Monday 7 December 2015

Islam is said to provide happiness in both worlds. How can we explain the fact that most Muslims poor and in need?


Like in the past, happiness and welfare are frequently confused today. And it will probably go on in the future.

Some people think that wealth, rank, fame, luxury and position are the same as happiness. However, they see many people around who have everything and are able to taste every worldly pleasure, but who are yet unhappy. Some cannot get on well with their spouses. Some complain about their sons mischief. Some seek cure for deadly diseases of their mothers. Some try to collect the money they lent to other people. Some have problems with their company partners. 

Thousands of problems like those teaches man continuously that this world is a not a place to have comfort.

Divine words in the Quran say: 

Every soul must taste of death and We try you by evil and good by way of probation; and to Us you shall be brought back. (Surah of Anbiya/The Prophets, 35) 

So, this world is a place of testing and trial. 

Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) defines the world as the arable field of the afterlife in a hadith. 

This world was not created as a place of comfort but a place of testing and the field of the hereafter. People continuously work hard and sweat in this testing field. All human beings sow their fields every day in order to reap in the hereafter.

Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) says in a hadith: There is no rest (comfort) in this world. 

How is it possible to find a rest in such a world where night and day run after one the other, disease and health check us in turns, difficulty and ease surround us one after the other, turmoil and peace command our soul in turns.

There is no rest in the world, but there is happiness for the believer. If one reaches faith in this world and keeps the way of good deeds, he makes use of every sweet and bitter event of this life for the sake of his afterlife. And what is the most important; he does not bother himself because he knows there is no rest in this world and feels free of anxiety.

Here is a formula of happiness from Prophet Muhammad (pbuh): Be like a poor man or a traveler in this world. Our attention is being drawn to two sources of happiness in this hadith and we are presented two recipes: 

First recipe: To know that we are poor and strangers in this world and we came here to earn something for our real homeland, the afterlife. A person knowing this truth does not fall in love with this mortal world and does not exaggerate the temporary problems of this world. He knows that he will leave this world one day and aims at the real world of happiness.

You are a guest here and will go to another place from here. A guest does not give his heart to something that he can not take away with him. (al Mathnawi al Nuriya) 

Second recipe: To know that we are travelers and live accordingly. Such a person only wants to reach his destination; it does not matter very much whether he sits in front or back seats. Sometimes we read news in newspapers: a murderer was caught in a foreign country and brought back to our country on an airplane. How can travelling on a luxury plane make this man happy! However, a small merchandiser feels happy when going to a big city to buy and sell goods even if he travels on the back seat of a little bus. Because he knows that the end of this travel is being rich and putting the troubles away.

On the other hand, if man does not seek the facilities of his home when he is on the bus, he does not feel uncomfortable in that travel. Otherwise, he makes himself unhappy. In the Risale i Nur Collection, there are many precious recipes of happiness. Let us present three of them:

The one who submits himself to the Almighty Lord and performs good deeds in this world, travels from this guesthouse of this world and in the stages and stopping-places of the intermediate realm and the hereafter as fast and strong as lightning and the Buraq; and finds the eternal happiness. (Sözler/The Words)

When a person submits himself to his Creator by believing, he gets the taste of not being ownerless and unprotected. He says I have a Creator who created me in the best way, placing my every organ in the best place, organizing my spiritual world in the best way, making my each sense work for a different task. My blood circulation and this worlds turning are all with His power and knowledge. So I am not alone, abandoned, or ownerless.

The happiness and calmness of being a creation and artwork of Allah cannot be compared with any other worldly bounty.

A chain of happiness starting from eeman (faith) reaching to the happiness of two worlds:

Eeman necessitates tawheed (the Divine Unity, oneness), tawheed necessitates submission, submission necessitates tawakkul (reliance, trust), tawakkul necessitates the happiness of the two worlds. (Sözler/The Words)

Happiness in both life and afterlife is possible through reliance to Allah. A believer who says Every good result comes from Allah performs the necessities of whatever he wants for this life and afterlife and then finds peace by relying on Allah.

Tawakkul means regarding Allah as ones agent, trusting Him. It is a kind of consciousness arising from belief and it is a result of submission to Allah. Those who submit to Allah trust in Him. Submission arises from tawheed. Of course a person knowing that Allah is the real agent (doer) that everything belongs to Allah and that He controls everything submits himself to Him.

Another recipe of happiness in both worlds: 

The result of restraining the nafs (soul, false ego, fleshy desires) and setting the spirit free to the ripeness is the happiness of two worlds. (Sözler/The Words)

In this sentence we are told about two requirements for the happiness of the two worlds. The first one is controlling and restraining our nafs, and the second one is developing and boosting our spirit.












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