Religion and Happiness

Religion and Happiness

By Khalif Muammar

Happiness is often defined as pleasure and material satisfaction. It is characterized by good fortune and intense joy. Happiness becomes a loose concept and means different thing to different people. Aristotle, who paved the way for secularism and immanentism, maintains that happiness consists of good birth, good health, good look, good luck, good reputation, good friends, good money and goodness. Between a rich person and a scholar he chose a rich person as the happier one. Contrary to his pupil, Plato is doubtful about happiness: once you have happiness you will see misery. You seek happiness and yet you never feel you have it. Therefore in Germany they say: “glück und glas, wie bald bricht das” (Happiness and glass, how they are easily broken).

Since the definitions of happiness given in Western literature lack spiritual and religious dimensions, people tend to believe that they will experience happiness only in this world. Consequently, they believe that paradise must be built in this world. They consciously or unconsciously attempted to create heaven for themselves in this worldly life assuming that paradise in hereafter is merely a myth designed for the weak. Even Seligman’s theory of pleasant life, good life and meaningful life is devoid of religious guidance and values. This indicates that he believes religion has no significant role in determining the happiness of human being.

In my view, philosophers and social scientists who discussed happiness without reference to religious guidance are offering bewilderment and confusion to other people. You can tell people that they are happy and happy, in a narrow conception, but you cannot tell them that your road to happiness is certain. Without religion and spirituality there is no objective happiness. People cannot attain true happiness without religious guidance. What they may attain is only a subjective and temporal happiness. Many theories emerge today deal with happiness in a mechanistic way and lack of meaning. A company called Friendsfirst in Ireland invented ‘The Happiness Index’ by which the happiness of a person is measured in a daily basis. Later on they admitted that it is implausible. There are studies conducted which suggest that happiness can be measured effectively. As if happiness equals to wealth. We know a person is unhappy by looking at the symptoms. Like we know a person is sick when we see the symptoms. However, unlike a healthy person a happy person is not measurable. This is because happiness is not only a psychological condition but also a spiritual condition.

Western conception of happiness depends so much upon material condition of a person. Aristotle followed by most contemporary social scientists and philosophers agree that happiness is psychological condition which depends on sensual satisfaction. According to this view, without material contentment no person can be happy. It is easy to talk about happiness when you are fortunate. This implies that unfortunate persons never experience happiness. And yet we know that they are sometimes happier than many normal persons. You are truly a happy person if you are still happy when something bad (calamity, being poor) happened to you. At time of disaster, your convictions and your happiness will be tested. At this time in particular human being, more than ever, needs God. His faith and trust of God will save him from depression and suicide attempts. Therefore, my point is that happiness can be achieved not only by fortunate persons but also by unfortunate persons i.e., the poor, the disable and even the imprisoned.

Religion plays an important role in defining human life. Religion, not any religion but a true religion of God, can guide us in attaining happiness in this world and hereafter. Without Divine guidance human being will be lost in confusion and gone astray. Divine guidance is needed owing to the fact that human knowledge is limited and very few compared to Divine wisdom. The fact is that what we think is good might later turn to be bad. We tend to belittle something which then turns to be of up most importance. Moreover, a way of life based purely on human reason, such as materialism and secular humanism is proven to be destructive. This is evident in the current crisis of humanity wherein warfare, crimes and social ills escalate; the crisis of nature wherein climate change and global warming agonize the global community. Need not to mention our continuous dependence of God’s blessings and protection. God, in Islam, does not only create this world but also maintain it and manage its operation. In Islam, human being is the servant of Allah. This is the truth about human nature. He is not independent from God or a master of the universe as portrayed by secular humanism and existentialists. This true nature of human being is indispensable, confusion in this salient fact will result in crisis of humanity itself as we witnessed today.

Religion tells us that wealth and worldly satisfaction should not be our goal in life but the pleasure (ridha) of God. That appearance should not be a parameter but one’s heart. Don’t be deceived by material and physical condition of a person but look at his heart and his deeds (morality). This worldly life, the Qur’an tells us, is an adornment (zinah), which may distract us from achieving our real goal. Thus, we must have persistence and perseverance so that our whims and the Satan cannot mislead us from undergoing a life pleased by God. The Prophet tells us that a truly wealthy person is the one with contentedness (qana’ah) or ghina al-nafs. God tells us that this worldly life is not the end it is only like a bridge to get into the eternal life (hereafter), wherein we are accountable and be punished or rewarded for our deed. With this in mind a person will not be desperate to build his paradise in this world because if he is good he is certain to get into the real paradise in hereafter. And if he chose to be a bad person he has opportunity to repent and ask God’s forgiveness. Religion emphasizes that human being must choose to be a good person otherwise his life, both in this world and in hereafter, will be miserable.

