Abdal Hakim Murad - The Cambridge Companion to Islamic Theology

320 Marcia Hermansen
the state of satisfaction (rid _
wan) from God is greater than such delights of
the Garden (9:72). In recent times, the well-known poet-philosopher,
Muh _
ammad Iqbal (d. 1938), explained that heaven and hell were representations
of inner character and states of mind rather than localities. 24
On the other hand, some Sufis claimed that one purpose of maintaining
erōs in Paradise is to valorise it on earth, disclosing it as a sign
of something higher. 25 This stands in stark contrast to the medieval
Christian view, which regarded virginity, not marital life, as an anticipation
of the life to come in heaven.
At the summit of Paradise, for those men and women who lived the
religion to the full, there is the vision of God (ru’ya), which is unambiguously
conceived as a spiritual reward higher than the material fulfilment
of personal desires and wishes. This beatific vision was the site of
a characteristic argument between Ash‘arism and the Mu‘tazilites. For
the former, the hadith literature had clearly stated that ‘‘a veil shall be
lifted, and the believers shall gaze upon the face of God’’. 26 God was
therefore to be seen, in an ocular way that was nonetheless amodal (bi-la
kayf). For the Mu‘tazilites, sight (bas _
ar) can only be a corporeal sense; and
since God is not an accident or a body, it is axiomatic that He cannot be
seen. God Himself had told Moses that he would not see his Lord (7:143);
moreover ‘‘vision (abs _
ar) cannot attain Him’’ (6:104). Ash‘arıs, H _
anbalıs
and Maturıdıs replied with the view that this latter verse applies only to
complete perception; and that Moses might see God in the next life, even
though God had chosen to veil Himself during that prophet’s lifetime.
They also denied that there was a logical reason why bas _
ar could not
apprehend an entity that was neither substance nor accident. 27
the salvation of non-muslims
Islam emerged in the context of a prophetic dispute with pagan
unbelievers, who were warned that the consequence of their practices
and beliefs would be hellfire. Later in the Prophet’s ministry the qur’anic
challenge was extended to Jews and Christians also. Jews were told that
their past disobedience to their own prophets, and more recently their
rejection of Jesus and Muh _
ammad, would entail God’s wrath. 28 Even
more seriously, Christians had developed concepts of divine sonship and
a three-fold understanding of the divine nature that impugned the core
principle of tawh _
ıd, the monotheism without which there could be
no salvation. 29 While the qur’anic critique of the earlier traditions was
subject to varying interpretations, it was clear that God was now not
merely bringing a version of monotheism that would suit peoples
Cambridge Collections Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008