It’s very easy to stay positive when our dreams are fulfilled
LAHORE: Virtue and suffering are to quite an extent inseparable. All prophets and sufis and Islamic scholars lived difficult lives with very few exceptions. Most people who live comfortable lives end up compromising on certain virtues, even though they may never admit doing so.
Human beings suffer in their life due to the tests they are put through in their lives. However, God tests those whom He loves only to strengthen them and their faith.
American Sufi scholar Shaykh Hamza Yusuf says, “This world was designed to break your heart”. This implies that there are veils between man and the ‘Ultimate Reality’. These veils in most cases are not lifted when everything is going exactly as one wants to. When all our desires are fulfilled, we have not paid any price for lifting the veil. It is only when one faces a loss, that one sees things in a different perspective and realises that most things that we hold dear were actually not a source of being close to God but a major distraction away from God. Hence, one is only in deception of this world.
Whatever situation one is in, it will always be a combination of good and bad. It’s not black or white. It’s actually a grey area. If we focus only on what we don’t have, we will become bitter of our surroundings or the ones who are close to us. If we focus on what we do have, we will remain eternally content and grateful. At the end of the day, it is we who decide which way to look at the picture. We often hear about positive thinking but not many people practically implement it in their lives. It’s very easy to stay positive when our dreams are fulfilled. However, managing to stay positive when our aspirations are shattered is what makes you a real survivor in the eyes of God.
Adil Farook
Published in The Express Tribune, February 26th, 2019.
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