the angel who guards the dwelling: 'Ask leave for us to enter.' He will report this to the doorkeeper. The latter will reply: 'It is difficult for me to ask leave for you, because he is in private with his lady.' When Muslims desist from eating and drinking and other pleasures, they will say: 'Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds.'

It is quite clear that in such a paradise the immortal spirit of man, which can be rendered truly happy only through attaining to the knowledge of God, through love of God and nearness to Him, through pleasing Him, and through His favour, will never be able to be happy or to enjoy peace and rest; because in that kind of paradise only the desires of the five senses and sensual lusts can find their satisfaction. Such a paradise does not in any way accord and agree with a real, spiritual world. It resembles this unreal, carnal, material world, and accords only with sensual pleasures and carnal desires. Hence a man who has renounced sensuality and fleshly delights, and has attained to the true, spiritual happiness which we have described, could not find any rest or comfort in such a paradise as that. On the contrary, that kind of a paradise would be a hell to him. The hope of a paradise of that description does not make the man willing and ready to forsake carnal desires and fleshly lusts nay rather the thought of it augments in his heart fleshly desires and sensual wishes. This renders it very evident that the Most Holy One has not

created for men any such delusive and vain paradise, nor has He promised to His redeemed any such foul and polluted abode, but that it has been conceived of only by unwise and carnal-minded men, misled by their own evil hearts and unclean thoughts.

God Most High created man to serve Him lovingly and faithfully and to enjoy true, spiritual bliss, not to wallow in fleshly and sensual pleasure. This is clear from the teaching of reason and conscience. For sensuality and vile gluttony unworthy of the beasts that perish are still more unworthy of man made in spirit and mind in the image ¹ of his All-Wise and All-Holy Creator. As they cannot give a man true and lasting happiness, appealing, only to his body and not to either mind or spirit, it is clear that God did not intend them to do so, for God Almighty and All-Wise makes no mistakes. The fact that the joys of heaven described in the New Testament are worthy of both their Divine Giver and of His creatures who are to receive and enjoy them, that they are such as bring no satiety, and elevate instead of degrading men, enabling them for all eternity to grow in likeness to God and in love for Him, all this is a great proof that the teaching of the holy Scriptures is due to divine inspiration (الهام) and is true and reliable. But the fact that both in the books of the Hindus and in those of certain other religions a carnal and material paradise is promised shows clearly that such books