Sunan at-Tirmidhī Ḥadīth [2323] – The comparison of this world with the hereafter

This means that the worldly pleasures are without reality and worthless compared to eternity and its blessings, like the water that sticks to your finger when you dip it, compared to the ocean. And even this comparison only serves as an illustration, because the reality is that worldly life does not even stand in comparison with the hereafter. This is because everything in earthly life is limited, momentary and transient, whereas the hereafter is not limited and is eternal. When it comes to transitory things, they are limited and fleeting by nature and cannot be compared in any way to eternal things.

So, who could be more wretched and at a loss than the one who struggles and exerts himself to the utmost for the worldly life, but is heedless of preparing for the hereafter and does not deem it necessary (to struggle for it).

• Reference: [2858 (8/230), Tuḥfatul Muslim Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Nomani Kutub Khana (Ur)]

Translated by ‘Imrān (Germany)

The ḥadīth is in fact intended to convey the idea that the world, when compared to the Hereafter, is as insignificant as is the drop of water sticking to a man’s finger in comparison with the sea. The parable has just been coined to deliver a message. Otherwise in reality, the world does not weigh even as much as we understand from the parable since the world, along with all its paraphernalia, is at best temporal and limited while the Hereafter is limitless and never-ending. And it is a known fact that the limited and temporal cannot be compared with the never-ending and limitless.

• Reference: [2323 (4/357), Jāmi’ at-Tirmidhī, Dārussalām (Eng)]

Favors of Paradise comparing to the favors of this life are so precious that the value of some inches of the land in Paradise is more precious than all the wealth and treasures of this world. Besides, the other favors that Paradise has, such as palaces, gardens; the comfort and blessings they contain, pure wives, maids, etc., can one imagine or estimate their value? Overall, the blessing of looking at Allāh – the Exalted – is so precious that all the blessings, comparing to it, are of no value.

• Reference: [4108 (5/290-291), Sunan ibn Mājah, Dārussalām (Eng)]

❶ The worldly life is extremely short, while the life of the hereafter is eternal.
❷ The blessings of the hereafter are more valuable than the blessings of the worldly life to such an extent that just a few inches of paradise are worth far more than the whole world and all its treasures. This might make you appreciate how much more its palaces, gardens and pure wives, servants and more are worth. Especially the blessing of being able to see Allāh is so great that it surpasses every other blessing of Paradise.
❸ Providing an example for what you say can make it easier to comprehend.

• Reference: [876 (1/836-837), Musnad al-Ḥumaydī, Ansarus Sunnah Publications, Lahore (Ur)]

Translated by ‘Imrān (Germany)

That is, just as the drops of water on your finger are worthless compared to the ocean, worldly life is devoid of value compared to the hereafter. Rather, worldly life may be compared to only one single instant of paradise.

• Reference: [5156 (4/202), Mishkāt al-Maṣābīḥ, Maktabah Muḥammadiyah (Ur)]

Translated by ‘Imrān (Germany)

The ḥadīth shows the value of the hereafter and its blessings compared to the worldly life. The proportion between the two is that the former is like an ocean while the latter is like the proportion of water left on one’s finger when dipped in the sea!

• Reference: [463 (1/423), Riyāḍuṣ Ṣāliḥīn, Dārussalām (Eng)]