How Much Is the Greatness of Heaven? Could This Very Greatness Become a Problem?
When we speak of Heaven, an image of an endless world full of blessings forms in our minds; a place beyond human imagination. This boundlessness not only signifies God’s infinite grace and mercy but also expresses humanity’s infinite capacity to benefit from it. The greatness of heaven serves as a challenge to us and it raises the question: can we, with all the limitations we have in this world, comprehend and experience life in an infinite space, or might Heaven become a threat to us due to our unpreparedness to utilize this place?
The Heaven, with a vastness equal to the heavens and the earth, is a place where not only countless blessings await us, but also our spiritual capacity to comprehend and benefit from these beauties is put to the test. The challenge of the greatness of heaven is not limited to its apparent grandeur; rather, it depends on the readiness of the human soul and self to accept such a space. Is living in this boundless space an opportunity to be freed from earthly limitations, or a new test to gauge our level of preparedness? Will human happiness and peace be overshadowed by such vastness and greatness? And can humanity utilize the challenge of the greatness of Heaven as a great opportunity for spiritual flourishing and growth, instead of a threat?
These are the questions that arise concerning the challenge of the greatness of Heaven, making us understand that the grandeur of Heaven, with all its beauties, is not merely grace and blessing, but a great test that confronts us with limitations and invites us to adopt a new perspective on ourselves and our place in the system of creation in the face of this immense greatness.
Why Do We Say the Greatness of Heaven Is a Threat?
To understand the concept of the challenge of the greatness of Heaven, we first need to explain its threatening aspect. The vastness and greatness of Heaven, while being a blessing, is a great threat. Generally, living in small environments has far fewer complexities. In the law of proportion, we said that a nine-month-old fetus resides in the small space of the mother’s womb and is nourished throughout this period by blood supplied through the umbilical cord. This cramped, dark space and this blood are sufficient for the fetus’s life; but upon entering the world, conditions change. The need for various foods, clothing, shelter, social life, education, and so on, presents many challenges.
To better understand the concept of the challenge of the greatness of Heaven, let’s use another example and compare a small town with a large city. Consider a small town. Life in this town is usually simpler and less challenging; people know each other, social relationships are more intimate, and access to facilities, though limited, is sufficient and straightforward. Everything is somehow accessible, and there is no need for grand and complex planning; but life in a metropolis is completely different; the vast urban space, large population, cultural diversity alongside complexities like congestion, intense competition, and a feeling of being unknown to the environment and people can make life more difficult. In such a situation, if we want to start a business, although the profitability in small towns is less, commercial activity in a metropolis, due to the prevailing competitive environment, comes with many challenges. Therefore, life in a metropolis, compared to a small town, carries far more challenges.
The greatness of Heaven, compared to the world, is exactly like the example of metropolises. Heaven, due to its abundant facilities and opportunities, has far more challenges compared to life in this world, and benefiting from it requires a higher level of preparedness and capacity than in the world. Therefore, the vastness and greatness of Heaven can be a great threat, like metropolises, even while being a blessing.
Heaven: A Place Where Benefiting from It Requires Prior Preparation
We said that the challenge of any environment depends on whether it is small or large. The larger the environment becomes, although the blessings become vaster, utilizing these blessings requires more complete equipment and tools that one must have previously developed within oneself. To further explain the concept of the challenge of the greatness of Heaven, let’s refer to the article “What Does Acquiring a Sound Heart Mean?”. In this article, we stated that the purpose of human creation is to acquire a sound heart, which is the heart that has progressed towards perfection in this world and is our entire worldly achievement. On the other hand, in the article “Types of Birth“, we discussed six types of human birth: from mother’s womb to the world, and from the world to the Hereafter, and we said that humans can only benefit from eternal peace and the vastness of heavenly blessings in two types of birth: robustly healthy and healthy. If one enters the Hereafter with weak, sick, defective, and deformed types of birth, because they lacked prior preparedness to benefit from Heaven, they will face the challenge of the greatness of Heaven and be deprived of its blessings. Heaven requires the acquisition of high levels of readiness and pre-acquired skills.
The challenge of the greatness of Heaven is directly related to the necessity of acquiring a sound heart. Since only a sound heart is compatible with the living conditions of the Hereafter and is the only way to have a robustly healthy and healthy birth into the Hereafter, if it is not achieved in this world, Heaven, with its boundless vastness, will not only not be an opportunity but will be considered a threat to human being. In fact, a sound heart is this very preparedness to use the resources of Heaven. In other words, Heaven is considered a blessing and an opportunity for us only when we enter the Hereafter with an acceptable birth. For humans, merely knowing that a Heaven as vast as the heavens and the earth exists is not enough [1]; they must, during their limited worldly life, build the structure of their soul according to the mathematical structure of Heaven for living in this infinite space and ensure their eternity in proportion to it. Sooner or later, willingly or unwillingly, we will be born into the afterlife, and if we are not prepared for it, we will encounter Heaven as a threat.
The Challenge of the Greatness of Heaven: An Opportunity to Benefit from It
The endless vastness of Heaven is not only a challenge but also an opportunity for our growth and preparation so that we can make the best use of its grandeur. The greatness of Heaven, with all its grandeur and boundlessness, may at first seem challenging because all of this boundless Heaven must be built within our souls in this world and carried with us to the Afterlife. This grandeur confronts humanity with questions: Do we have sufficient capacity to comprehend and utilize such a space? Can we use these opportunities without feeling confused and meaningless? This challenge is precisely what invites humanity to greater preparedness for accepting the blessings of Heaven; in fact, the challenge of the greatness of Heaven is a kind of opportunity to elevate human spiritual, moral, and cognitive capacities in this world. Just like traveling to a grand destination, which requires knowledge, practice, and preparation to fully enjoy all its facilities and beauties. Heaven, according to religious teachings, is a place where blessings are not only endless but also provide an opportunity for a deeper connection with God, spiritual growth, and the perfect experience of love and peace.
Life in this world is an opportunity to cultivate qualities that prepare humanity not only to avoid feeling confused in the face of Heaven’s grandeur but also to be able to benefit from all its blessings and opportunities. The challenge of the greatness of Heaven, in a way, invites humanity to practice acquiring knowledge and traversing the path of becoming similar to God so that humans can find their true place in that infinite space. The grandeur of Heaven is not a threat to humanity, but an opportunity to become more prepared and to welcome it with a sound heart.
We learned that the greatness of heaven has two faces: opportunity and threat. The greatness of Heaven is truly designed to invite humanity to human excellence. Just as any great challenge can be a ground for human flourishing, the greatness of Heaven also demands that we be more prepared and aware to transcend worldly limitations and achieve true happiness. This challenge is a sign of a greater opportunity to reach the purpose of creation and benefit from God’s endless blessings in an endless and glorious Heaven.
References
[1]. “and a Garden as wide as the heavens and the earth,” Quran, 3:133