🏰An Overlooked Opulence🏰
"Blessed is He Who, if He please, will give you what is better than this, gardens beneath which rivers flow, and He will give you palaces."
- 25 : 10, The Noble Quran
Otay! 👀 I admit to being guilty of overlooking the beautiful heritage & history my birthplace had to offer for so long 🙈... and I'm sure many of you also do the same 😜. It's silly how every so often we just don't realize how unique & special people & stuff around & closest to us are 😮 & sometimes 🙄... we even fail to comprehend how magnificent Allah ﷻ made Paradise as a reward for His righteous believers even though it is so entrancingly & grandly described to us in the Holy Quran & the Sunnah. SubhanAllah! 💖
Well... better late than never 😉. Since my return to Hyderabad, I've been eagerly wanting to visit Chowmahalla Palace 🏰. For a long time, I've been intrigued & captivated by the subtle charm this place had to offer just through its pictures. And then.... a sudden blow of realization hit me. What about Jannah then 😮?, I thought. Woah! for which the Prophet ﷺ said: "A place in Paradise equal to the size of a lash is better than the whole world and whatever is in it." - Sahih Al-Bukhari. Shouldn't I & you be much more enchanted by Jannah & long for it with gusto 😍 ? After all the world with all its luxuries & goodness is nothing compared to Jannah 😎.
Going ahead.. so after a lot of persuading & bugging friends 😜 I finally ended up going there with my family 😘 & Alhumdulilah, I'm still as fascinated with it as I was before visiting it 😌.
And yet again, 💭 my thoughts turn to the palaces in Paradise 🏰... Palaces made of gold, jewels & pearls like no other, surrounded by lush gardens & rivers flowing underneath them ❤ wherein your every desire will be granted. In a hadith Qudsi Allah ﷻ says: "I have prepared for My pious slaves things which have never been seen by an eye, or heard by an ear, or imagined by a human being." - Sahih Al-Bukhari.💞
And this post would have been a picture 🏞 heavy post had I not accidentally deleted my entire camera folder 😒 resulting in the loss of all my pix & videos. So... here I am 😉 making the most of whatever pix I could restore. But ironically, guess, this is how callous we've become about our hereafter i.e Paradise too 😔 coz let's just be real none of us want to end up in Hell 👀.
"And what is the life of this world except the enjoyment of delusion."
- 3:185, The Noble Quran
Even though we know much about the grandeur & value of Paradise, we tend to lose out on our good deeds 😟 ofttimes thanks to our attitudes that remain much tempted with 🌏 worldly desires & too laid back when it comes to working towards achieving Jannah.
But Alhumdulilah 😊, it is the mercy of Allah ﷻ that He keeps reminding us often of this fact through His Book & in the sunnah of His Messenger ﷺ.
"For those who do good in this world is good, and certainly the abode of the hereafter is better; and certainly most excellent is the abode of those who guard (against evil)."
- 16:30, The Noble Quran
And indeed 😊, reminders benefit & motivate the believers ❤.
This sumptuous 18th-century palace 🏰, once the official residency of the Nizams during their reign, is such a serene site to behold, SubhanAllah 😍. It is filled with the royal family's household artifacts, paintings, an armory, a Quran gallery, gifts, vintage cars & buggies & much more to leave one dazzled 😊.
Thinking of which... you & I, we too have a chance of becoming royalties forever 😉 & living in much greater lofty & majestic palaces of our own that are filled with exquisite & dainty possesions 💞 while being served the yummiest 😋 fruits & delicacies around by absolutely charming helpers in Paradise. And this indeed is the promise of Allah ﷻ ...
"As to those believe & work righteousness, verily We shall not suffer to perish the reward of any who do a (single) righteous deed. For them will be Gardens of Eternity; beneath them, rivers will flow; they will be adorned therein with bracelets of gold, and they will wear green garments of fine silk and heavy brocade: they will recline therein on raised thrones. How good the recompense! How beautiful a couch to recline on!"
- 18: 30 - 31, The Noble Quran
And what will be our ride there you wonder 😎? The Prophet ﷺ said: "If you are admitted into Paradise, you shall be brought a horse of rubies with two wings, then you shall be carried on it, then it will fly with you wherever you want." - Jami At-Tirmidhi. 💖Yep, one of our rides in Paradise if Allah ﷻ will's will be horses! made of rubies! with two wings! 😍 #lovehorsies.
And now, a lil scoop on Chowmahalla.. all structures herein are decorated with absolutely gorgeous 😍 intricate architectural details like the Mughal domes & Persian stucco work 🌹. And 😛 if you haven't figured it out already from the name, Chowmahalla literally means four palaces & was originally built over a span of 45 acres but only 12 acres of it remain today.
You can't miss going to this palace once in Hyderabad to feel a touch of Nizami royalty & elegance. And SubhanAllah 😌 we surely can't miss out on striving hard for the greatest reward there is i.e entering the blissful eternal abode of Paradise filled with sheer opulence along with being granted the paramount honor & pleasure of seeing our 👑 Lord, The Most Magnificent ❤ & living alongside 🏘 all our amazing Prophets & their wonderful companions 😊.. In'shaa'Allah
I end my post with this absolutely beautiful Dua 👐:
"My Lord: Grant me wisdom, and join me with the good. And ordain for me a goodly mention among posterity. And make me of the heirs of the garden of bliss."❤
- 26: 83 - 85, The Noble Quran.