The Source of Our Happiness | Mufti Abdul Wahab Waheed

The Source of Our Happiness

One of the most beloved acts to Allah is to bring happiness to a person — to bring a smile on their face. It's possible to give charity even through a good face, through looking good, through a smile. And it's not just that your lips are smiling — it's your whole body that's smiling. Make your heart smile. It's contagious. Grief and sadness are contagious, and happiness is contagious.

The Nature of the Believer

Allah says human beings are made to always feel anxious, to always feel like something's been taken away from them. But that is not a quality of a believer. The quality of a believer is not to always feel afraid of what's going to happen to him. The quality of a believer is that he knows that these things are in the hand of Allah, and we do what we can to the best of our ability.

The quality of a munafiq is that they think every scream and every next move is against them — "Oh, that's against me. Oh, they're trying to come after me." But a believer makes his effort, he's going hard, working, trying to get things done, and he's not worried about what's going to happen. Allah says a believer is what we could say like a social hub — a person that can spread around happiness.

The reality is everyone wants to be happy at home and be content at home, but no one wants to be a source of contentment and happiness for others.

The Meaning of الإسلام — Being the Peace

I want to share something I've been studying, because English is not really helping us understand what's in the ayat and in the deen and in the life of Islam.

"Indeed, the religion in the sight of Allah is Islam." — Al-Islam. I've been looking at this. The alif-lam is the definite article, and then the alif at the root is an action. So the salam is the noun, and the alif would make this an act of doing something with the salam. So to me, I'm translating that as: be the peace. Al-Islam — to be the peace.

And so if we're living al-Islam, we are the peace. That kind of makes sense — because if you are at peace with whatever Allah puts you through, whatever tests and challenges come your way, if we look at the example of the Prophet, peace be upon him — whatever Allah put him through, he had to run, walk from Mecca to Medina, all these different challenges — he maintained that calmness, that peace of knowing that it's all up to Allah. Allah has written everything. So no matter what happens, it's up to the Creator regardless.

So if we maintain — be the peace — what Muslim means is you are a person that's maintaining that peace within yourself first and foremost, between whatever Allah has written and challenged you with, and then also you're spreading that peace around everybody else. That's why we say salam.

I'm wishing peace upon you — upon your family, upon everything about you. Peace. Peace. Peace. I want that for you. And it just doesn't carry that meaning when we say it, because we're so used to saying it.

You Can Only Give What You Have

A person can only give what they have. You can only give peace if you have peace, and that peace must come from the right source.

Whatever we have comes from a source. For example, I'm working for GM — if GM closes down, I don't have a job. If I'm working for Ford, Ford goes down, I lose my job. Everything is connected to its source. So if a person is seeking happiness, joy, contentment, peace, serenity — what source do they take it from? And based on that source, that joy and happiness will either remain or not.

If that source is coming from a temporal, temporary place, then that happiness and that joy and that peace will also be temporary. The only true happiness is happiness that comes from an everlasting place — and the only everlasting thing is Allah. So if we bring happiness, joy, peace, and serenity from an everlasting, ever-existing source, that peace and serenity will be lasting and contagious.

But if it's coming from a source that is itself dependent — then when that source leaves you, you also lose the quality. We're not giving peace because of anything else, but we're giving it because Allah is giving it to us.