Pleasure and Pain

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum

Dear Friends

I pray that you are well.

So many people are on a treadmill powered not so much by basic needs and necessities but by endless fanciful wants--vacations, dine out, new gadget, nice house, nice car, nice clothes, new furniture. It is their desires for things they don't really need, that put them on the treadmill and hold them there.

When people's attachment is with the dunya, when they follow other people like sheep, they become the slaves of the dunya and the people, propelled by their desires. So, whatever their hearts desire, they will go out and buy. When they do that, they almost always do it by borrowing. They borrow when they buy a house, in the form of a mortgage. They borrow when they buy a car, in the form of auto financing. And for a whole lot of the rest of the things that they buy they use credit cards, and pay a little every month at exorbitant interest rates. If you do this, you have put yourself in haram and you are in a deep trouble already in the next life unless you repent. Plus you have committed yourself to a treadmill in this life. You are giving yourself obligations that you must tend to.

When before you only work 8 hours a day, now you have to put in 15-17 hours a day trying to make more money. As your wants increases, the wife must take a job to help meet the obligations. Then you have to start paying for childcare, making for new expenses. And before you know it, heavier financial burdens are forcing you to look for second or third job. You are forced to pedal faster and faster to keep the boat from sinking.

Where do you find time to engage in the remembrance of Allah; to do that extra prayers, to lead the prayer at home, to teach your kids and your wife Islam, to learn Islam yourself, to pray at the local masjid and help your masjid community/youth grow? As it is you are probably having a hard time finding time to sit and eat a proper meal. Your job becomes even more important now. It is the only means for you to meet your obligations. A threat to your job is a threat to your lifeline. When recession hits and you lose your job, it pains you and starts affecting your health and your marriage. You have dug yourself a big hole and you don't know how to get out. You have become the slave of the treadmill of your own making.

We all seek pleasure and we don't want pain. Pleasure is not in the things of this dunya. When we get a piece of this dunya, we anticipate that we will be satisfied, but we aren't satisfied because the pleasure is not found there. We are merely going from one place to another and it is a never ending search. Things of this dunya are always accompanied by problems, worry and bitterness even though they appear outwardly to be pleasurable.

Pain comes when we want something besides Allah. When you unattached your heart and desire from things and attached your heart to Allah you will never feel pain. When you lose your job, you merely lose a tap. You haven't lost the source; the water will come out from another tap. You have complete reliance on Allah to take care of all your affairs and you always turn to Him for everything. You can never be bored because your heart and all of your self is occupied with His remembrance.

You will find the happiest person are those who have relationship with Allah. They are happy even if they don't have the things that you want. And they are happier than you will ever be even if you get the things that you want. This is because Allah creates happiness in the heart of the servant when he attaches his heart to Allah. We think otherwise because we are distracted by dunya, other people, shaytan and our lusts, desires and ego (nafs).

May Allah draw us closer to Him. Ameen. Please don't forget us in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.

And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam