In life most of us are in the constant and never ending pursuit of happiness. The thing is society and peer groups push you towards the things that don’t always give you true happiness as we find in Islam.
Have you ever asked yourself, what is true Happiness in Islam? Does your pursuit of happiness align with what the Quran and Sunnah teaches about being a happy and having a meaningful life. Islam teaches us that Happiness comes first and there is no contradiction between your natural urge to make yourself happy and the way Allah subhanahu wa-ta’ala created us. Allah does not want for the His believing servants to unhappy.
So in this short lesson on true happiness in Islam, I want to direct you to the Verse of the Quran where Allah talks to you about this.
He says in surah Al-Kahf, 46:
الْمَالُ وَالْبَنُونَ زِينَةُ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا
“Al-malu-wal-banona-zenatul-hayatid-dunya”
“Wealth and Children are the adornments of life of this world”.
Who would deny that we love our wealth and our children. They are that which beautifies the life of this earth and we all seek after them.
ASK YOURSELF WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY?
We seek happiness in many things. Ask yourself what needs to come into your life in order to make you happy? Some of us would answer a nice big house or a mansion. Some of us will say a huge plantation. Some of us will even say something small, but every one of us is looking at possessions for happiness, and we are constantly seeking after these things, striving after them all our lives.
There is no doubt that there is happiness in this, because Allah-subhanahu-wa-tala says, in this Verse confirming it that, ‘al-malu-wal-banona-zenatul-hayatid-dunya’. Your wealth, and your children, they are the things that adorn your life.
THE SECRET TO A HAPPY LIFE
But the problem of these things is that they don’t stay. Your children, they grow up and they leave. Your wealth, it comes and goes. Your wealth, you spend it, you’re constantly fearing over your wealth. So, the wealth doesn’t come without causing great stress in your life.
So there’s no pure, absolute happiness in either of the two. In fact there’s no pure happiness in most of what we chase after in our lives. We spend our lives chasing after different things that we want, and the reality is that all of these things, although they make us happy, this happiness is always temporary. And Allah subhanahu-wa-ta’ala, He gives us the key to happiness, and he gives this to us right at the beginning.
The fact is He Subhanahu-wa-ta’ala, teaches us that happiness comes first.
HOW TO BECOME HAPPY NOW
You know when you set yourself a goal, you want a big house, you want a car, you want children, you want wealth, a great career, you want whatever will make you happy. When you set yourself these goals, these are things that are in the future and when you attain them you’ll be happy. But Allah informs you that happiness comes first. Happiness doesn’t come when you’ve attained these things, No!
Happiness is already here with you, inside you, and all you have to do is discover it. Allah the most Generous has given us a very simple, yet profound formula to give you that happiness right now.
He the Most Merciful, begins the Quran with:
“al-hamdu-lillahi-rabbil-al-ameen”.
“All Praise and Gratitude is to Allah, the Lord of the worlds”
Quran, Surah Al-Fatihah
All praise, and who doesn’t know this verse, all praise is due to Allah, the lord of all of creation. So you might be wondering where is happiness in that because when you praise someone else, you’re making them happy.
And the secret to happiness is in that, in the gratitude you are expressing.
In surah Al-Fatihah, we start the surah by saying all praise is due to Allah, all thanks is to Allah, and all gratitude is to Allah. This requires you to recognize the blessings in your life.
When I thank you, I have to first recognize there is a reason to thank you. You have done something that makes me happy.
Truly this is the key to happiness. Being grateful for things you already have in your life. I cannot emphasise this enough.
We look for happiness everywhere, and we miss the very blessings we have in life right now. If you don’t recognize the blessing you have already you can never be happy. But if you recognize it, you can become happy right now.
In fact all of the social scientists of the world are going crazy about this like this is a new fad.
GRATITUDE PRODUCES TRUE HAPPINESS:
How to be grateful? We know the Prophet (saw) advised us, that on upon waking up the first thing that you do is say ‘Alhamdulilla-hilathi-ahyana ba’da ma amatana’. Alhamdulillah, all praise is due to the one who has brought me back to life.
So why do we do this? Because we begin the day with gratitude. And in this is the key you cannot be grateful for something unless you recognize it. So recognize the blessings of another day as soon as you wake up.
So when you count the blessings in your life, then you say Alhamdulillah, because there are those people who live on the earth who don’t have what you have.
There are people who have everything, they have houses, mansions, they have many cars, they have children, they have lots of things in their lives, yet they are unhappy and they’re constantly striving for more, hoping that they will achieve happiness through more of these things.
The true happiness is not found in the creation, it’s not found in gathering things, although there is a temporary happiness found in this. There’s no true happiness in this.
And so, my challenge to you is, in order to attain true happiness, let’s create a habit.
Let’s create a habit of being conscious of what blessings we have and can be happy about. When you wake up in the morning, say Alhamdulillah, or when you say Alhamdulillah after your Salah, think about what it is you’re grateful for. Count the blessings in your life.
Actively think about each individual thing in your life that you can be grateful for and say Alhamdulilah. Do this daily, in the mornings, after salah or at any point where you start to become unhappy.
Try this daily for the next 30 days and I’m positive insha’Allah that alone will transform your life and how you feel every day.
Let’s take the next 30 days to really transform our lives by beginning every single day with counting all of the blessings that we have in our lives. So I’ll leave you with that.
I look forward to sharing more with you insha’Allah.
JazakuAllahu khair
((Ustadth Abdul Shahid))
