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.