Temporary Happiness vs. Real Happiness
For example, the concept of property has a very important place in the lives of people who are ignorant of Allah's religion. All the efforts of these people are directed towards increasing their property and achieving a status which earns them the respect of others. Allah tells us in the Qur'an that a number of things have become passions with such people:
"To mankind the love of worldly appetites is painted in glowing colors: women and children, and heaped-up mounds of gold and silver, and horses with fine markings, and livestock and fertile farmland. All that is merely the enjoyment of the life of this world. The best homecoming is in the presence of Allah." (Surah Al 'Imran: 14)
Property, which has become an end in itself for the community of the ignorant, is for believers only a means to be used for gaining Allah's good pleasure. For this reason believers do not long for the things listed in the above verse and do not make an aim of pursuing them. Increasing their property, enriching themselves or improving their status are never amongst the goals of believers.
They know that everything is a blessing given to them by Allah and that they have to be grateful to Him. They never neglect what is pleasing to Allah for the sake of trivial and temporary worldly gains. If a person uses everything he possesses and all his resources and opportunities to earn Allah's good pleasure, he will receive a fine reward in this world and the next as we are told by Allah in the verse,
"Anyone who acts rightly, male or female, being a believer, We will give them a good life and We will recompense them according to the best of what they did." (Surat an-Nahl: 97)
The difficult times and the troubles they encounter also make people who are ignorant of Allah's religion unhappy because their happiness is entirely bound up with worldly profits and gains, which in times of difficulty are at risk of being lost. The loss of these things due to events completely beyond their grasp, plunges them into great sorrow because of their attachment to them. In this way they completely lose the happiness and joy which acquisitions can bring them. They inevitably sink into depression and hopelessness.
As for the happiness of believers, it takes on a more lasting form because in times of trouble and difficulty they hold to the wisdom which is described in the Qur'an.
Since believers always take into consideration what is pleasing to Allah and apply their intelligence and their consciences exclusively to the task of achieving it, they are never affected negatively by adverse circumstances, as disbelievers are affected. On the contrary, because they hope to gain Allah's good pleasure with sincere and submissive behavior in times of trouble, nothing can lessen their happiness even at such times.
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