Heaven

Heaven

Judaism

The biblical understanding of heaven is restricted to a cosmology which envisaged a realm or domain above the earth, where (initially) the gods and (subsequently) God and his agents dwell. The Garden of Eden is a controlling model, since this is paradise lost—but able to be regained. In kabbalah, a more elaborate series of heavens was envisaged through the effect of God's emanations. See also AFTERLIFE.

Christianity

Heaven is held to be the domain of God and the angels, and ultimately of all the redeemed, where they receive their eternal reward. Traditional Catholic doctrine holds that the souls of those who have died in a state of grace, which have been first purged of their stains in purgatory, pass to heaven, where they enjoy perfect bliss; but, except for the Virgin Mary, these souls still await reunion with their bodies at the general resurrection.

Islam

The Arabic terms are Janna, ‘garden’, and Firdaws, ‘paradise’. The Qur’ān mentions jannāt al-naʿīm ‘gardens of delight’ (10. 9); jannāt ʿAdn, ‘gardens of Eden’ (19. 62, 61. 12); ‘gardens beneath which rivers flow’ (3. 137, 61. 12). The delights of heaven and the punishments of hell (jahannam, or al-nār = the fire) are vividly described in early sūras of the Qur’ān.

Some theologians preferred allegorical interpretation for all the descriptions given in Qurʿān and ḥadīth. The Muʿtazilites in particular denied any form of ‘seeing’ Allāh; the Ashʿarites (al-Ashʿari) allowed for some form of divine vision, interpreted bi-lā kayf, without asking ‘how’. Sūfīs taught that although the joys of paradise would be real, the greatest of all would be the vision of Allāh.

Other Religions

for approximate equivalents see LOKA; SVARGA; TUṢITA; VAIKUṆṬHA (BAIKUNTH); PURE LAND; SUKHĀVATĪ; SACH KHAṆḌ; T'IEN;