The Happiness Solution

The Happiness Solution

By Imam Siraj Wahhaj

The Question: Do I Have the Right to Be Happy?

A decade ago, a sister came in my office and she asked me a question. She says, Imam, do I have the right to be happy? She was telling me about the difficulty in her life. And now, over a decade later, I'd like to answer her.

Do I have the right to be happy? All of the speakers tonight have said the same thing. I'd like to just give a little more. I want to go back to the beginning.

Our Predestination Before Birth

I want to go back to your creation, and yours, and yours, and yours. And mine, and yours. When we were in the wombs of our mother, Allah sent an angel and told the angel to write four things.

The sustenance, the jobs that we have, the money that we make, the houses that we have. It was written then, not yesterday, not when you graduated from school, not when you first got that job, but it was written right there in the wombs of your mother. The work that we would do, and how long we would live.

And then Allah told the angel to write this word or that word, either we will be happy or miserable. And all that we do must come down to this issue, nothing else. I don't care how much money you have, how happy you think you are on this earth now, but the reality is, it all boils down to this.

You're going to be shaqiyoon, you're going to be miserable, or you're going to be saeed, you're going to be happy. I want to quote a verse from the Quran that sheds light on this world right now. We must begin in Jannah, we must.

And Allah will never change the condition of a people until they first change what is within themselves. We must begin right, we must begin in Jannah, we must begin in Fitrah, always we must begin right. And somewhere along the line, we change, because we disobey Allah.

The Warning of Shaytan and Our Expulsion from Paradise

"[I seek refuge in Allah from Satan, the rejected.] - And We said, "O Adam, indeed this is an enemy to you and to your wife."

Allah said the same thing, and listen to the next word, and Allah, His wisdom is so perfect: you and your wife, so don't let him kick you out of the Jannah, because when he does that, you're going to be miserable. And then he says:

"Indeed, you will not be hungry therein or be unclothed."

In it, you will have no hunger or nakedness, let's stop there.

The Reality of This World's Struggles

Let's stop there. I'm going to ask you a question, do we have hunger in the world? Millions of people die every day because they can't even find bread and water to drink, bread to eat and water. Millions of people a day, every day on this earth, why? Because that is the nature of this world right now, the nature of the dunya right now.

Nakedness. (وَأَنَّكَ لَا تَطْمَأُ فِيهَا وَلَا تَضْحَى - Quran 20:119) - In this Jannah, you're already there. You have what you want, you can drink water, you can eat food, everything. You're not going to be naked, you're going to have gold and silver. But in this world, do we have people thirsty? All the time, you know why? That's the nature of this world.

The Pursuit of Happiness: A Historical Perspective

Do I have a right to be? Do I have the right to be happy? 232 years ago, the author of the Declaration of Independence said this: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

And he didn't name happiness, you know why? Because you can't do it. One man said, in fact it was a woman named Mary: "No man chooses evil because it is evil. He only mistakes it for happiness."

William Hazlitt said: "How little security have we when we trust our happiness in the hands of others?" And finally, Eric Hoffer said: "The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness." Running after something, thinking that you're going to get happiness because you get something in your hand. You will never get happiness.

The Only Source of True Happiness

My thesis tonight is that the only real happiness is the happiness from Allah. I want to take a moment to look at our prophet Muhammad. How can you find true happiness in this dunya, when those whom you love will depart? Abdulrahman Ibn Auf asked Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him a question, and I would like to ask the same question tonight that he asked.

His son Ibrahim was at the point of death, and I want you to imagine holding your little baby, and the prophet began to cry. Abdulrahman Ibn Auf said, You too? You crying? Our prophet peace and blessings be upon him said, It's mercy. And then he said: "The eyes may cry, and the heart may feel sad, but we never say except that which pleases our Lord." (Sahih Bukhari 1303)

The Fleeting Nature of Worldly Happiness

Brothers and sisters, you know what? The only glimpse of happiness in this world, Sheikh Azri, we were together a few months ago, and I mentioned about my daughter Subhana, that she was getting married. Allah bless her, she got married two weeks ago. It's a man named Luqman, and right now they're in Egypt, on their honeymoon.

You know what a honeymoon is? And you know why they call it honeymoon? It's from the French. Moon means month, and the French say that when you get married, the sweetest time is the first month. Glimpses of happiness.

How often we've been on honeymoons, and the great love between the husband and the wife. How can you be happy when somebody's been married 30 years, and all of a sudden, one day, the husband says, I don't want to be married to you anymore. Or the wife says, I want to get a divorce, I'm not happy.

The Struggles and Hardships of Life

How often, how often do we have people come visit Masjid al-Taqwa, one block south of our Masjid, a homeless shelter, 1,000 homeless men. How could you find happiness here when those whom you love have been married for years, and then someone dies? How can you get happy? How can you be happy when our senior citizens, who have been retired for years, have to go back to work because of the economy right now? How are you going to be happy? We had a janazah this morning. One of our brothers, his baby died a few days ago. How could you have happiness here? Alzheimer's disease and sicknesses and all of that. Millions of people visiting the emergency rooms and the hospitals every day. How can you be happy here? So brothers and sisters, I'll leave you with this thought.

