Life Is Tough.......[ but why be sad ]

Life is tough. ..fullstop.

Does not matter whether one has a Daimler in the garage and a trophy wife in bed.

Many of such blokes end up with suicides in the US, Scandinavia, Korea and Japan.

If you are 99.9 percent of what constitute the rest , life is even tougher

If you dont believe me that even those in  the rarefied 0.1 % of the strata find life tough, just look at who wrote a book about it recently, in fact a bestseller... Prince Ghazi, of Jordan.

Or if you have her personal phone number, you can ring Ms Melinda Gates and ask her.

Even Bill Gates probably is finding life, tough currently, disregard the changing SYT's that are sharing his bed at night.....[ a pun no doubt , but what business has one of the richest man in the world to do with lowly characters such  as Jeffrey Epstein etc etc and etc...... ]

On a more serious note, let us listen to what Paul Williams of 'blogging theology' has to say about life:

" Why Is My Life So Tough? ": Exceprt from Prince Ghazi' book...

(from https://bloggingtheology.com/2021/05/10/why-is-my-life-so-tough/)

 

Life Worth Living : Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad..

a wee bit watered down prescription, to appease the secular minds as well, but well, he wrote for everyone, if I can read his mind, and that is very good  of him. 

Very generous heart to share our secrets' with everyone.

That is his global daawah, I presume

In the process , if a few may have their hearts touched, they get the hidayat....they connect it to Islam. 

If they dont, it is OK, this is after all a free world.

    

[     https://youtube.com/watch?v=6tI0lAyW7pI&t=17s       ]

I pick Hamza Yusuf's short discouse , not to provide you guys any simple formullae towards happiness, but just to prepare a platform , a preamble, for you guys to be able to comprehend, the next one by  Khiai Muhammad Bhakiet's discourse, which is several notches up the scale into the realm of aspiring for both ' surga ' in this current realm, and the next..........a very tall order!!!

[    https://youtu.be/3tZRXTOyA_k      ]

"....are fame, wealth, health, all keys to happiness?   "

OK guys from here on, if you are non Muslim, you dont need to carry because you may not comprehend the discourse. It is super heavy stuff.

If you are just Muslim, and not yet Mukmin, you can also stop here. Hamza Yususf's is already good enough for you.

If you both Muslim and Mukmin, put on your seat belt......you can continue but it is going to be tough and rough journey ahead

Jannatul Firdaus in the next realm and 'surga ' in the current is not cheap!

One has to be super tough ' up there '.

It is a tough mental game for the few.

[ ..if I am beginning to sound like that character, Tom, in Mark Twain's 'Adventure of Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn ' to my son Joe, who is familiar with my prodding and suffers well and silently so far, I dont blame him. This is a my way of prodding him along in this tough journey called LIFE.

He also have read ' Tom Sawyer ', out of curiosity.

A compulsory reading for all of us form 1 pupils at Sultan Ismail College, Kota Bharu in the early 60.s

Tom, the main character was tasked by her aunt to whitewash and paint the concrete pagar of their house. A dreary task. He had his friends lining up to join in the 'fun' and each of them paying him in return for the 'pleasure'. In present day scenario, Tom would have landed himself a very successful marketing or advertising career! ]

......................................
 

If you want to have the 'no hold barred' formulla to happiness, and want it NOW!!!, the one word answer is RIDHA, in all circumstances. The accent, is on " IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES......"

In Islamic parlance,  the formullae is very simple, just 3 words in Arabic,  Alhamdullillah fi Kullihal , ie tranlated, " Praise be to Allah, in all circumstances. "

In time of 'expansion',  Al Hamdullillah .

Very easy this one....

In time of dire constriction, still able to say, Al Hamdullillah , or at worse, Al Hamdullillah..Inna lillah Hiwinna Ilai Hiro Jion .

This require a life long of data collection of ilm , ilm and ilm.

A life of Sabr, Ta'at, Shukr and Riddha

A maqam not easy to comprehend , let alone to aspire, especially if our mainly secular minds " banyak sangat songeng " and have too many , ifs , buts , whys and hows ". The problem inherrent with our secular upbringing and millieu.

