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THE
WAY TO CONTENTMENT
If you
wish to understand how to enjoy, through belief, great
contentment and blessing, how to experience fulfillment and
ease, then listen to the following parable.
A
parable to understand how belief gives contentment and brings
blessing
Two men
set off together on a journey for both pleasure and business.
One of them who is arrogant, self-serving, goes off in one
direction, the other, who is God-serving, goes off in the
other direction.
Since
the self-serving one is both conceited and pessimistic, he
ends up in what seemed to him to be a most wicked country
because of his pessimism. There he finds himself everywhere
surrounded by poor and hopeless people who are tormented at
the hands of bullies and their lives ruined. Wherever he goes,
he sees the same scene. Everyone in that land is suffering the
same misery. Then he decides to forget all such events by
becoming a drunk. Everyone then seems to him like a stranger
or an enemy. He has awful visions of dead bodies and orphaned
children. His soul is plunged in torment.
The
other man, by contrast, who is God-serving, decent of conduct
and fair-minded, goes to a country which is, in his view, very
excellent. This good man sees a universal festival. In every
corner there is joy and happiness, and a house for the
remembrance of God overflowing with rapture. He also sees the
festive celebrations of a general discharge from duties
accompanied by cries of good wishes and thanks. And he also
hears the sound of a drum and band for the enlistment of
soldiers with happy calls of ‘God is the Greatest!’ and
‘There is no deity but God!’ In contrast to the other man,
who suffers on account of both himself and all the people,
this good-natured man becomes happy at both his own joy and
that of all the people. Moreover, he enjoys a comfortable
trade and offers thanks to God.
When he
meets with the other man, he understands his situation, and
says to him, ‘You’ve become a crazy man. All the bad
things and the ugliness you see come from, and reflect, your
inner world. Because of this, you imagine laughter to be
weeping, and the discharge from duties to be sack and pillage.
Come to your senses, clean your heart so that this
inauspicious veil is raised from your eyes and you may see the
truth. For, this is an orderly country, prosperous and
civilized, belonging to a powerful, compassionate and just
king. So things cannot be as you see or suppose them to be.’
Then the other man comes to his senses, and is full of
regrets: ‘Yes, I’ve really lost my mind on account of what
I have drunk. Thank you. May God be pleased with you for
rescuing me from such a hellish state.’
O my
soul! Know that the once arrogant man represents an unbeliever
or a heedless sinner. This world means for him a general
mourning. All living things appear as weeping orphans
because of the hurt of separation and decay. Human beings
and animals alike appear to be lonely, uncivilized creatures
cut down by death. The great masses such as mountains and
oceans appear in his vision as a terrible corpse without
soul. His visions arising from his unbelief and misguidance
breed such anxieties in his mind which torture him.
But the
other man is a believer. He believes in God Almighty and
affirms Him. To his way of seeing, this world is a place where
people praise Him, a sort of practice arena for human beings
and animals, a sort of examination hall for human beings and
jinn. All kinds of animals and mankind enjoy a
demobilization-that is, those who finish their duty of life
travel in spiritual enjoyment to the other eternal world. This
is quite simple to understand-the world needs a new generation
to people it and to work in it. All kinds of animals and human
beings have entered the world to carry on some particular
business. All living things are as soldiers or even officers
happy with the business appointed for them. And the sounds
that are heard are the sounds of their praise and glorifying
as they begin, or of pleasure as they work, or of thanksgiving
as they finish. In the view of the believer, all things are
the obedient servants, or friendly officers, or a lovable book
of his Most Generous Master and All-Compassionate Owner. Many
more beautiful, sublime and pleasurable truths like these
arise from his belief.
This is
because faith bears the seed of what is in effect a Tuba tree
of Paradise. Whereas unbelief contains the seed of a Zakkum
tree of Hell.
Safety
and well-being are only to be found in Islam and belief.
Therefore, we should continually return thanks to God, saying,
‘Praise be to God for the religion of Islam and perfect
belief.’
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