An email from a Buddhist and a reply

In the Name of Allah, The Most Kind The Most Merciful

Buddhist: The objective including mental development in Buddhism is to realise Anicca (Impermanence)of everything created, including heaven and hell. Thereby letting go of everything including the 'vehicle' that took you to the destination..ie religion (Buddhism). The objective in Islam is the ultimate purification to reach heaven. Cant think of a proper example....lets take 1 -9. 9 is the highest number. So (my understanding and I mean no offence) is that Islam will take you to 9. The highest possible. In the case of Buddhism it would take you to 0. Where nothing remains..but it is still something. if you know what I mean...

Reply: According to Islamic belief, when all is said and done... when you have lived your life in this world and got whatever you wanted out of it... if you make it to paradise and get whatever you want from paradise... for the believer, there is one final but great thing. The believer actually gets to see his Creator, face to face. Every pleasure the believer has ever felt, whether mental or physical, whether in this life or in paradise, is practically nothing when compared with this pleasure. To meet your Creator... the one who has created this huge universe, which is at least 14.5 billion years wide, while you are a tiny speck in the universe... the one who has been living eternally, while you lived for maybe 70 years... the amazing honor you get when you, a simple piece of flesh and bone which came from a drop of sperm, meet the One who not only created you, but the whole of humanity, the earth itself, the sun, the solar system, the galaxies, the whole universe... the feeling you get from that cannot be measured on any scale. Here is the hadith describing this:

When the inhabitants of Paradise enter Paradise, God, the Glorious and Exalted, will say to them: `Do you wish me to give you anything more?' They will reply: `Have You not made our faces bright? Have You not brought us into Paradise and delivered us from the Hell?' And God will remove the Veil. The (dwellers of Paradise) will feel that they have not been awarded anything dearer to them than looking at their Lord.

May Allah grant us all the reward of looking at Him, Ameen.