HALÂLS AND HARÂMS

Everything is created by Allâhu ta’âlâ. He is the owner of everything. Things which He has permitted us to use are halâl, and things which He has forbidden are harâm. For example, He has made it halâl for a man to marry one of two (or more) sisters. He has made it harâm to marry the second one, too. Harâm means something which Allâhu ta’âlâ, who is the owner, the possessor, has forbidden us to use. And halâl means to untie the knot of prohibition.

Something may be halâl for someone and at the same time harâm for someone else.

A person who commits a harâm in the world will be deprived of it in the next world. People who use the things that are halâl here will be blessed with the genuine ones of these things there. For example, if a man wears silk, which is harâm (for men) to wear in this world, he will be deprived of wearing silk in the next world. Silk is an attirement for Paradise. Then, it comes to mean that he cannot enter Paradise unless he is purified of this sin. And a person
who does not enter Paradise will enter Hell. For, there is no place besides these two in the next world.

Matters of the next world are not like earthly affairs in any respect. This world was created to be annihilated. And it will be annihilated. The next world was created to remain eternally and in such a manner as to be eternal. There is as much difference between this world and the next with respect to their matters and constitutions as there must be between something that will remain eternally and something else which will be annihilated soon. Only their names and descriptions are similar. For instance, the word Jannat (Paradise) means garden in the world, while in the next world it means the place which is called Jannat and where infinite blessings exist. Jahannam (Hell) means a deep pit of fire here, while there, it is a place which is full of torment.