Thursday, January 14, 2010

Doing those things that make you at peace with your self

A Pious scholar enumerated some of the factors that bring about tranquility:
1. worshipping Allah (GOD) exclusively without associating any partners with him (in worship), and without associating any partners with Him in all qualities that belong to Him alone. The disbeliever and the one who associates partners with Allah (GOD), the Almighty, are, for all effective purposes, dead and not alive.
2. Useful knowledge, because the most happy, easy-going, and contented kind of person is the scholar.
3. Good deeds. A good deed brings light both to the heart and to the face. Doing good deeds results in being blessed in one’s sustenance, and the hearts of people are naturally attracted to the doer of good.
4. Bravery, for the courageous person is firm and strong and fears Allah (GOD) alone. Difficulties and hardship neither shake nor disturb him.
5. Avoiding sins. Sinning ruins one’s peace of mind and makes one feel lonely and in the dark.
A poet said:
“I saw that sins cause the heart to die
And addiction brings disgrace to the addicted.”

6. Not being extravagant in that which is lawful. In other words, one should be moderate in speaking, sleeping, and mixing with people, and likewise one should be abstemious in one’s eating habits.
A poet said:
“O’ companion of the bed, you have slept excessively,
Don’t you know that after death is a long sleep.”

The sweet taste of freedom

A man who had a mental disorder and an extreme anxiety problem sought advice from a doctor, who advised him, saying, “Know that no matter what the plans are that someone has for the future, there is no movement, not so much as a whisper, in this world but that it occurs by the permission of Allah (GOD).”

A scholar wrote:
“Small things are greatly magnified in the eyes of the small one, And great things are diminished in size in the eyes of the great one.”

A pious scholar wrote:
“Whoever possesses three hundred sixty loaves, a canister of oil, and one thousand six hundred dates (i.e., enough provision for one year), then none can enslave him.”

Another pious scholar once said:
“The one who is satisfied with dry bread and water will be free from slavery except the slavery to Allah (GOD).”

“My aspirations and desires enslaved me since I obeyed them,
If I had only been contented, I would have been free.”

Those who seek to make wealth or status a means to happiness will come to know in the end how futile and fruitless their efforts were.