Are the resurrection, Paradise and Hell something real or merely symbolic?

One of the pillars of faith in Islam is belief in the resurrection after death. Paradise and Hell are real and it is obligatory to believe in them. Whoever believes in Allaah and does righteous deeds, his final abode will be in Paradise in the real sense, and whoever disbelieves in Allaah will be one of the people of Hell in the real sense, and both of them will abide therein forever. 

Shaykh ‘Abd al-Kareem al-Khudayr 

The enemies of the Prophets – the mushrikeen (polytheists, those who join others in worship with Allaah) and the philosophers and others – denied that the resurrection after death, the Reckoning and Paradise and Hell are real, and they described these things as mere symbols, which they interpreted in a manner different from that in which the believers understand them; this is disbelief in the words of Allaah and His Prophets and Messengers. For Paradise and Hell, the Siraat (a bridge over Hell in the Hereafter), the Balance, the Cistern, the Throne, the Footstool and other things are all real, and we believe in them in the real sense; we do not play about with the words, rather we believe in them implicitly as narrated in the reports.