Praise be to Allah.
Allah, may He be exalted, has prepared Paradise for His pious slaves and has made its breadth like the breadth of heaven and earth, which is indicative of its vastness and great size. Allah, may He be exalted, will honour His slaves therein by His grace and mercy, and His grace is immense and His mercy is vast. Part of that honour is the great dominion that the people of Paradise will have. Allah, may He be exalted, says, describing that (interpretation of the meaning): “And when you look there (in Paradise), you will see a delight (that cannot be imagined), and a great dominion” [al-Insaan 76:20].
In the saheeh Sunnah there is a description of the abundance that the lowest of the people of Paradise in status will have, which is ten times this world! So how about the highest of them in status? It was narrated from ‘Abdullah ibn Mas‘ood (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “I know the last of the people of Hell to be brought forth, and the last of the people of Paradise to enter therein. It will be a man who will emerge crawling from Hell, and Allah will say to him: ‘Go and enter Paradise.’ He will come to it and it will appear to him to be full. He will go back and say, ‘O Lord, I found it full.’ Allah, may He be blessed and exalted, will say to him: ‘Go and enter Paradise.’ He will go to it and it will appear to him to be full. He will go back and say, ‘O Lord, I found it full.’ Allah, may He be blessed and exalted, will say to him: ‘Go and enter Paradise, and you will have the equivalent of the whole world and ten times as much.’ He will say, ‘Are You mocking me – or laughing at me – when You are the Sovereign?’” He said: And I saw the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) smile so broadly that his molars appeared. And he used to say: “That will be the lowest of the people of Paradise in status.”
Narrated by al-Bukhaari (6202); Muslim (186).
With regard to deeds and acts of obedience that the Muslim can do to increase the size of his dominion in Paradise, we do not know of anything proven in the Sunnah. But undoubtedly if the Muslim has a space in Paradise the size of a whip or the size of a bow, that will be better for him than this world and everything in it, as is narrated in a saheeh report from the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him). It was narrated that Sahl ibn Sa‘d as-Saa‘idi said: The Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “The space of the whip of one of you in Paradise is better than this world and everything in it.” Narrated by al-Bukhaari (2735). And it was narrated from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “The short span of the bow of one of you in Paradise is better than that on which the sun rises or sets.” Narrated by al-Bukhaari (2643).
The “short span” of a bow is the area between the middle (where the archer grasps it) and the end of the bow. What is meant is that the space of that size in Paradise is better than this world and everything in it. And the same is said concerning the space of a whip.
It is proven in the saheeh Sunnah that the tent of the believer in Paradise will be sixty miles long, so how big will the size of his dominion be if that is the length of just one tent? It was narrated from Abu Moosa al-Ash‘ari (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “In Paradise the believer will have a tent made from a single hollowed-out pearl, sixty miles long, in which the believer will have wives and he will go around among them and they will not see one another.”
Narrated by al-Bukhaari (4598) and Muslim (2838); according to another version it is “sixty miles wide”.
And Allah knows best.
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