If you dont already know who Ghalib was and what he said, it suffices to note that he lived and wrote poetry in the Persian and Urdu languages in India in the 19th century. he is widely read and admired by people familiar with Persian and Urdu poetry. In my family, and I think this is the case for many folks who have read him, there are people who saw/read Ghalib as espousing, and lending support to, skepticism and ridicule about the existence of God and life after death etc (even if occassionally and ambiguously). I don’t hold that view (neither do I hold the view that ghalib was some sort of saint or mystic or that he was some great? strong? believer – what does that even mean!). At any rate, there is a verse of his that is qutie famous and widely quoted and it goes like this:
hum ko maaluum hai jannat ki haqeeqat lekin
dil ke khush rakhne ko, Ghalib ye khayal Acha hai
translation (sheer butchery):
We know the reality of Paradise/the Garden but (nevertheless)
it is an idea (an imaginary thing) that is good for keeping the heart happy/entertained
People generally think the poet is saying he knows there is no such thing as paradise in reality and the idea that there is life (and paradise and its pleasures) after death is just a a consoling thought, something that people believe in because it makes them feel better.
But given what Ghalib has said elsewhere, I interpret Ghalib differently. To me, the first verse is how Ghalib sees the matter i.e. that paradise and life beyond this realm are matters whose reality/truth is to be known by human beings. Ghalib says he knows the truth about paradise and in so saying, he is saying to his readers that they can and should try to know this truth because only knowing this truth makes a real difference. The second verse then describes those who have done nothing to come to “know” that paradise (and a perfect unending life beyond death in this realm) truly exists. For such folks, the notion of paradise can only be a feel-good thought or imagination (ungrounded in knowledge and therefore ultimately false and baseless). People settle with (or try to settle with) the feel-good nature of the claim that there will be paradise for believers (and it isn’t hard to claim the status of believer for oneself because all it takes, in that framework, is asserting that one believes!) and they turn what should/could have been a certainty about the truth of paradise based in knowledge, into only a pleasing idea. And in so doing, they ultimately set themselves up to deny any such reality (paradise etc) when they decide to be honest and decide to reject false, evidence-less, ‘feel good’ ideas.
The Quran as Revelation 