Stop Trying To Buy Happiness

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

Dear Friends

I pray that you are well.

Many of the things we desire are expensive. The truth is, the things that really satisfy us are totally free--love, smiles, laughter and working on our passion.

What should be your passion? It is drawing near to Allah, Most High. This is the most pleasurable job and the easiest but many people don't realize this and so they run away and hide from it.

Why?

Because we spend time with the wrong people. Life is too short to spend time with people who are deluded with this world. Never, ever insist yourself to people who continuously overlook their duties to Allah. And remember, it’s not the people that will come to your rescue when you are buried and questioned in your grave and on the Day when many people are drowned in their sweat.

Allah gives you life. He gives you health and He gives you time. He will guide you to Him, if you want to be with Him. They are all free. So get close to Him.

People were born Muslims and endowed with intellect. So use that intellect to complement our nature (fitrah) and to please Allah, not to be untrue to it and displease Allah.

If we are nurtured to grow in accordance to our fitrah, we will have a sense of God, a longing for God, and a hollowness without God. It is this feeling that there is something I ought to be doing and there is something I ought not to be doing. These questions are ingrained within us. We are perfected for this purpose. The teachings of Islam enhance this natural appreciation of the Truth.

It is not easy to submit because our body has been taken off course. You might be 50, 70, 120 degrees off course, so to come back is going to be a struggle because your ruler says that is not right. But you surrender because you understand your pure way is corrupted by the corrupt societies and people around you. You realign yourself through submission. You change what you think. When you do that, Allah's gifts start to kick in, which means you have returned to the first creation, the original way of man. You are now like a plant that has been put in the garden with soil, fertilizers and water. You grow and you flourish.

So, don't worry about what people think of you when suddenly you start praying, fasting, going to the masjid, putting hijab on, learning Qur'an, etc. Stop wasting time explaining yourself to others because your friends don’t need it and your enemies won’t believe it anyway. Just do what you know in your heart is right.

Closeness to Allah is not a physical closeness. Closeness to Allah is a spiritual closeness. Closeness to the Lord means you know Him. When you are close to somebody, you know him better than somebody who is far away. The one who is close to Allah is somebody who is realized in his slavehood.

In other words, the more you are aware of your own slavehood, the more you are aware of who Allah Most High really is, and the more you love Him and the more you long for Him.

The ultimate expression of your slavehood is the position of prostration.

"The closest a slave to the Lord is when he is prostrating." (Sahih Muslim)

Prostration for someone who have never done it before, he would feel weird. But after he did it a few times, it just feels right--I was meant to prostrate and being lowly before God; I feel whole; My body was looking for this prostration.

The knowledge of Allah Most High is a tremendous awareness that He is the Lord and we are the slaves.

Being a slave of Allah is the most rewarding job. Stop thinking you’re not ready for the job. Nobody ever feels 100% ready when an opportunity arises. Because most great opportunities in life force us to grow beyond our comfort zones, which means we won’t feel totally comfortable at first.

Always be thankful to Allah for your life and the food on the table. Someone somewhere else is desperately fighting for theirs and many are hungry. Instead of thinking about what you’re missing, try thinking about what you have that everyone else is missing. If you can do this, you are the happiest person on earth at this moment.

May Allah make us His best servants and grant us happiness in this life and the next and save us from the punishment of Hell. Ameen.

Please keep us in your du'as. Jazakallahu khairan.

And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam

Related Archive: Choose Your Friends Carefully