Highest Level of Paradise, criteria?
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Does anyone have verses to back up their claim, on what the criteria is on achieving the highest level of paradise in the hereafter? Thank you.
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The most references I am aware of regarding the 'levels' of Paradise (and Hell) are found in hadiths, but not in the Qur'an itself.
The one overriding thing I was taught regarding being admitted into Paradise was that Paradise itself was 'perfect contentment'- so this in effect negates the need for various 'levels' for if one is perfectly content there is no need or want to for more.
The hadiths speak of such things as "...hot coals will be pressed into the soles of his feet and he will think he is the worst treated, but he will not be" or some such horrid description, but this in itself- if it to be considered as any sort of 'evidence' negates the need for various levels of Hell. If one already thinks he is the worst-treated there is no need for more.
All in all (in my understanding) Paradise is perfect contentment and Hell is... the opposite of that. To me, the concept of 'levels' of each seems superfluous.
(In contrast, some of the Jewish writers speculate that there is no 'Hell' in the same concept of punishment as we generally describe it- in their view, "Hell" is more a function of being 'apart from God' and the better one can live their life according to the Jewish laws (difficult at best) the 'closer to God' one will be after death. In other words, being separated from God's grace after death is the worst fate that can befall a person. The various descriptions of 'Paradise' and 'Hell' provided by the hadithistas notwithstanding, this Jewish view actually dovetails quite well into the concept of there being no set 'levels' of Paradise OR Hell.)
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There are levels of nearness to God. That is what the levels are. Paradise is one level of that nearness, and as far as I have understood, we all, everything in creation is meant to go back to God through all the levels that may be in their nature. But Paradise is already as you say perfect contentment. So if we attain that, worry for us is over. All worry is in the level of our material existence.
And I agree that Hell and Paradise are in us. we do not go there we have them on ourselves. The Qur'an warns us in two instances, that I remember, of the fire whose fuel are men and stones. As it says the first time it speaks about them in al baqara, they are parables. But that fire where the fuel are ourselves, and stones, we can figure what it means hardened people, hardened hearts closed to anything that opens them up in order to receive anything form outside. Why should be the first sura of the Qur'an be called f?tiha. We must open, we must open to joy and suffering, to knowledge and courage. We cannot close up ourselves to protect us, we become stones.
That is what I understand. And we see examples of that in real life. People so "consumed" in their covetousness or their hate or whatever other passions that consume... they are consumed in a battle against the impossible. They will never be allpowerful, allprotected, allsure, allknowing... They will never be God. They become shaytans uncapable of surrendering to their own humanity and postrate to what God made of them and not to what they want to make of themselves. The first step, I feel, to go anywhere good is to accept our humanity, our nongodness and on the other hand take blessings and pleasure in our being God's. Can there be anything more fulfilling than being God's.
When we fall in love we are happy that we are of the person we love. That person will be limited like us, but on the other hand is also a parable of being in love with what seems to us beautiful, or adorable. It is a reflection for our own use of where for us lies real hapiness, in being our Lover's in being drowned in love. Mystics are all about that.
Of course, for most of us that "far" Lover is not as convincing as our "nearer" human lovers, but there is no love that does not come from the Source of Love, of everything, and those human lovers or loved are part of our learning and recognizance of God. It is all part of our way back and as such we should take it and be thankful for it.
And of course, as you Crow say, we have a Guide for our lives till the next stage, we have a guide to contend with everything, and guides are for that, in order to get to our appointed destiny in the most profitable unscathed way. We do not want to consume in our narrow ambitions as material beings, we do not want to become burning stones nor fuel of a fire. We want peace, cotentment, indeed. But those, peace and contentment, we can already start here, being contented with whatever God puts in our way, be it unrequited love, be it hardship, be it children that break our hearts, or sickness and desease. And be thankful un humble for the good things, and be generous with whatever we have, be it kind words or kind ears, be it money and wealth, because everything comes from the same hand that hands out everything else.
Salaam