Bringing About Happiness
Sheikh Salman al-Oadah
Happiness cannot be purchased with gold and silver. It is far
more precious than that.
Happiness is like a pearl in the depths of the sea. Only the most
expert diver who knows how to seek it out will find it.
Happiness is a good meeting, a nice word, a dream, a realistic yet
positive attitude towards life.
Look into yourself. Somewhere in the depths of your own soul lies
your happiness.
Let us ask what is meant by happiness. A poll was conducted where
16,000 people had to answer what happiness meant to them.
Thirty-eight percent of the respondents said that happiness is
brought about by love.
Twenty-eight percent said that happiness is contentment.
Seventeen percent said that happiness is health.
Seven percent claimed that happiness is to be found in
marriage.
Five percent responded that happiness is wealth.
Three percent said that happiness is brought about through
children.
Two percent replied that travel brings them happiness.
The Arab writer, `Abbâs Mahmûd al-`Uqqâd once mentioned that he had
an artist friend who liked to imagine things and depict them in
drawings. One day, he imagined happiness and drew it as a
twenty-year-old girl skipping about in a lively and energetic
manner, her hair flying to the right and left, in extreme joy and
playfulness. When the artist showed it to `Abbâs, the writer
said:
This is not how I imagine happiness to be. Firstly, what you have depicted might have been described as play, amusement, or enjoyment. Happiness is something else entirely. Happiness is closer in meaning to experience and knowledge than it is to thoughtlessness, adolescence, and ignorance. It is closer to a more advanced age than it is to that age which is full of the delights of youth, vigor, and strength.
Secondly, happiness is closely connected to meanings like contentment, tranquility, and sobriety. It is not expressed as riotous and noisy behavior. Happiness is a matter of taste, emotion, and perception within a person - within his heart and his inner self.
Happiness cannot be formally defined like a scientific term. It
can not be delineated and quantified
It may be that happiness comes knocking on our door but since we do
not recognize it, we do not open the door for it. It is possible
for a person to live in full mental, spiritual, and physical
happiness, and not even realize it. We can look at the happiness of
small children. They are happy in their lives of innocence, play,
and simplicity. However, they very likely do not realize it. When
they grow up and start reading and hearing about this notion called
happiness, they begin searching for it like it is something
lost.
If happiness could be attained through wealth - through the
acquisition of gold, silver, dollars, and a big bank account - then
the mountains and the mines would be the rightful possessors of
happiness, because of all the wealth that they contain within
them.
If happiness were achievable through beauty, display, and
adornment, then the peacock and the flowers would have more right
than us to be happy.
If happiness were in strength and power, then wild beasts would
have been the most entitled to happiness.
If, however, happiness were attainable through noble conduct,
wisdom, virtue, integrity, and probity, then the human being would
have the greatest right to it.
Happiness can be experienced in many things. It can be found in the
smile of an innocent baby. It can be found on the tongue of an
honest person speaking a good word or remembering Allah. It resides
in the heart of a person who shows tolerance to his brethren. It is
in giving a gift without ulterior motives. It is when your Lord
removes some hardship from yourself or from others. It is
experienced in the rest that comes after an hour of hard
work.
How many playboys, tyrants, wrongdoers, and people of wealth and
power leave this world never experiencing the best and most
beautiful thing that the world has to offer: closeness to Allah and
the happiness that comes from communion with Him?
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