Paradise, you should know, is but a version
of our world where everything is
just as it should be; hereabouts
brooks flow through lush meadows
frequented by hovering hummingbirds
and butterflies flitting between flowers
as dark-eyed houris, virginal but nubile,
splendidly endowed, outstretch and sun
themselves on lawns or rove vineyards,
ready and eager to ensorcell newcomers
with their wiles and charms, with figures
sinuous and sensuous, lovely to behold.

Delights such as these are wholly unknown
to those wretched hellions who in life
drew deeply from the well of wrongdoing
so that now, laden with sin, they are damned
to suffer lasting torment as the fuel for hell; 
much good it did all those cunning sinners 
who schemed, for Allah schemes best,
and evil recoils upon those who plot evil;
the doomed forever writhe in garments of fire
rather than lounging in garments of silk
within the embrace of bashful and high-bosomed
maidens chaste as pearls, fair as corals and rubies,
loving companions in whose presence
infinity unfolds like a celestial scroll.

I swear by the shelter of the stars
(a mighty oath, if you but knew it)
that this is a glorious reward
reserved for believers, all who live
and act with the knowledge that
each soul is the hostage of its own deeds.

– Brandon Marlon