Listen to Khiai Muhammad Bhakiet, and don't ask me...., if you cannot comprehend him, it is because you have not been able to leave your  " ifs, buts, whys and hows..."

[     https://youtu.be/tbA-kVESfQM    ]

But comprehension  is one thing, achieving it is another....

A lifetime of practice.......

Still On Happiness........

For the third month in a row, I am still stuck on the nature of happiness and the subject of contentment.
Muslim sages and philosophers put it simply to returning to our original 'paradisial state'.
Our conciousness, all our souls, once before in a 'time before time' and 'space beyond space', on the day of Primordial Covenant, the ,Day of Alastu' in the realm of  the divine, were collectively asked:

"Am I not your Lord ?"[ Alas Tu Bi Rabbikum ? ]
We all answered in the affirmative:
" Yes, verily we testify... " [ Balaa Shahidna ]............{ surah al Araf, 7 : 172 }


Man, or 'insan' in Arabic, denotes  a 'state of forgetfulness'.
Man, perpetually in search of lasting happiness and contentment, need to get back to the original 'paradisial' state of remembrance and total submission........that is  the 'sine qua non' of happiness and contentment.


This is the Islamic position.




Prof Seyyed Hoessien Nasr addressing a mainly secular academia at Emory University,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p8kSiNLnEQ&feature=related




Related articles in the blog :
Happiness Revisited,
http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2012/04/happiness-revisited.html
On Tranquility, Happiness and Contentment
http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2012/01/on-tranquility-happiness-and.html

Happiness Revisited

The great sufi saint of the tabi'in era, just one  or two generations after Prophet Muhammad [ pbuh] and the sahabi period, Hasan Al Basri concluded  rather abruptly that tranquility, happiness and contentment in this life and the afterlife rest on three things :

1. Recitation of the Quran

2. Solat 

3. Zikrullah

Must have sound rather  too simplistic to most  of us present day Muslims,  mildly, partially or totally 'disconnected' from the Din or otherwise.. He was of course addressing  Muslims of his century, the 8th  or 7th century or so, where doing all the basic 5 pillars of Islam were a matter of routine. 'Nominal Muslims' were  non existent and if they exist, regarded as  kuffar or worse, bottom of the  heap 'Munafikun'.

This is the 21st century. Nominal Muslims  and the so called 'Munafik' rule and dominate the Muslim hinterland interfacing with the Western world. Values have changed. Human rights. Animal rights. Green right. All rights except God's right...The world has become godless. Political correctness is the order of the day. This is the 'period' when wrongs become right and rights become inordinately wrong.


Even when people of religion discuss 'happiness' with the rest of the world, it has to be 'laced' and sugar coated with 'honey' and the right PC. Otherwise the United Nations and the whole might of the Security Council will come 'homing' on them in due course !
 [ see ' On tranquility, happiness and contentment : An Emory University discourse with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, Prof  Hoessien Nasr,  His Honourable, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sack  and Rev Schorri ....http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2012/01/on-tranquility-happiness-and.html  ]

I have practically gone 'around the world' studying and researching on the nature of happiness. Have read Holiness Dalai Lama's book on 'Happiness' and found him quite hollow. Listened to gurus and self proclaimed expert on lifestlye . All lacking substance and direction, most totally lost.

Listened to hundreds of lectures on 'tranquility and contentment', listened to various professors and philosophers. All seemed only to concentrate on the now and here. Those who believe in a tomorrow beyond today, got themselves lost in the central issue of God and minor gods !

Certainly happiness and tranquility has nothing to do with your position in life or how much money you have in the bank.

One can be the president of USA, or a powerful figure in a nation state or a sultan with  absolute power, with hundreds at one's beck and call. 

One can have a Bentley Turbo and a fleet of Mercs and Porches in the garage and a trophy wife waiting in bed.  But happiness may still be elusive. In fact these symbols  of success could guarantee one a real big headache if one lack the knowledge and the wisdom to handle them.  We would be wise to be reminded by what Prophet Mosses [ pbuh ], had to say about the age of affluence to the Israelites  following the end of years of hardship after the exodus  from Egypt :


 "Affluence is the  preamble of heedlessness, disbelieve and misplaced pride".

