As stated in the last couplet, the beauty and delights of Paradise are miraculous beyond all imagination or description, and are everlasting. The most alluring luxuries this world can offer must surely pale in comparison; what is more, ‘You can’t take it with you.’ How wonderfully Mawlana Rumi evokes the Afterlife of the blessed in this passage! Imagine being greeted by the glorious palaces and appurtenances of Heaven! Even in this world – ‘this building … full of defects’ – some blessed souls enjoy a state of heart that is a foretaste of ‘Life in the Final Abode.’
Such, then, is Paradise: infinitely precious, infinitely desirable. But it has a price: it cannot be attained without faith and striving. Mawlana underlines that it is not only one’s actions that may, God willing, help one to reach eternal happiness in the Hereafter. It is also, and above all, making good and sincere intentions. Sincerity, however, is something that can only be achieved with Divine help. Intentions
being a matter of the heart, we are given a further reminder of the importance of purifying it.
Excerpt is from A Treasury of Rumi
9781847741028 - A Treasury of Rumi - Muhammad Isa Waley
