In the Name of Allah the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
Dear brothers, When does the human being become happy?
Happiness is a basic demand of all creatures
There are six thousand million human beings on earth, and I am quite sure that each one of them seeks safety and happiness because they are basic demands of all creatures.
Ignorance is the cause of misery
It is said that ignorance is the cause of misery and of going to Hell, Allah the Almighty says:
(They will further say: Had we but listened or used our intelligence,we should not be among the dwellers of the Blazing Fire!)
[Al-Mulk, 67:10]
So, ignorance is our most immediate enemy.
Happiness comes from achieving goals
Dear brothers, listen to the following example: You are a student in your last year, and you have an excellent specialization, and you are to sit for an exam in two days’ time, when your dearest friends come and take you to the beach, where you stay at a very good hotel, eat the most delicious food, enjoy the most beautiful sights. So, everything seems to ensure your happiness. Dear friends… a beautiful place… delicious food… Then, why are you dissatisfied? Because such an event will prevent you from achieving your goal. On the other hand, if you stayed in a damp, badly lit room, without a view and unpainted, and you had your book with you and studied hard, and got ready for the test, then you would feel overwhelming happiness. Thus, happiness comes from achieving goals.
Let me give you another example: If sales are booming, the shopkeeper will work 12 hours non-stop, without eating or even sitting down, with no air-conditioning, feeling extremely happy. While, if sales are slow, he will feel dissatisfied though he may have a comfortable chair to sit on, refreshments, newspapers, magazines, and friends with him. That’s because he is not achieving his goal, which is selling goods, while when he achieves his goal, he will feel extremely happy even in bad conditions.
Here, let me pose a question: When do you achieve your goals? The answer is that you achieve your goals when you work correctly. When is your work correct? When you know the cause behind your existence in this world. This is a precise discourse. Nowadays, most people are utterly lost. Some think they live to eat; others think they live to have fun; or else eat to live or live to know Allah the Almighty. Ask yourself the question –the precise, the crucial, the philosophical question: Why are you here in this world?. Imagine you propose to travel to a foreign country and you come and ask us: “What shall I do there?” We would definitely say: “What a strange question!” Why are you going to travel there? If you want to study, then you should go to academic institutions and universities, this is clear. If you are a merchant, then you should go to factories and business companies. Also, this is clear. If you are a tourist then your way is also clear –you will go to cafeterias and parks. So, your movements in a specific place will not be correct if you do not know why you are there. This is obvious.
When you know that you are in this world to know Allah, to obey His orders, to approach Him with your good deeds, and once your goal here is very clear, you will make use of all the means that can help you to achieve it.
For example: You have been sent to Paris to get there your PhD; this is the goal. All your movements, activities, and interests are related to this goal. Thus, you have to rent a flat, and given that your goal is studying, you will choose one close to the university in order to save money, effort, and time. If you buy a magazine, it will be related to your subject matter. To achieve your goal, you will befriend a student who knows the language of the country to help you learn it. You will eat the food that will facilitate the process of studying. You will need a part time job to earn some money and have enough time to study. I am speaking in a very precise way.
Let me say it once again: When you know the reason why you are here, that you are in this world to know Allah, to obey His orders, to approach Him, to prepare yourself for Paradise –you will achieve your goals.
Dear brothers, I will not exaggerate if I say that, according to official statistics, those who know their goals are only 3% of the population of the world. The one who knows his aim will take all the necessary steps to achieve it; while the one who does not know his aim is a flunky. If people do right, so will he; and if they do wrong, so will he. He will follow fashions, prevailing concepts, vain conversations, mass media, environmental issues, living on the margin of life.
Thus, our movements in this life will not be correct unless we know the cause behind our existence; and we will not be happy unless we achieve our goals, Allah the Almighty says:
(O mankind! Worship your Guardian Lord, Who created you.)
[Al-Baqarah, 2:21]
The wisdom behind man’s creation is to worship Allah:
When the believer uses his brains, reads his Lord’s Book, and knows the reason for his existence, he will find out that he has been created to worship Allah, Allah the Almighty says:
(I have only created jinns and men that they should worship Me)
[Adh-dhariyat, 51:56]
Thus, it is worshipping Allah that is the cause of man’s existence and he reaches the highest station when he becomes a worshipper of Allah. When Prophet Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, reached Sidrat-ul-Muntaha (the utmost boundary over the seventh heaven beyond which none can pass), Allah the Almighty says that:
((He) revealed to His Servant what He (meant) to convey)
[An-Najm, 53:10]
When he received the message, which is the highest task a man could aspire to, Prophet Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:
Ask Allah to bestow on me the means of approach, which is a station in Paradise given by Allah to the one of his worshippers who deserves it, and I hope I will be him
[Reported by Muslim, from Abdullah ibn Amru ibn Al-As]
This station is worshipping, Allah the Almighty says:
(And yet when the slave of Allah stands forth to invoke Him, they just make round him a dense crowd)
[Al-Jinn, 72:19]
Then worshipping is the cause of our existence, the aim of our existence. Allah the Almighty says:
(I have only created jinns and men that they should worship Me)
[Adh-dhariyat, 51:56]
It is a voluntary obedience, mixed with the love for Allah, based on unquestionable knowledge that leads to eternal happiness. In it there are issues that regard knowledge, behavior, and aesthetics. Once you know Him, you obey Him; and you will be happy beside Him in this world and in the Afterlife. In this life there is paradise, and the one who does not know it will not go to heaven. You know Him, you worship Him; you will be happy beside Him in this world and in the Hereafter.
The wide and narrow aspects of worship:
Dear brothers, what about the concept of worship? Some think that to worship is only to pray, to fast, to perform hajj, and pay zakat. This is the narrow aspect, but in fact, worshipping is a complete system which encompasses all the aspects and phases of your life; all your affairs –from marital relations to international ones. I would almost say that worshipping includes hundreds of thousands of aspects in the Qur’an and sunnah.
Once again, it ranges from your most private affairs, your bedroom, to the most intricate relations between nations, the international relations. Normally, worshipping is understood as praying, fasting, performing hajj… that’s all; while our private life, the way we earn money, the way we spend it, our financial affairs, how we deal with women, our happy and sad times, the way we travel… are all according to our Arabic and western traditions which are not Islamic.
Thus, when we apply Islam in this way, we lose its core and its fruits, as well as Allah’s Promises, Allah the Almighty says:
(O mankind! Worship your Guardian Lord, Who created you)
[Al-Baqarah, 2:21]
Allah ordered us to worship Him and put on us the burden of holding the Trust, Allah the Almighty says:
(We did indeed offer the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains; but they refused to undertake it, being afraid thereof: but man undertook it; he was indeed unjust and foolish)
[Al-Ahzab, 33:72]
He ordered us to hold the Trust. Which is, in the opinion of the scholars, the human nafs ( the inner self), Allah the Almighty says:
(Truly he succeeds that purifies his nafs;And indeed he fails who corrupts it)
[Ash-Shams, 91:9-10]
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds