Mohd Siddiqur Rahman :
Happiness is the target; happiness is the most common dream of every human -being on the globe. It is his instinctive desire to be happy in life. As happiness is the target, he has been all his life engaging himself in the pursuit of happiness and slogging day in and day out towards achieving it. The route to having it has never been smooth; one has to encounter many situations and events that do not allow him to be happy.
Some seem to have overcome them and achieved happiness, some failed and such failure is often ascribed to bad luck. In fact, to figure out who has really had happiness and who has not, is a difficult task.
Most people think, money and materials can make one happy, so without determining the limit, they go all out to make as much money and materials as they can. Some of them become very rich indeed, they seem happy but no one knows exactly what goes on inside them. There are cases of very rich people who committed suicide. Some shoot themselves, some poison themselves and some starve themselves to death. Obviously these people are not happy, even with enormous riches. There are people, although their number is very few, have been trying to find out happiness in hermitic life taking shelter at the foot of mountains or keeping themselves in solitudes. But we are opposed to the philosophy of hermitage and seclusion. Anyway, happiness is a vast and crucial subject, cannot be accommodated in one article, even then, I should be trying to make it elaborative as much as possible to invoke my readers to go through it. Before going to discourse, let us see what the definition of happiness is.
The simple English Wicktionary has a definition for happiness: Happiness is a feeling of pleasure and positivity. When someone feels good, proud, relieved or satisfied about something, that person is said to be ‘happy.’ Happiness is usually thought of as the opposite of sadness. Now we got to figure out what really makes a man feel happy when wealth, materials and power proved to be futile in many cases. History reveals that King Alexander was not happy with his vast Kingdom, he continued conquering countries like Persia, Egypt including Punjab, King Poru’s kingdom in Asia to meet his soaring ambition .At the age of 33, while on death bed, he called his generals and said them to get the last of his three wishes fulfilled without fail.
1) First wish is that “My physicians alone must carry my coffin.”
2) Secondly, “I wish when my coffin is being carried to the grave, the path leading to the graveyard be scattered with gold, silver, precious stones and other riches preserved in my treasury.”
3) Continued, “My third and last wish is that both my hands be kept hanging out of the coffin.” One General, upon hearing this, assured him that he would carry out all his wishes but wanted to know what made him go for such weird wishes. In reply Alexander said, “I want my physicians to carry my coffin because people should realize no doctors can cure our disease and save our life from the clutches of death. So let not people take life for granted. The second wish of strewing gold, silver, precious stones and other riches on the way to graveyard is to tell people that nobody on earth can take along with them even a fraction of their wealth. The third wish of having the hands dangling out of the coffin is that I want people to know I came empty handed into this world and now leaving the world empty handed also.”
Here is one Eastern tale about a king who failed to find happiness, sought the advice of his courtiers. The wise ones advised him to wear the shirt of happy man. So soldiers were sent all over the country to fetch a happy man’s shirt. Though the men met many people who had shirts, none of these people was happy. The story concludes that, finally when they managed to find a happy man, it turned out that he had no shirt. This tale, of course, is not meant to be taken literally, yet the sagacity it implies is significant.
History reveals that British king George Edward VIII abdicated the throne in order to marry his American lover, Wallis Simpson; he married her and lived in France leaving his own country. The aim was to be happy in life.
Reversely, to stay in power, was the matter of best happiness with many rulers , many tyrants who clung to power up to the last moment, through homicide, genocide, anarchism, oppression and extortions. General review manifests that there are very few people on earth inclined to be happy by sacrificing power, wealth and luxuries of life.
Nevertheless, it is very hard to decide what makes a happy life; one man’s idea of happy life may not coincide with that of others. Some people believe that desire for wealth and material pleasures is the root of all discontent; they hold that as long as one runs after wealth and material pleasures, one cannot achieve happiness in life. This may be partly true; in fact, happiness is a state of mind which depends entirely on individuals concerned. One may find certain conditions in the society conducive to a happy life, while the same conditions may fail to make others happy in there.
In reality, wealth is one of the first conditions for happiness; we will find it difficult to answer how much of it is needed to make a happy life. Apart from it, there are some essential factors for happiness like health, education, position , security and fame, again the question arises, how much each of these is needed to make a life happy.
It is experienced that all the material factors that contribute to a happy life may fail to produce happiness if the individual concerned is not contented with what he has.
Therefore, feeling of contentment is the most decisive factor in the making of a happy life. We got to believe in the quotations like ‘Happiness lies in contentment.’ In real life, we always feel unsatisfied, regardless of whether we are the rich or the poor, businessmen or farmers, we all have many demands and desire. Even if we gain what we want, none of us will say, “I am quite content and no more expect anything. Many people are not content with living in plenty, and work all the time , as a result , suffer illness all over with weariness, and finally they are too ill to leave their bed. Many people are not content with their own positions, so they all conduct financial transactions with each other. They have lost their integrity and dignity, and even colleagues and friends can fall out with each other and become enemies. Insatiability makes us live in pain; we can’t feel peace and steadfastness within our spirits. So one must acquire knowledge on how to relax, and how to make this temporary life happy and meaningful.
In the opening paragraph, it is written that the route to having happiness has never been smooth; one has to encounter many situations and events that do not allow us to be happy. Allah is most gracious and most merciful and has given us conscience, intelligence to think over, to distinguish between right and wrong but because of our selfishness, greed, lack of love, jealousy, hatred, prejudice and favoritism, we hurt each other, we are unable to have happiness or bring happiness to others. If we are sacrificing, if we forget ourselves and we are no longer slaves to the above elements, we will no longer hurt others around us. If we love others, we bring joy to their lives and as a result we feel happy too. When we live our lives the way Allah want, not only do we have happiness in this life, but eternal happiness in the next life too.
In fact, as long as we are good at observation, we will find that human fate is arranged and predetermined by God, and he has mercy on all of us and treats every one with fairness. If we can understand everything is predetermined by the Creator, is bestowed upon by Him , if we can submit to the sovereignty and arrangement of God, then we will feel: We are truly content , for everything we enjoy is from God’s blessings.
May Allah bless us all with peace, abundance, health, love and happiness in this life and next life.
(Mohd Siddiqur Rahman, ex Country Manager of Biman, Bangladesh Airlines, in Frankfurt, Germany )
Happiness is the target; happiness is the most common dream of every human -being on the globe. It is his instinctive desire to be happy in life. As happiness is the target, he has been all his life engaging himself in the pursuit of happiness and slogging day in and day out towards achieving it. The route to having it has never been smooth; one has to encounter many situations and events that do not allow him to be happy.
Some seem to have overcome them and achieved happiness, some failed and such failure is often ascribed to bad luck. In fact, to figure out who has really had happiness and who has not, is a difficult task.
Most people think, money and materials can make one happy, so without determining the limit, they go all out to make as much money and materials as they can. Some of them become very rich indeed, they seem happy but no one knows exactly what goes on inside them. There are cases of very rich people who committed suicide. Some shoot themselves, some poison themselves and some starve themselves to death. Obviously these people are not happy, even with enormous riches. There are people, although their number is very few, have been trying to find out happiness in hermitic life taking shelter at the foot of mountains or keeping themselves in solitudes. But we are opposed to the philosophy of hermitage and seclusion. Anyway, happiness is a vast and crucial subject, cannot be accommodated in one article, even then, I should be trying to make it elaborative as much as possible to invoke my readers to go through it. Before going to discourse, let us see what the definition of happiness is.
The simple English Wicktionary has a definition for happiness: Happiness is a feeling of pleasure and positivity. When someone feels good, proud, relieved or satisfied about something, that person is said to be ‘happy.’ Happiness is usually thought of as the opposite of sadness. Now we got to figure out what really makes a man feel happy when wealth, materials and power proved to be futile in many cases. History reveals that King Alexander was not happy with his vast Kingdom, he continued conquering countries like Persia, Egypt including Punjab, King Poru’s kingdom in Asia to meet his soaring ambition .At the age of 33, while on death bed, he called his generals and said them to get the last of his three wishes fulfilled without fail.
1) First wish is that “My physicians alone must carry my coffin.”
2) Secondly, “I wish when my coffin is being carried to the grave, the path leading to the graveyard be scattered with gold, silver, precious stones and other riches preserved in my treasury.”
