Ismail Kamdar – The Quranic Formula for Happiness

Ismail Kamdar
Share Page

AI: Summary ©

The importance of worship for happiness and how it can be achieved through personal development is emphasized. The speaker discusses the three sources of continuous reward, including showing gratitude to others and living a purposeful life. The speaker also emphasizes the importance of showing acceptance of one's own success and being a "one one priority" in achieving happiness.

AI: Summary ©

00:00:06 --> 00:00:13
			I still feel what it means to be Hidaka learning how to be loving truly and personal for me see
early on Marlena, we love you
		
00:00:15 --> 00:00:16
			or make you
		
00:00:18 --> 00:00:23
			love or hate you Abraham Lincoln solo while he was in the machine was mourning
		
00:00:24 --> 00:00:25
			for Coloma.
		
00:00:26 --> 00:00:27
			Dadada, we
		
00:00:30 --> 00:00:49
			live in a time in which many people struggle with a lack of purpose, a lack of contentment, lack of
happiness, all over the world. The level of depression, the level of suicidal thoughts of
loneliness, have increased
		
00:00:50 --> 00:01:00
			dramatically. And we think that with the advancement of technology that we have in the 21st century,
that people will be happier.
		
00:01:01 --> 00:01:04
			But that's not the case. Rather, we find that
		
00:01:06 --> 00:01:22
			a overwhelming problem amongst people in the modern world is that they are lonely. They are sad.
They don't know what to do with their lives. And they don't have any sense of happiness or inner
peace.
		
00:01:24 --> 00:01:41
			But the Quran teaches us a formula that helps us to overcome all of this. Once you have a handle on
$1 He revealed the Quran to guide us to the best way of life. And this best way of life is best for
us on every level,
		
00:01:43 --> 00:01:48
			including our own internal sense of purpose and peace and happiness and contentment.
		
00:01:50 --> 00:02:21
			And one of the reasons why so many people today don't have this inner peace is simply because they
are disconnected from the revelation and they are disconnected from the Creator. They are searching
for happiness in the wrong places. They are searching for happiness in engaging their desires. They
are searching for happiness, in wealth, they are searching for happiness in faith. They are
searching for happiness in things of this world.
		
00:02:22 --> 00:02:27
			But through happiness, through contentment, through inner peace
		
00:02:28 --> 00:02:35
			can only be achieved through developing a close relationship with your greater love is equally
loved. And
		
00:02:37 --> 00:02:42
			it's only in remembering Allah, that the hearts find inner peace.
		
00:02:44 --> 00:02:59
			And the entire formula in Islam of really becoming happy content fulfilled in life revolves around
one primary concept. What is your relationship with your Creator.
		
00:03:00 --> 00:03:14
			Because if you are close to your Creator, you cannot feel lonely, because he's always there for you.
If you are close to your Creator, you cannot feel a lack of purpose. Because your life has a clear
purpose.
		
00:03:17 --> 00:03:26
			Your relationship with Allah is number one, in determining this level of satisfaction that you have
in your life.
		
00:03:28 --> 00:04:02
			And the reality is that you are close to Allah Subhana Allah, Allah, whatever happens in this dunya
you can still find inner peace. This is the famous story of the humbling scholar given the idea of
Allah when he was thrown in prison, based on some allegations by his opponents. And he made that
famous statement he said, What can my enemies do with me? I'm always with Allah. Right? If they put
me in jail, I have private time to worship Allah. If they killed me then of the shahada, there's
martyrdom. What can we do and
		
00:04:03 --> 00:04:13
			this shows you the mindset of the believer that your primary concern is your relationship with Allah
and your relationship with Allah is strong. The things of this world don't matter as much.
		
00:04:14 --> 00:04:59
			So let's break down this form because what does is what does the Quran teaches about attaining
happiness? Peace. Number one is to live a life of purpose. Once you have a handle and other colors
in the Quran, I did not create the heavens and the earth for fun, meaning it's not created without a
purpose. Everything has a purpose. If you look around you, almost anything you can identify in the
universe serve some kind of purpose. Right? Even things that people don't think about, like just how
far away the earth is from the sun. The purpose today, it was slightly closer it will be too hot. To
sustain life. We were slightly following it'd be too cold to sustain life. There's a purpose in
		
00:05:00 --> 00:05:06
			don't need that much of space. There's a purpose to everything from the ants, to the cockroach, to
the,
		
00:05:07 --> 00:05:15
			the animals, to water, rain, whatever you think of most of it has a purpose. We do have a purpose.
		
