Page 31 - