Daily Lesson 44

Memorise and practice a new hadeeth every week!

By Mawlana Junayd Makda Sahib

True Contentment and Happiness

وَارْضَ بِمَا قَسَمَ اللَّهُ لَكَ تَكُنْ أَغْنَى النَّاسِ

Our Beloved Nabi ﷺ said, “’Be content and happy upon whatever Allah has decided for you and you will be the wealthiest and most satisfied person”

Tirmidhi

Explanation

When we think of happiness, we think of maybe having lots of money, having lots of friends, having a nice house, a nice car, maybe even having a good job.

However, the truth is:

1) We may never get any of these wishes, so we are most likely to be disappointed and left unhappy.

2) We may get all of these wishes but after getting them, we may still not be happy as we may want more or want something different. So again, we will be disappointed and left unhappy.

In this hadeeth, our beloved Nabi ﷺ has taught us a very simple rule to be happy.

“Be content and happy upon whatever Allah has decided for you and you will be the wealthiest and most satisfied person”

Tirmidhi

Now how can we be happy and satisfied with what Allah Ta’aala has given us:

1) Expect little, do not worry about getting too much.

2) Look at those less fortunate than you, there will always be someone who has less than you.

3) Look and be grateful for what Allah Ta’aala has given you and think less about what he hasn’t given to you.

4) Daily sit and think of individual blessings of Allah Ta’aala upon you and how life would have been without those blessings (e.g. think of the use of the eyes and what life would be like if you were blind).

5) Do not let yourself be deceived by what you see. The person with a big house or a nice car also wants more and is feeling the same as you.

6) Understand that man is weak and will always want more. Our beloved Nabi ﷺ has said: “The greed of the son of Adam will never be filled. If he has a mountain of gold, he will want another”.

7) Understand the value of this world compared to the hereafter, through ahadeeth like the following: Once when our beloved Nabi ﷺ passed by a dead one-eared goat in the marketplace. He reached out and took its ear and said, “Who would like to buy this for a dirham?” They (the sahaba) said, “Why would we want it when it is worthless? What would we do with it?” He said, “Would you like to have it?” “No,” they replied. He asked them that three times and they said, “No, by Allah! If it were alive, it would have a defect as it only has one ear. Why would we want it when it is dead?” Our beloved Nabi ﷺ said, “By Allah, this world is less in the sight of Allah than this goat is to you.” (Al-Adab Al-Mufrad)

8) Think of life and think of death. When we die, we will leave everything behind. All that will come with us, is the sheets of clothing we will be wrapped in and our good and bad deeds. 

9) Work and compete to be happy in the hereafter by doing lots of good actions and staying away from wrong.

10) Read ahadeeth and incidents of the worthlessness of this world.

Insha’Allah by:

  • Keeping our wish list for this world to a minimum
  • Looking at the things we already have
  • Making and working towards a wish list for the hereafter

We will always be a lot happier. 

Club 99 or Club Zero

In a small village far away, there lived two families. One very rich, living a life of luxury and fun. The other, relatively poor living a very simple life.

The problem was, the rich family never quite felt happy or content. Despite having so much, they still wanted more.

They would see the poor family walking past their house on most days. They always looked very happy. This always fascinated the rich family, and they would think what were they so happy about? 

One day, when the poor family were walking past, someone from the rich family called them and asked why they always looked very happy. 

This question came as a surprise to the poor family who replied, ‘Sir, as you know, we are poor, but my family and I don’t need much – just a roof over our heads and warm food to fill our tummies. We get this every day, so we are always happy. ‘

The rich family still didn’t understand, and so they took advice from a few friends. After hearing the rich family’s woes and the story of the poor family, one of the friends said, ‘Dear friends, I believe that this poor family have not yet joined Club 99.’ ‘Club 99?’ questioned the rich family, ‘What exactly is that?’. The wise friend said, ‘To truly understand club 99, let’s place 99 coins in a bag and leave it at this family’s doorstep.’

The next morning, when the poor family woke up, they found this bag which had been left on their doorstep. Surprised they picked it up and when they looked inside they jumped with joy. So many coins! They quickly sat to count them and after several counts, they were sure that there were 99 coins. ‘Why isn’t there 100 coins they thought? Surely, it makes sense to leave 100 coins and not 99 coins!’ they wondered. The wife said, ‘I have an idea, if we work a little harder than normal, we can earn a little extra and have one coin left at the end of the week and this will complete this collection.’

From this day, the poor family’s life had changed. They worked, worked and worked trying to make 99 into a 100, and 100 into 200, into 300… This left them feeling unsatisfied and unhappy as they always wanted more and could do nothing more to increase their coins any faster.

They started walking past the rich man’s house looking gloomy and upset and when they would see his house they would think when they could have enough coins to live like this rich man and be ‘happy’. Little did they know that the rich man too was part of club 99 and feeling the same as they were.

Witnessing this amazing transformation, the rich man understood what club 99 was. It was the club which always wants more. Before joining this club the poor family were in club zero, in which they had little to show but plenty to keep them happy. Now in club 99, they had enough, but they always wanted more which left them feeling gloomy.

Moral:

We learn from this story that true happiness isn’t about having lots of things and being rich, but true happiness comes as a result of being satisfied upon whatever little or more we have.

That is the real meaning of club zero, that we keep our wish list on zero and club 99 is when we have so much but it’s not quite enough for us to feel 100% happy.