00:05:16 --> 00:05:38
			Our primary purpose is to worship Allah. But we can within the meaning of worship Allah identified
other purposes for life because the truth is the concept of worshiping Allah is a very vast concept.
It's not limited to Salah it's not limited to soccer is not limited to liquor.
		
00:05:40 --> 00:06:18
			If you are helping people for the sake of Allah than if worship, if you are working hard to provide
Halal income for your family, for the sake of Allah that we worship, if you are raising your
children and dedicating all your time to raising children who grow up to worship Allah, then that
parenting is worship. And so when we say that the primary goal in life is worship Allah, this is
really broad. It's not limited to one or two acts, in almost anything that you have dedicated your
life to. As long as they something pleasing to Allah and your intention is for Allah if we come for
worship.
		
00:06:19 --> 00:06:33
			And so if we want to be happy, we need to live a life of purpose. And living a life of purpose means
that we choose to do something with our life that is beneficial.
		
00:06:35 --> 00:06:36
			And we do that for the pleasure of Allah.
		
00:06:38 --> 00:06:48
			And really there can be anything you are teaching, you are providing a benefit to society. And if
you do it for the sake of Allah becomes worship. If you are a doctor
		
00:06:49 --> 00:06:55
			of the Quran says if you save one life is as if you have saved all of humanity that comes worship
itself for the sake of Allah.
		
00:06:57 --> 00:07:07
			So if we feel a lack of purpose, or lack of inner peace, let's start with identifying what can we do
with our lives for the sake of Allah.
		
00:07:08 --> 00:07:19
			Because once you have that, once you have that mission in life, that I am doing this, and I'm doing
it for the sake of Allah, and I'm doing it to benefit the Ummah, then you get that purpose and with
that purpose comes happiness.
		
00:07:22 --> 00:07:31
			The second thing that we can do, to create this happiness within our hearts, is to make Allah
Subhana Allah, Allah our number one priority.
		
00:07:33 --> 00:07:35
			We live in a time with a lot of distractions.
		
00:07:36 --> 00:07:44
			And because of these distractions, we sometimes forget Allah. And so we get distracted by the need
to earn money, and sometimes the greed.
		
00:07:45 --> 00:07:49
			Right, sometimes the need sometimes the greed, but we are distracted by
		
00:07:50 --> 00:08:06
			we are distracted by all of the entertainment, the infinite number of entertainment that surrounds
us. Our youth have more access to entertainment today than any other point in history, they can
literally entertain themselves with debt. That's how much entertainment is out there.
		
00:08:07 --> 00:08:10
			And this becomes a distraction from Allah subhanho wa taala.
		
00:08:12 --> 00:08:18
			So we need to prioritize our Creator. Allah will always be number one.
		
00:08:20 --> 00:08:25
			Back to the verse that we sent through this entire concept around Allah, we literally learned that
		
00:08:27 --> 00:08:48
			you only going to get that peace and happiness in your heart. If you are constantly in a state of
remembrance of Allah. If Allah is number one in your life, not yourself, not your family, not your
business, not money, not fame, Allah. Allah is number one. That is when you find happiness inside
your heart.
		
00:08:50 --> 00:08:56
			When you are close to Allah, you will find inner peace, you will find joy no matter what's going on
in the world.
		
00:08:57 --> 00:09:05
			Number three, that we remain Ophira focused. And this is a message that comes throughout the Quran.
		
00:09:06 --> 00:09:11
			Always remember, death can come to you at any time.
		
00:09:12 --> 00:09:14
			Are you preparing for the arcade?
		
00:09:15 --> 00:09:20
			Are you building up your good deeds? Are you minimizing your sins and repenting for them?
		
