.بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
“He has succeeded who embraces Islam, whose provision is sufficient, and whom Allah has made content with what He has given him.”
— Muhammad (SAW), according to Sahih Muslim.
So I’ve been thinking about ‘contentment’, lately. I mean, it really isn’t always: elation, and highs, highs, highs. It’s ups, it’s downs, it’s… sometimes-straight, sometimes-squiggly, lines. It’s lots of things, and: a state of satisfaction. Accepting the Will and Decree of the Almighty
Would I be more ‘successful’, and more ‘content’, if I were to own, say, six different Lamborghinis, and… say, a personal yacht, reserved for Sundays?
I’m not so sure. This is how I am, as a human being: feed my desire, and… I find I just want more.
More, more, more.
“Wealth is not in having many possessions. Rather, true wealth is the richness of the soul.”
— Muhammad (SAW), according to Sahih Muslim and Bukhāri.
Everybody, essentially, is out there, looking for the answers. Looking for cures and remedies, and, most of all, perhaps: for answers.
Sometimes, life may hand us… a box of lemons. Other times: a nice little crate of… honey mangoes. It isn’t necessarily about being… overjoyed, all of the time. But: if you’re Muslim, and if Allah has Given you enough for the day (enough health, food, shelter, and the rest,) and if you find yourself content with it: and rooted in your Purpose…
Then know that this is success.
In this world, we are but travellers. We take our provision for the day. The past is gone; the future is unknown. This day has been touched. Do I find myself content with what I have been Given?
Today, I started thinking about feelings like… boredom. Difficulty. Various things, I suppose.
And then, in the afternoon, my friend ج had arrived at my house. You know when Allah Brings things, and people, into your life, into your day, and then: you have got to meet them. Get up, prepare, do something.
ج had come around with the intention of learning a bit more Arabic: she is currently learning how to read and write Arabic letters.
She’d also brought drinks for us: a can for her, and a can for me. And this is what the sweetness of contentment can feel like, really:
Good company. Good food/drinks. Faith.
Fire (from candles. Or, a campfire). And: flowers. Or, just good natural scenery/lighting.
With that aforementioned crate of mangoes: we find we can make some good ol’ mango lassi. [This reminds me of when, recently, my little brother decided to message random numbers from my laptop. To one particular number, he’d written: Hi there good old dentist]
With those lemons: sour, though they are… lemon drizzle cake. Eventually.
It’s not meant to be ‘perfection’. Rather: process. That’s where the sweetness, the contentment, is to be found, I think.
I think, sometimes: I get so ‘bogged down’ in abstractions, in my thoughts, in my head being ‘in the clouds’, so to speak… That I might forget that ‘real life’, is right here, happening all around… me.
It is where I find myself now. It is process. And conversations that feel much like they mean things. And ice-cold drinks. And my little brother doing all sorts of things every day. The way these days are: fresh, and real, and happening… I won’t have these forever.
I don’t just want to have a life to ‘look back on’. Or, even: just to try to ‘look forward to’. Somehow, in some ways: I have got to make some metaphorical lemon drizzle cake, and some metaphorical mango lassi also. Right here, and today.
Aim: a week, to memorise Surah Maryam, In Shaa Allah
According to one scholar whose videos I would sometimes watch: in Mauritania, I think he had said, some people might be, in material terms, quite poor. But… they’re happy. Content.
The individuals that he had spoken of: they do their thing. Do their work. Have their books open. And then, come tea time: books shut, and work put away. Daily, they will sit together, and drink tea, and have a good time. [A similar thing is done in Sweden, apparently. The ‘protected coffee time’, so to speak. In Sweden, this daily time is known as ‘Fika’.]
Much of this Dunya really is delusion: the noise, the frivolity, and the rest. And, in material terms, genuinely: ‘much’ is not needed, in order to have a good time.
“Wealth is in the heart and poverty is in the heart. Whoever is wealthy in his heart will not be harmed no matter what happens in the world. Whoever is impoverished in his heart will not be satisfied no matter how much he has in the world.”
— Muhammad (SAW). Sahih according to Al-Albani.
Now: how to nourish a heart? With such things as prayer, and good company. Gratitude: what is sufficient is: enough for me. In nurturing softness, and in satisfaction with Allah ‘s Decree.
Journey to the Heart of Islam. 