At the personal level I have 'experimented' myself with zikr, in the depth of the ocean bed, zikr hours and hours  in endurance riding on the back of a galloping horse over hills and dales. I have even wokened up in the wee hours of the morning to experience the bliss of solitude and prayer. Had read volumes of tafseer and books.....these 'experiments', all to no avail, if the heart is not there.

Happiness is not on the hills  or dales or in books or volumes of quran......it is just there in one's heart to be rediscovered !

At the end of the day, I have to conclude, on matters of the heart, and indeed tranquility, contentment and happiness are things of the heart, we have to give it ,to the sufis who practice 'experiential Islam'. that indeed the sufi saint, Hassan Al Basri, had got it right.

For all the professors , philosophers and people who are expert at weaving words and phrases in this world, from our perspective as Muslims at least, the 'keys to the garden' remained only in three  magic words:

Recite the Quran [ Iqra ], Solat, Zikr.

It is for all of us to just discover them on our very own individual  life journey  !

Mekkah and Medinah geographically are situated in Saudi Arabia, but for those who have arrive, these two venerated places of worship should be in one's heart !

on recitation of the Quran:

[Yususf Estes]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jhkbwj5yNyo

[Mufti Menk of Zimbabawe]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=hJZi1Txle6o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EszS9pv2iK4&feature=relmfu

on solat:

[Mukhtar Al  Magraoui]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khgqQWuDBqs&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL5UXdd4F1s&feature=related

on zikr :

[Yasir Qadhi]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUScyrbvqxg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0lLPowOqqI&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpM1d3BZKl0&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG24gr9UPoU&feature=relmfu

On Tranquility, Happiness and Contentment..

The great sufi saint,Hasan Al Basri concluded  rather abruptly that tranquility, happiness and contentment in
this life and the afterlife rest on three things :

recitation of the Quran
Solat &
Zikrullah

Let us listen to Shaykh Yasir Qadhi on why this is so.........
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MDoWLhlK2o&feature=related

Sounds too simplistic for you. You are not convinced. Let us be academic and take the great ocean road of Academia and  move on to the rarefied atmosphere of Emory University, USA to visit  our friends, His Holiness, Dalai Lama,  Reverend Katherine Schori, Chief Rabbi, Reverend Lord Jonathan Sack and Prof  Seyyed Hoessien Nasr who will no doubt  only 'confuse' us further on the nature of  'Happiness'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xfEcC2RXro&feature=relmfu

All of them trying to best each other and be politically correct, you might wonder ?
To 'deconsrtuct' the existing confusion, let us come home back to KL and listen to our very own Prof Sayyid Naguib Al Atas,
[ http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2010/10/prof-sayyid-muhammad-naquib-al-attas-in.html ]
who in not so many words,  put the 'state of happiness' or rather its very opposite, the  'state of unhappiness' as being closely related to our present ability and/or inability to observe the 'right adab', the wisdom and/or the lack of wisdom to put 'things' in their proper place and perspective with respect to Allah.

Still confused !
At the end of the day we have to come back to 'experiential ' Islam and nothing beats the 'experts at  this game' than the sufis, the people of the tassawwuf, the people who are  masters at  the blissful state of 'free from wants' !.

We are back to Hasan Al Basri's triology of :
Recitation of the Quran, Solat and Zikrullah.
Very simple yet we still would not want to recognise this

Still not fully convinced ?
Remember Karl Marx, agnostic/ atheist of the order of 6/6 on The Dawkin's Scale of things.
A hardcore atheist:
"Religion is the opiate of the masses "
Take  this worldly advice from him,  a thinker par excellence. Karl Marx had no reason to be biased and neither was he playing to the gallery. He was speaking from his most rational mind :

Recitation of the Quran.
Solat
Zikrullah.
Fullstop....................

That is the true religion.A formulla for tranquility, happiness and contentment in this life and the afterlife.
We cannot go wrong.