et there the life that thou hadst
in the material world.

Heaven and Hell

Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha regard the descriptions of Heaven and Hell
given in some of the older religious writings as symbolic, like the
Biblical story of the Creation, and not as literally true. According to
Them, Heaven is the state of perfection, and Hell that of imperfection;
Heaven is harmony with God's will and with our fellows, and Hell is the
want of such harmony; Heaven is the condition of spiritual life, and Hell
that of spiritual death. A man may be either in Heaven or in Hell while
still in the body. The joys of Heaven are spiritual joys; and the pains of
Hell consist in the deprivation of these joys.

'Abdu'l-Baha says:

When they [men] are delivered through the light of faith from the
darkness of these vices, and become illuminated with the radiance
of the sun of reality, and ennobled with all the virtues, they
esteem this the greatest reward, and they know it to be the true
paradise. In the same way they consider that the spiritual
punishment ... is to be subjected to the world of nature, to be
veiled from God, to be brutal and ignorant, to fall into carnal
lusts, to be absorbed in animal frailties, to be characterized
with dark qualities ... these are the greatest punishments and
tortures....

... The rewards of the other world are the perfections and the
peace obtained in the spiritual worlds after leaving this world
... the spiritual graces, the various spiritual gifts in the
Kingdom of God, the gaining of the desires of the heart and the
soul, and the meeting of God in the world of eternity. In the same
way the punishments of the other world ... consist in being
deprived of the special divine blessings and the absolute
bounties, and falling into the lowest degrees of existence. He who
is deprived of these divine favours, although he continues after
death, is considered as dead by the people of truth.

The wealth of the other world is nearness to God. Consequently it
is certain that those who are near the Divine Court are allowed to
intercede, and this intercession is approved by God....

It is even possible that the condition of those who have died in
sin and unbelief may become changed; that is to say, they may
become the object of pardon through the bounty of God, not through
His justice;