Page 18 - Faith: The Way to Happiness

FAITH: THE WAY TO HAPPINESS

Allah has told us that the life of this world is "a game and a di-
version." The fact that the unbelievers pursue every undertaking ac-
cording to the dictates of their personal priorities instead of striving
to earn the approval of Allah, makes all their efforts meaningless
and valueless, just like a game. What they do and what they earn are
very important for such people, but in reality what they do has no
meaning whatsoever in the real sense because they do not do it with
Allah's approval in mind. As a result, all of the energy they expend
amounts to no more than a useless waste of time. In Allah's sight,
however, only actions carried out with the sincere desire to gain His
approval have value.
What makes something valuable is not the effort made to ob-
tain it or the power or money used in doing so, it is only the consider-
ation throughout of Allah's approval. For example, if a businessman
has achieved great successes during his career, has made important
investments and has even made himself world famous, there can be
no question of what he has done having any value in the real sense
if he did not do it to earn Allah's approval. The value of anything is
bound up with whether or not it is pleasing to Allah and whether or
not it is used in order to gain His approval. In other words, what a
person does is not important. What is important is his motive for
doing it. How much he spends is not important. What is important
is his motive for spending it. Allah informs us that the important
thing in worship is the intention of the worshipper:
… Their [the sacrificial animals'] flesh and blood does not
reach Allah but your heedfulness does reach Him… (Surat
al-Hajj: 37)
Only the task which is performed for His approval has validity
and value in Allah's sight. No matter how important the tasks in

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