جنة
Janna
Topic
The garden of the righteous, described in the Quran with gardens, rivers, companions and, above all, God’s good pleasure.
What it means
“Gardens of Eden beneath which rivers flow” (9:72), where the people of Paradise are “adorned with bracelets of gold and pearls, and their clothing is silk” (35:33). They drink from cups “mixed with ginger” (76:17) and from vessels of silver and crystal (76:15–16). They will have “no idle talk”, but “peace” (56:25–26). “Their greeting is peace” (10:10). The greatest of the rewards is God’s good pleasure (9:72).
Often misunderstood as
That Islam’s Paradise is only sensual.
What the sources say
The Prophet said that God has prepared for His righteous servants “what no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human heart has imagined” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim). Scholars read the images of food and drink as made known to us in terms we understand. On whether the garden of Adam was this Paradise, Muslim scholars differ: most say it was, and some, among them Abu Hanifa’s followers and the Mu’tazilites, say it was a garden on earth.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 27, listed as JANNAH. The definition is restated here.