In the book ‘Darus Salaam’Shaikh Mahmood Naraqi quotes from Shaikh Mahdi Naraqi. He says that: During my days in Najaf, there broke out a severe famine. I left my house leaving behind my children who were crying with hunger and thirst so as to search something for them. I passed through ‘Wadi-us-Salaam’, and entered therein with the intention of reciting ‘Fateha’ for the departed souls, and this act would pacify me and make me forget my sorrow. I saw some people entering the graveyard with a bier, and they requested me to join them in the funeral. Being an act of great reward I accompanied them. They carried the bier and suddenly we entered into a vast garden. They took the bier in a huge and beautiful palace therein, which had all the amenities of luxury. I entered through the door and saw a handsome youth wearing splendid attires seated on a golden throne. As soon as he saw me, he addressed me by my name and saluted me. He signalled me to go near him and seated me besides him on the throne. He asked me whether I knew him and I replied in the negative.
He said “I am the same person whose funeral you are attending. I am a native of so and so town and the people you saw in my funeral were the blessed Angels, who brought me from my town to this Paradise for the Intermediate (Barzakh) period.” When I heard these words from the lips of the person, I forgot my sorrow and started adoring the beauties of the garden.
When I came out of the garden, I saw some other palaces, and when I observed carefully I saw my departed parents and relatives standing at the doors. When they saw me, they invited me to enter in. I entered therein and they invited me for food, which was very delicious. While eating I suddenly remembered my wife and children who were dying of hunger and thirst and my face turned pale.
My (father) understood and said, “O my son Mahdi! What is the reason for your sorrow”? I replied, “O father! While eating, I suddenly remembered that my wife and children are dying of hunger at home, and that made me sad.” He pointed towards a stock of rice and told me to take as much as I desired. I spread out my cloak and filled it to the full. And as soon as I got up, I found myself standing in the same place in ‘Wadi-us-Salaam’, with my cloak filled with rice. I hurried towards my house and we ate to our full. Quite some time passed, but the stock never got over. One day my wife asked me as to where I got it from. She forced me to tell her, and I had to narrate the whole incident to her. She got up in excitement to take some rice from it so as to eat it, but it had disappeared.
Hence it can be concluded from this incident that the pleasures of Barzakh are eternal and not perishable