay fair enough but we're not that

attracted to milk or even alcohol people like if you're brought up with a kind of detest towards alcohol you wouldn't really want a need for a river of alcohol so what my point of saying that was this is just this imagery in the Quran because the Prophet himself said look no human can ever conceptualize Jannah but here you are you have got concept so what does that mean so that meant that this was more just something to incentivize people in my

understanding Oh like ayah ayah you

see I'm not saying this is not a shabiha okay in the quran this verse that allah says look there's some parts of this book that are very clear and some parts which which i'm gonna share be hurt okay fair enough you could put this under that motor okay let me just correct what I meant then Allah says and some people almost become obsessed with the motor sure be hard and these people have got a sickness in their heart now what is the mutashabihat now some people have said it's things like Alif LAAM Meem and these letters which nobody understands some people have said oh it's to do with the attributes of God you know and we say God has a hand or God has a foot or

something like this some people have said no it could be other verses I would be I would feel that look a lot in restricting we don't need to restrict it this question of is Jenna from the mutashabiha generally I would probably feel it isn't but if you got obsessed with the detail then maybe it could become like that but generally I would feel that Jenna like people understood because Jenna actually means garden that and it's interesting how our shift as well over time has gone from that understanding to the more Christian kind of like heaven in the clouds and stuff like but to the earlier observes about

the garden it wasn't actually called about the sama and stuff the heavens what we translate as the summer wats the heavens actually isn't heaven in Arabic heaven is Jenna that is somehow earth the skies but people we've got we kind of over the centuries inherited this Western understanding of heaven and stuff but my point is that look okay if somebody wanted to take that literally I have no problem with that I don't say that he has to be only like Elijah's trying to encourage people but I don't personally believe it I think it was just an encouragement the

description not the concept so the concept is literal that there is an afterlife like when a person dies life doesn't stop there is an afterlife what is that afterlife like is it gonna be body is it gonna be soul is it going to be consciousness is it going to be how is it nobody knows so this imagery that was given was just something for some people to relate to now the the truth is one the sages speak of it by many names that's to quote some Hindu scripture balance out my