True happiness must be permanent, it should not depend and measured based on material condition and physical appearance. It is, more than psychological condition, a spiritual condition. As a spiritual condition it is permanent and immanent. It is not affected by outward condition. A truly happy person should be happy even in a worse condition. Therefore, happiness is not only about feelings and emotion. It is about choosing the right way of life through moral conduct and religious guidance.

Happiness in this worldly life can be achieved only through Divine guidance. It is through Divine guidance human being will know his true nature, the true nature of God and existence. Morality does not make sense if it divorced from religion. Moral theories will remain theoretical and vague unless it is accompanied by the concept of the judgment day, justice and Divine wisdom. A person will abstain from consuming alcohol, even though it is alluring to him, because God forbids it. This Divine instruction is more effective than one's rational thinking. His rationality cannot force him to avoid harmful actions. Only those who submit to God's decision will experience true happiness. Because he will realize there is wisdom in every Divine injunction.

The happiness of human being cannot be attained by pursuing satisfaction of the self, because it will never be satisfied. Human being will be happy only through submission to God (Islam), because that is the real nature of human being. Being submissive to God entails accepting oneself as a servant of God which always depend on His blessings and love; obeying His instructions because they are good; abstaining from the unlawful because they are deleterious.

'Unhappy People'

Perhaps we should know who are unhappy among us. This is important not to judge anyone but to ensure that we are not one of them.
1. Childrens ignored by their parents. Many childrens constitute among the most unhappy people because they depend so much on others to be happy. If parents are unable to allocate their quality time to be with their children, no enough attention and care given to them, they will grow with anger and hatred. They will become individuals without affection and love towards others. Every child needs attention, love and education from their parents. They initially look at their parents as role models. If parents cannot educate their childrens and inculcate noble values, they will find friends, TV as their educators. This will necessarily result in confusion, immorality and miserable life.
2. Parents ignored by their childrens. As we know, we will reap the fruit of the plant we seed. If parents ignored their children the children will in turn ignore their parents. Many parents think that by providing wealth their children will be happy. Materialistic parents would rather spent most of their life working and accumulate more wealth assuming that the more money they acquire the happier they will be. Of course, temporarily, they will enjoy with fancy cars and warm vacations but then without inner satisfaction from every single member of the family the wealth does not mean anything. Later, with regret, the parents will realize that they have brought up ungrateful, mean and immoral persons.
3. Criminals. This includes thiefs, murderer, liar and all kinds of crimes. They chose to be criminals because they think they can have what others have in an easy way. The think that they have failed to reach their goal and become ordinary persons. Since they still have the desire to be rich, have pleasure and alike, they decided to take the risks and become criminals. It is evident that it is materialism in its ugliest form that causes this social ill.
4. Some distinguished people. Those entrusted as rulers, community leaders and high ranking officials who abuse their power and committed injustice will end up in misery. These corrupt leaders will bear the result of their wrongdoings in this world and hereafter. History proves that many of these corrupt leaders, such as Marcos, Fujimori, Suharto, Estrada face their punishment at the end of their life.
5.Those who live for lower cause. The bulk majority of people today live their life for the sake wealth and pleasure. Human beings actually have higher cause. It has something to do with God and His purpose of creation. This spiritual cause is necessary if a man really seek perfection. Man is not in any way an animal. Reason and soul are the distinctive nature of human being. Once we dedicated our life for the cause of fulfilling our whims we actually chose to live like animals. Animals don't care about values, about knowledge, about peace and tranquility. These are the functions of the soul. Our happiness depend so much on attaining good values, deep knowledge and inner tranquility. Those who chose the materialistic way of life are not happy, although sometimes they seems happy. Even if they have all that they want, but deep inside they feel something is missing. They need to keep themselves entertained through music, disco, bars otherwise they will feel bored. If they really happy they don't need them.

Is Happiness Possible?

To live a happy life is not impossible. We can achieve happiness in this world if we know how and have an access to the road provided for us by our Creator. God did not leave us unguided and undirected. Actually, He gave us the freedom to choose a happy life or a miserable one. If we chose the right one we will certainly be happy and if we chose the wrong one we will be unhappy. Since God is Merciful and Compassionate, He provides us with His Guidance. Therefore, we don't have to struggle to find the direction. We only have to follow the direction provided by God in order to be happy. The thing is do we see the guidance as a guidance or we think we need not His guidance?

Many people chose the wrong way of life, follow only his whims, in the end of the day they will find themselves in emptiness. Some people find nothing meaningful in their lives. What happiness actually means to us? is it pleasure and material satisfaction? Is it something relative and temporal, which entails no one can really attain happiness? If happiness is confined to material and outward satisfaction, our happiness will be temporary and surely this is not happiness. It is mere satisfaction. Something to do with human emotion. Happiness is not an emotion, though a happy person will necessarily looked happy. Happiness should be permanent and immanent. It should not depend on situation and condition but on faith and noble values which rooted firmly in human natural condition.