Why Do People Sorrow While They Could Be Happy?

Despite all their efforts, many cannot experience happiness in the true sense. To achieve this purpose, they try everything they can possibly imagine in the life of this world. They constantly pursue new ideals, believing that when they achieve these, they will find happiness as well. Some search for one good friend, some for wealth, some to attain their spiritual desires. Even if their wishes and expectations do become reality, still the results are never as they hoped. They cannot taste lasting happiness in the true sense. Mainly, they try not to reveal on their faces this dissatisfaction which they feel inside. But no matter how much they mimic happiness, they are living with a secret sorrow within.

In fact, they have every opportunity to be happy. In one verse of the Qur'an, Allah tells us about the blessings He grants people:

If you tried to number Allah's blessings, you could never count them. Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (Surat an-Nahl: 18)

As Allah tells us in this verse, a person encounters remarkable blessings throughout his life. Allah has equipped the world with all manner of wonders for everyone to enjoy. However, for people to be happy in the true sense, neither these blessings they enjoy nor the ideals they pursue are adequate by themselves. The people's discontent arises from the incorrect belief systems on which they've based their lives.

Unhappy People Have False Beliefs

There is a way of life that the great majority of people share. This way of life we call the "satanic system," prevails where there is no religious morality. This system is founded on an insincerity that is so deeply rooted in people's lives that even those who appear to be the most sincere, whose behavior which is assumed to be perfectly straightforward, may have fundamentally insincere motives.

Even though people fail to attribute any names to this system, they are naggingly aware of the error of the system under which they live. At every opportunity, they complain of the hypocrisy of others, because they have not experienced true friendship or true love and have no one they can trust in the full sense. Still, they themselves do not hesitate to display the same flawed morality towards all those around them.

In this system, everyone is damaged by his own actions. Even if such people try in every possible way, still they cannot find genuine internal joy, tranquility and happiness—yet they accept this as "a fact of life." In other words, according to them, Earthly life is not a place where true happiness and peace can be found on any lasting basis.

The truth is that unhappiness is not in any way a fact of life. On the contrary, it is extremely easy for people to find the solution for the internal troubles into which they fall. A verse in the Qur'an says, "... Only in the remembrance of Allah can the heart find peace" (Surat ar-Ra'd: 28). Here, Allah tells people that they can achieve true happiness only by finding faith. Only if they understand the mercy and protectiveness that Allah holds for them and live out their worldly lives in religious morality can people enjoy every moment. Only then can they praise the beauty of what they see around them as it should be appreciated and begin to experience happiness.

In the verse, "Anyone who acts rightly, male or female, being a believer, We will give them a good life and We will recompense them according to the best of what they did" (Surat an-Nahl: 97), Allah promises that He will allow the faithful who believe in Him to live the finest lives in this world and the Hereafter. Those who follow Allah experience the blessings He promises, both in this world and the next.

On this point, however, there is an important truth that people ignore. In order for people to experience the fine things of this life and enjoy the blessings of the world and the large number of beautiful things which Allah has created for them, then, faith in its true meaning must be lodged in their hearts. Otherwise, by paying the proverbial lip service to faith and by resembling the truly faithful only in certain limited ways, people cannot protect themselves from the unhappiness within. To know true happiness, people must bind their hearts to Allah in complete submission and live every moment in conformity to the Qur'an. Failing to do this, they will continue to suffer internal sorrow during every stage of their lives. No matter how much they want to be happy they cannot be. On the contrary, their lives will be ruled by such negative emotions as despair, pessimism and hopelessness.

As you can see, the road to happiness is an extremely simple one. With the Qur'an, the Divine Book that Allah has bestowed upon mankind as a mercy, He has shown people the secret of happiness. People can live a beautiful life only if they behave in accordance with their creation and the nature Allah has determined for them. People who turn aside from this path which Allah has shown them as a blessing, or who fail to follow the path as it should be followed, are creating a world of unhappiness for themselves by their own efforts. As Allah tells us in the verse, "Allah does not wrong people in any way; rather it is people who wrong themselves" (Surah Yunus: 44), these people are only tormenting themselves.

The unhappiness experienced by these people leads to the reality described by Allah in the verse, "Leave them then until they meet their Day when they will be struck down by the Blast: the Day their ploys will not profit them at all and they will not be helped. And those who do wrong will have a punishment besides that, but most of them do not know it" (Surat at-Tur: 45-47). In the Hereafter, Allah gives people recompense for what they do on Earth, but He also warns people that a torment of which most are not even aware will begin in the life of this world.

Allah refers to the difficulties that people who turn away from the faith will experience in worldly life, and what they will receive in the Hereafter in this verse: "... if anyone turns away from My reminder, his life will be a dark and narrow one, and on the Day of Resurrection We will gather him blind" (Surah Ta Ha: 124). Allah has shown people the way to protect themselves from this trouble and, as we have noted before, it is possible to do so through genuine sincerity and a deep faith in Allah.