00:09:21 --> 00:09:28
			Are you setting up sources of continuous reward so if you pass away, your good deeds will continue
after you.
		
00:09:30 --> 00:09:53
			And remember the three primary sources of continuous reward your children. That's why parenting
especially being a mother is such an important thing in Islam, your knowledge, any type of knowledge
that you leave behind the benefits, others can be a source of reward for you continuously, and your
charity. This is why it's important that we invest our wealth instead of just piling it up in our
bank accounts.
		
00:09:56 --> 00:09:59
			And so we need to be focused in everything we do.
		
00:10:00 --> 00:10:08
			From how we earn our money to how we spend it, for what we do with our lives, what we do with our
knowledge from what we do with our youth to what we do with our health,
		
00:10:09 --> 00:10:16
			for the type of job that we choose to how we raise our children, everything should prioritize by
		
00:10:17 --> 00:10:41
			understanding, clearly will be not in this world for a long time. Nobody is in this world for a long
time. Right? Even if you look to the age of 90 or 100, in terms of the actual history of this world,
severely short time. That's nothing, right. If you actually compare the history of the world to some
other with 100 years, it's a very small part of time. So none of us live in this world for work.
		
00:10:43 --> 00:10:47
			But we do know if you get to Jenna, we have an eternal happiness.
		
00:10:48 --> 00:11:02
			Therefore, if you truly want to be happy, that should be an oddity, eternal happiness. Because in
this world, they'll always be problems in this world, they'll always be testing this will there
always be something that's not the way we want it to be something that's out of our control.
		
00:11:03 --> 00:11:08
			But true happiness lies in the pleasure of Allah, and entry into general.
		
00:11:09 --> 00:11:29
			And there's a hadith that states that there are some people who in this world they will face nothing
but try the one trial of one trial, their life will be difficulty of one difficulty. And then Allah
will just dump them into agenda for a second and they will forget anything that happened in this
world, just a moment in Jannah will cause them to forget all of the hardship of this world.
		
00:11:30 --> 00:11:33
			Now imagine if that's a moment in general imagining infinity in China.
		
00:11:35 --> 00:12:01
			That is the real happiness that we should be striving for. Janna paradise in the company of Allah
subhana wa taala. We remember the role model of ASEAN, the wife of the founder, the founder was the
worst tired to ever look. But his wife Ostia was a great believer to such an extent that Allah told
us in the Quran, that she is a role model for all the believers. Right Gina example for everyone.
		
00:12:03 --> 00:12:24
			Now what did she do when her husband was torturing her to death for believing in Islam, she made me
do our all love good for the house next to you ejecta near you agenda. She wanted a house near Allah
agenda because she knew happiness is not going to come in this world. Its agenda, it's a whole new
agenda that matters. That was the priority. That should be our priority as well.
		
00:12:26 --> 00:12:30
			A third way to increase our happiness in this world
		
00:12:31 --> 00:12:32
			is to live a life of sugar.
		
00:12:33 --> 00:12:39
			Allah subhanho wa Taala promised us in the Quran, whether in Chicago law as needed.
		
00:12:40 --> 00:13:21
			If you express gratitude, I will give you more. This is a promise of Allah. If you express
gratitude, I will give you what you see in this world we tested with two things. We tested with
hardships, and we tested with success. When we tested with hardships, you have to you have to show
someone when you tested with success, you have to show sugar, you do not attribute that success to
yourself. That's how you fail the test of life by attributing success to yourself. We go to the
story of the two men in the garden in Surah Al Kahf.
		
00:13:22 --> 00:13:43
			We Allah subhanho wa Taala tells us give them the parable of two men in the garden. Right give them
the parable of two men and the Goddess. And one of them was blessed with these two gardens that were
always profitable, he never made a loss, and he would boast about his wealth and you would boast
about the success. And what did his neighbor tell you? He said Why don't usually Marshall
		
00:13:45 --> 00:14:06
			Why would you say mashallah, why don't you attribute your success to Allah? Why don't you say lamb
who what are illa biLlah there's no success except from Allah. Why don't you attribute your success
to Allah. You see the test of this world, when you are given wealth when you give up power when you
are given fame, when you are given whatever you want them this dunya your test now sugar,
		
00:14:07 --> 00:14:17
			your test is to be grateful. And we see the example that also in the Quran, usually man or lady
Salah when he had the greatest kingdom that this lung had ever seen.
		
