Salaam and Peace to you all Recently, I've been thinking about the epitamy of 'life' and the meaning of true happiness. Unlike many other aspects of life these are entities which do not have 'universal' definitions. So, with this in mind, I decided to look up the word 'happiness' in the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (2nd ed). It states: "Happiness - the feeling of being happy" ... hmm, not exactly what I had in mind...
If you were given a list of words from which to choose and describe happiness, which three would you choose?
For me, happiness is not a state of living, for it is neither material nor is it tangible, rather, I hold it as a state of being. For happiness lives in the heart, mind and soul; uncaptured by words or expressions; born of an untainted inner realisation, with an existence truly only known, not to the seeker of happiness, no, rather to the receiver of happiness.
Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab (rahimahullah) states, there are three signs of happiness: "Grateful when you are given, Patient when you are tested, Repentful when you are disobedient". [Taken from, 'The Four Principles of Shirk']
Undeniably, happiness is a thought that fills the mind, occassionally roaming the fields in search of - no, rather in need of - the sweet tasting seeds that once pollunated a weak heart. Enabling it to forever remain, as it once was... a glowing flame shielded from the harsh winds of life.
