Are we in paradise yet?

As salam dear readers, it's been a while i know, but yeah hopefully this little sharing today could give us some benefits and something to ponder upon and most importantly taking actions. And i am just going to copy a snippet of page from my book named reclaim your heart, by Yasmin Mogahed. Well, i must admit that she really inspired me in looking at this life from a different and a much better perspective in becoming a better muslim inshaAllah.

"Imagine only having good in your life. That is the state of this type of believer, as the Prophet pbuh says: "wondrous are the believer's affairs, for him there is good in all his affairs, and this is so only for the believer. When something pleasing happens to him he is grateful, and that is good for him; and when something displeasing happens to him, he is enduring (sabr), and that is good for him." (Narrated by muslim)

"And so in the heart of such a believer is a such of paradise. That is the paradise that Ibn Taimiyyah, may Allah have mercy on his soul, spoke of when he said, "truly there is heaven in this world (and) whoever does not enter it, will not enter the heaven of the next world"

And in that heaven, complete peace is not something of a moment. It is a state, eternal"
Page 36 & 37 (chapter; peace on a rooftop, from reclaim your heart, yasmin mogahed)

And so we wonder, the type of believer whose hearts are like paradise, calm and at peace in no matter what conditions apply to him, how the surrounding could pressure him, he will always be in peace, accepting and sabr. We ponder to ourselves, are we included in such type of believer? Are we good enough? But of course, it is the struggle that we face in this life to become such believer. It is with these everything that we are in, we have and dont have now, we should try and always try to be such believer. InshaAllah.

And to always remind ourselves, that life in this world could be deceiving sometimes when we lose focus. When we suddenly put our attention or attachment other than Allah, to people, to things, to money and everything else. That is our mistake. Knowing that shaytan will never give up to make us forget this fact. The fact that everything belongs to Allah, it is Allah we should depends on, and no others. No one but Him.

The second reality, we look deep into our hearts. Try to look inside, what is it occupying our hearts? Is is the love of this dunya? A love to a person or things or status? Is occupied by our dreams and ambitions? Is that only? How much of our hearts is occupied by love to Allah and Rasul? Our deen? This is a scaring reality, even for me myself, i dare not to say, my heart is pure from all the desires or nafs, but still, i am sure that in each of our hearts that there is love to Allah, but the question is, whether that heart is continuously poured by our love to Him only, which only then, our heart could be like a paradise as what Ibn Taimiyyah has mentioned. Your heart is a paradise, when it could love everything that Allah loves, and leave everything that Allah forbids, enduring in patience and acceptance. Just like the heart of the Prophet pbuh, and his companions.

MasyaAllah, how beautiful is that? Indeed the paradise in this world is not far, it is in ourselves, our souls, our hearts. We should try to build it by ourselves, with our iman, our faith, our deeds, and our deen. It isn't that far, isn't it? InshaAllah, once the paradise in ourselves are built, we would feel like home, near to our home in the hereafter, the paradise itself, jannah. Didn't our father, adam a.s. originated from the heaven?

It is possible inshaAllah, by continously reminding each other, our friends, our siblings, our families and everyone that Allah's promise will come true, to those who believe in Him.

Therefore, a question that we need to answer and remind ourselves in order to improve is probably, are we in paradise yet?