The Food of Jannah

I'm thinking of changing my style of writing. Instead of writing long, burdensome pieces that I hardly have the time to write, I'll, insha'Allah add shorter pieces related upon some Gem that I come across.


Surah Baqarah, Ayah 25 is an ayah that I've read many times with the translation. And It often disturbed and I've thought about it for many long hours.

وَبَشِّرِ الَّذِين آمَنُواْ وَعَمِلُواْ الصَّالِحَاتِ أَنَّ لَهُمْ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِهَا الأَنْهَارُ كُلَّمَا رُزِقُواْ مِنْهَا مِن ثَمَرَةٍ رِّزْقاً قَالُواْ هَـذَا الَّذِي رُزِقْنَا مِن قَبْلُ وَأُتُواْ بِهِ مُتَشَابِهاً وَلَهُمْ فِيهَا أَزْوَاجٌ مُّطَهَّرَةٌ وَهُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ

Here's the translation:
(Note: I use Muhammad Muhsin Khan's translation, typed up but the Arabic I often copy from Islamicity)

"And give glad tidings to those who believe and do righteous good deeds, that for them will be Gardens under which rivers flow (Paradise). Every time they will be provided with fruit therefrom, they will say: "This is what we were provided with before," and they will be given things in resemblance (i.e. in the same form but different in taste) and they shall have therein Azwajun Mutahharatun (purified mates or wives), and they will abide therein forever."

The ayah is self-explanatory but the part that disturbed me was this "Every time they will be provided with fruit therefrom, they will say: "This is what we were provided with before," and they will be given things in resemblance (i.e. in the same form but different in taste) ". I would always wonder how was it possible that practically the same thing would taste so good. And then I had an awesome experience a couple days ago which gave me some insight into what this ayah possibly meant.

My mother made me eat a Vitamin C tablet the other day. It was my first (and insha'Allah) last time. If you've ever had a Vitamin C tablet, you know that its SOUR, real SOUR. And I don't like sour things. I licked it once and put it back down, then again and again. At last I figured that this way would take me a real long time so I just chewed on it and swallowed it. The experience was AWFUL.

I immediately rushed to the kitchen, took out a glass, and drank some water from the watercooler. (A note here, I drinked boiled water because the tap water in Karachi is not too clean) The water from the watercooler ALWAYS tastes the same way. I can even tell if its been previously in a different container. But for some reason, it tasted VERY different this time. Totally sweet, like drinking a glass of Apple Juice or Rooh Afza(see here). I took another glass of water, same taste. I confirmed with my mother and sister that their was nothing wrong with the water. My sister even tasted it and said it was normal.

That got my brain thinking. How could a normal glass of water actually taste so sweet? I knew that the Vitamin C tablet had temporarily altered my taste buds. But then I thought of when our lives would be totally different, everything serene, bountiful, and simply amazing... Jannah. I recalled the above stated ayah and realized that this was a minute example of how food would taste over there. SubhanAllah....