The Miracle of Vesna Vulevic: Understanding Allah's Decree

I want to mention a woman that probably you've never heard of before. Because I want us to walk out of here, this conference, with something that's going to affect us so that we have the right attitude. January 26, 1972, there was an airline, 33,000 feet in the sky, that was blown up by a bomb.

Everyone on the plane died except one woman. Her name, Vesna Vulevic. 33,000 feet in the sky.

Let me give you some perspective. Remember the World Trade Center? And you remember people jumping off of the building and dying? The distance? 1,368 feet. Tell me how a bomb explodes 33,000 feet in the sky and the plane blows up and a woman, 22 years old, survives. Because she wasn't part of the plane and the plane, when it hit the mountain, it hit some snow and she's alive. And she's alive today to talk about it. And you know what they say? She cheated death.

Wrong words. It was because Allah wrote: (وَمَا كَانَ لِنَفْسٍ أَن تَمُوتَ إِلَّا بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ كِتَابًا مُّؤَجَّلًا - Quran (3:45) - No soul can die except by the permission of Allah. It is already written in a book. It was written before we were born. So if a

Muslim knows that nobody can die except by the permission of Allah when your daughter dies, when your son dies, when your wife dies, when your husband dies, when your grandmother dies, when your best friend dies, when your imam dies, when the scholar dies, you say it is the will of Allah. (إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ - Quran (2:156) - It is the will of Allah.

And once we understand that, now we can accept death. We can accept death whenever it comes. I read the Quran. I read Sunnah. I have never found anywhere that suggests that Allah will guarantee us happiness in this world.

The Prophet's Life: A Testament to Patience Through Hardship

When you look at our Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, his father died before he was born. His mother died when he was six years old. His grandfather, Abdul Muttalib took over, he died. His uncle, Abu Talib, he died. His wife Khadija, she died. Daughters of the Prophet, they died.

Now what are we going to do when we have some misfortune in this life? Are we going to leave the Islam? Are we going to believe in the morning and disbelieve in the night? Are we going to believe at night and disbelieve in the morning? No.

The reality is what the Prophet said in my conclusion: "Oh Allah, there is no life except the life of the hereafter." (Sahih Bukhari 6414, Sahih Muslim 1805)

Our Focus: The Hereafter

Brothers and sisters, our key is how we view this life. For me, in us, according to one scholar, Sheikh Jamal, I was reading your book, and you mentioned in this Hadith that one scholar he wrote that when Allah told the angel to write Saeed, Shaqeed, all it was one word, either one or the other. Now brothers and sisters, we should want to know, Inshallah, that Yom Qiyamah, Allah will enter us into our Jannah.

And by the way, by the way, there was a survey taken by some social scientists, and they asked the question, which country is the happiest country? Who do you think they put number one? Denmark. How did they know that? And what was the last one? Least happy? Zimbabwe. And which is the richest nation on the earth? United States. And what place were they in? Sixty? Subhanallah.

Perspective: How We View Our Condition

So brothers and sisters, I conclude with this issue. Sometimes it is not our condition, but how we view our condition. Sometimes it looks very difficult for us and very dark for us until we translate, understand, and interpret.

The Story of Prophet Ibrahim and Hajar: A Lesson in Contentment

I conclude with this. Our prophet Ibrahim alayhi salatu wasalam left his wife Hagar and his son in the desert,

and he went away. And as he was walking away, Hagar asked, Yeah, Ibrahim, where are you going? Where are you going? Are you going to leave us in this valley? He keeps on walking.

And then she asked the question, Have you been ordered by Allah to do this? He said yes. And so she said, Allah will not desert us. And then a son grows up. He gets married. His father is not there. One day he goes away to work.

Ibrahim alayhi salatu wasalam comes to visit. He asks a few questions. How is your condition? She goes on to complain it is very bad, it is very miserable.

Prophet Ibrahim said that when your husband comes, give him salams and tell him to change the threshold of his gate. He goes away.

Ibrahim alayhi salatu wasalam comes. He feels something. Did you get a visit? Yes. A man came. And he told me to say to you, Assalamu alaykum, and change the threshold of his gate. He said, Woman, that was my father, and you are the threshold of my gate. And he told me to divorce you. Go home. Go home. Then he married another woman.

Prophet Ibrahim alayhi salatu wasalam came to visit her when her husband Ishmael was gone. How is your condition? Alhamdulillah. It is good.

Ibrahim alayhi salatu wasalam said, give your husband salams and tell him to keep strong the threshold of his gate. And when Ishmael came home, she said to him that this man had come to see you. And he said, give you salams and say, keep firm the threshold of your gate.

He said, you are the threshold of my gate, and that was my father. And he said that I should remain married to you. So women, same condition, different outlook.

Conclusion: Serving Allah in All Circumstances

Our condition here in this country is great when we serve Allah. And when we serve Allah no matter what happens to us, Allahu Akbar. Because we want to be saeed on Yom Qiyamah, and we want to go to Jannah.

May Allah bless you, brothers and sisters, and bless this conference. And we will take from it and take it into our lives.