3) Continued, “My third and last wish is that both my hands be kept hanging out of the coffin.” One General, upon hearing this, assured him that he would carry out all his wishes but wanted to know what made him go for such weird wishes. In reply Alexander said, “I want my physicians to carry my coffin because people should realize no doctors can cure our disease and save our life from the clutches of death. So let not people take life for granted. The second wish of strewing gold, silver, precious stones and other riches on the way to graveyard is to tell people that nobody on earth can take along with them even a fraction of their wealth. The third wish of having the hands dangling out of the coffin is that I want people to know I came empty handed into this world and now leaving the world empty handed also.”
Here is one Eastern tale about a king who failed to find happiness, sought the advice of his courtiers. The wise ones advised him to wear the shirt of happy man. So soldiers were sent all over the country to fetch a happy man’s shirt. Though the men met many people who had shirts, none of these people was happy. The story concludes that, finally when they managed to find a happy man, it turned out that he had no shirt. This tale, of course, is not meant to be taken literally, yet the sagacity it implies is significant.
History reveals that British king George Edward VIII abdicated the throne in order to marry his American lover, Wallis Simpson; he married her and lived in France leaving his own country. The aim was to be happy in life.
Reversely, to stay in power, was the matter of best happiness with many rulers , many tyrants who clung to power up to the last moment, through homicide, genocide, anarchism, oppression and extortions. General review manifests that there are very few people on earth inclined to be happy by sacrificing power, wealth and luxuries of life.
Nevertheless, it is very hard to decide what makes a happy life; one man’s idea of happy life may not coincide with that of others. Some people believe that desire for wealth and material pleasures is the root of all discontent; they hold that as long as one runs after wealth and material pleasures, one cannot achieve happiness in life. This may be partly true; in fact, happiness is a state of mind which depends entirely on individuals concerned. One may find certain conditions in the society conducive to a happy life, while the same conditions may fail to make others happy in there.
In reality, wealth is one of the first conditions for happiness; we will find it difficult to answer how much of it is needed to make a happy life. Apart from it, there are some essential factors for happiness like health, education, position , security and fame, again the question arises, how much each of these is needed to make a life happy.
It is experienced that all the material factors that contribute to a happy life may fail to produce happiness if the individual concerned is not contented with what he has.
Therefore, feeling of contentment is the most decisive factor in the making of a happy life. We got to believe in the quotations like ‘Happiness lies in contentment.’ In real life, we always feel unsatisfied, regardless of whether we are the rich or the poor, businessmen or farmers, we all have many demands and desire. Even if we gain what we want, none of us will say, “I am quite content and no more expect anything. Many people are not content with living in plenty, and work all the time , as a result , suffer illness all over with weariness, and finally they are too ill to leave their bed. Many people are not content with their own positions, so they all conduct financial transactions with each other. They have lost their integrity and dignity, and even colleagues and friends can fall out with each other and become enemies. Insatiability makes us live in pain; we can’t feel peace and steadfastness within our spirits. So one must acquire knowledge on how to relax, and how to make this temporary life happy and meaningful.
In the opening paragraph, it is written that the route to having happiness has never been smooth; one has to encounter many situations and events that do not allow us to be happy. Allah is most gracious and most merciful and has given us conscience, intelligence to think over, to distinguish between right and wrong but because of our selfishness, greed, lack of love, jealousy, hatred, prejudice and favoritism, we hurt each other, we are unable to have happiness or bring happiness to others. If we are sacrificing, if we forget ourselves and we are no longer slaves to the above elements, we will no longer hurt others around us. If we love others, we bring joy to their lives and as a result we feel happy too. When we live our lives the way Allah want, not only do we have happiness in this life, but eternal happiness in the next life too.
In fact, as long as we are good at observation, we will find that human fate is arranged and predetermined by God, and he has mercy on all of us and treats every one with fairness. If we can understand everything is predetermined by the Creator, is bestowed upon by Him , if we can submit to the sovereignty and arrangement of God, then we will feel: We are truly content , for everything we enjoy is from God’s blessings.
May Allah bless us all with peace, abundance, health, love and happiness in this life and next life.
(Mohd Siddiqur Rahman, ex Country Manager of Biman, Bangladesh Airlines, in Frankfurt, Germany )