00:14:18 --> 00:14:22
			And he had power over the animals and power over the jinn and how over the wind.
		
00:14:23 --> 00:14:44
			What did he see? He said, Oh Allah give me the strength to be grateful to you. Give me the ability
to show gratitude. Because that is your test when you are powerful, to be in a state of gratitude,
to understand that wherever you have this, Allah, Allah can take it away and allow can increase it
depends on how you deal with it.
		
00:14:45 --> 00:14:59
			So a simple thing that I would suggest every single one of us do every single day. Think about the
blessings of Allah in your life and say on hamdulillah for every blessing that comes to mind see on
hamdulillah Al Hamdulillah. Allah has
		
00:15:00 --> 00:15:13
			Speaking of Muslim, Al Hamdulillah, Allah has given me a life Alhamdulillah Allah has given me
knowledge of this deen and say I'm hungry for everything from your health, your family, to your
wealth to whatever it is you have. So you
		
00:15:15 --> 00:15:18
			start to look at the world around you as the blessings of Allah.
		
00:15:19 --> 00:15:39
			and be in a state of constant gratitude for the blessing of Allah. Though you will find that the
righteous of the past even when things were going away, even when they will be tested with poverty
or bad health, or any other kinds of tests, this no remain in a state of gratitude. This skill will
be grateful to Allah
		
00:15:41 --> 00:15:43
			did a story that one of the
		
00:15:44 --> 00:15:56
			one of the righteous when you will be tested, and he will still be grateful to Allah if someone
asked him why he said, I'd be grateful for all the years of his they came before the test. I'd be
grateful for everything before them.
		
00:15:57 --> 00:16:33
			That this test has been one or two years and we have 20 years of ease. So let's be grateful for the
ease being born in the test. That's the mindset they have a hot dog when something bad will happen.
He would stay still say he would that Allah didn't affect his Eman. Your temper Allah, it wasn't
worse than what he actually they will actually happen. Right, they will still remain in the state of
gratitude. Because happiness comes from gratitude. And if you live a life of sugar, no matter what's
going on around you, no matter what's going wrong outside of your control, you will always find a
way to be happy,
		
00:16:35 --> 00:16:37
			you will always find a reason to be happy.
		
00:16:39 --> 00:16:52
			And this is a secret of true Islamic happiness to be in a state of sugar, no matter what's going on
in this world. So let us aim to be people of sugar relative aimed with people of gratitude.
		
00:16:53 --> 00:16:54
			To recap,
		
00:16:55 --> 00:17:08
			we said that if we truly want to be happy, we need to live a purposeful life. We need to make Allah
subhanho wa Taala our number one priority. We need to be focused on an athlete or not.
		
00:17:10 --> 00:17:15
			If you're not you always be proud and you overdo it and we should live in a state of gratitude.
		
00:17:16 --> 00:17:44
			And if we do these things, then inshallah we will find ourselves more often than not content and
happy and experiencing a peace. Yes, we are humans we will have our down days we will have our
Saturdays we will have our bad days. But if you don't take all of this, the happiness will outweigh
the negative feelings. We ask Allah to make us of those that back up to Africa one.
		
00:18:00 --> 00:18:04
			Mohammed bin Salman Allahu alayhi wa sallam was shallow of desire to have.
		
00:18:10 --> 00:18:12
			So you likely are going to be tested.
		
00:18:13 --> 00:18:36
			And Allah Subhana Allah has promised us in the Quran, we're the number one in the field. We don't
hope we will, Julie when Absolutely not. And while you were unfolding, What's tomorrow for machinery
so I believe that you will definitely be tested. with fear, with hunger, with loss of life, loss of
wealth, with loss of fluid, you will lose things you will experience
		
00:18:37 --> 00:18:43
			you will go through difficult times. Allah says the question is forbidding give good news to those
who have suffered.
		
