Difference Between Heaven And Paradise

By Hafeez Onitilo

I never had any form of problem with these two words till recently when I and a friend of mine were insulting each other jokingly. I said to him “guy you no go enter Heaven for this lie way you just lie” and he replied me by saying “if me no go enter Heaven, you no go enter Paradise”.
At that moment when we both said what we said we just laughed as we continue to insult and joke with ourselves. Later that day after my friend had gone, I began to reminisce about what he had said and then it hit me and I was like “this guy na mumu, wetin be the difference between Heaven and Paradise” but immediately I said that I began to think about, what if my friend has a point, what if truly there is a difference between Heaven and Paradise.

We all know that both Heaven and Paradise are up in the sky but what we really don't know is if there is any difference between these two places or probably if Paradise and Heaven are both up in the sky but at different location. I practically stayed awake all night on that very day trying to see if there is any logical sense to whether Heaven and Paradise are two different places and YES! after much logical thinking I can say to you that if you look at it logically you would also see that Heaven and Paradise are two different places.

We know that Heaven is the opposite of Earth just like Man is to Woman. Now let start with that first, if we say that Heaven is the same thing as Paradise then what we are saying is that Earth is the opposite of Paradise right?  The opposite of Paradise that we all know or should I say that we are use to is Hell? Now if the opposite of Paradise is Hell, and Paradise and Heaven are the same thing then I guess it is safe to say that Earth (which is naturally the opposite of Heaven) and Hell are also one in all. So if we say that Heaven is Paradise then Earth should be Hell since Heaven and Paradise are the same and the opposite of Heaven is Earth.

We were also told that Heaven has seven layers which is why the immediately sky we see is regarded as the first Heaven while the Heaven where we believe or assume God is, is the Seventh Heaven. Now looking at it from this angle, is it safe to also say that Paradise has seven layers since Heaven and Paradise is the same thing?

Another angle that we can look at it from is this, when we die where do our souls go to? Yes we are buried in the ground but where do our souls go to? Heaven is the answer, Heaven is where our soul would be till the day of judgement (please correct me if I am wrong), where God would make his judgement. Now if this is so is it safe to safe that our soul would go to Paradise when we die since Heaven and Paradise is the same thing?

We were told that God created Heavens and Earth and everything in it (please correct me if I am wrong) and due to man’s curiosity we have been able to know and appreciate some of the things God created on Earth like the mountain and hill, flowers and trees, the air that we breathe just to mention a few but humans don't live in Heaven (at least not for now) so we can only keep guessing what Heaven looks like and some of the things that are there. Although the scientists and archaeologist have made us to believe that Paradise is not on Earth but in Heaven so if that is the case why do we still say Heaven and Paradise is the same thing?

In as much as we might try not to believe it, there is a logical difference between Heaven and Paradise and the difference is the fact that Paradise a place in Heaven while Heaven is just a place where we are all going to go to when we die whether you are righteous or not. Thank you