00:18:44 --> 00:19:04
			See, one of the beautiful things about our religion is it's realistic about what life is about and
what the world is. It doesn't give us these false ideas. That if you are a good Muslim things will
always be happy for you things will always be good for you know, they prepare us for the realities
of life. So when reality strikes, we are able to recover quickly.
		
00:19:06 --> 00:19:22
			Because the reality is, every single one of us will face difficulties. We will face trials, we will
face hardships, and it's going to be different for each of us. Everyone has a uniquely tailored test
for them.
		
00:19:24 --> 00:19:55
			Some people are tested with the death of their close loved ones, many close loved ones, some are
tested for poverty, some are tested would have complications. Some are tested with family members
who are a nuisance, some majestical enemies, some are tested with people who are jealous of them.
Everyone's tested unique. But everybody has a test. Everybody has something in your life where the
solution is, is patience. So how does this link to the concept of happiness?
		
00:19:58 --> 00:20:00
			It makes because it keeps her
		
00:20:00 --> 00:20:18
			is grounded in reality. You see if you come with this unrealistic idea that I can always be happy,
and I can always be enjoying life and you'll always be in a good state of mind, you are going to be
very disappointed with life. And when bad things happen is going to crush you. Because you were not
prepared for it.
		
00:20:19 --> 00:20:30
			But if you go through life, mentally prepared for the fact that life is a test of every good thing,
you are in the state of Chicago, and when things go wrong, you make somebody
		
00:20:31 --> 00:20:51
			then you are able to recover quickly when things go wrong. And get back to that state of happiness,
we won't be straight away. Depending on how bad the child was, it may take a few weeks, it may take
a few months, but you can get back up there. Because you're mentally prepared that not everything's
going to go my way, sometimes things are going to go wrong.
		
00:20:53 --> 00:21:05
			So one of the most important things we can do, to help us get back to a state of inner peace and
happiness quickly, when we are struggling with the tribes of this world is to accept the mother of
Allah,
		
00:21:06 --> 00:21:15
			to make peace with the garden of Allah, and even higher level of Imam rather be opened up to be
pleased with the color. That's the highest level.
		
00:21:17 --> 00:21:45
			But at least at the very minimum, to accept it. I remember there's different levels of piety,
there's different levels of Imam. And if you want to earn Allah pleasure and experience inner peace
even during difficult times, then when things happen that's beyond our control, somebody we love
passes away a business that doesn't go the way we want them to go. chaos happens. It's outside of
our control, whether it's a pandemic or a riot, or a world war, or whatever it is, something happens
outside of your control, you accept it.
		
00:21:47 --> 00:22:01
			And you it says Allah knows best, Allah knows best, what's best for humanity, what's best for me,
Allah knows, and Allah is in charge that Allah is equal Joe, and I trust Allah. And this helps you
to be in a state of peace, even when the entire world is going bad.
		
00:22:03 --> 00:22:20
			It helps you to find peace, in your relationship with Allah, even when everything outside of your
control is working against you. And so it is very important that we have this close relationship
with Allah. And we have a realistic understanding and expectation of this world.
		
00:22:21 --> 00:23:05
			And that we deal with the difficult times with Southern and we deal with the good things with sugar.
And if we do this, more often than not, we will experience inner peace. More often than not, we will
be at peace with the father of Allah more often than not, we mean the state of sugar and the state
of gratitude. And this, all of this will help us to live the life that is fulfilling a life that is
happy, alive, that is content alive, that we keep moving forward. And eventually we get to the
eternal bliss of gender. Because that is our final goal. We ask Allah to ease the trials of anyone
who is experiencing difficulty in this world. We ask Allah to remove the trials from our lives open
		
00:23:05 --> 00:23:22
			the doors of ease and happiness for all of us. We ask Allah to accept our good deeds and forgive our
sins to make us of the people of sugar to make us from the people of struggle to make us from the
people who are wiser answered and from those who are content with his brother, Rob dunya will be
		
00:23:24 --> 00:23:27
			watching version react in a Kurata
		
00:23:28 --> 00:23:32
			mama Suhana rhombic Robin is a be afraid to tune
		
00:23:37 --> 00:23:37
			in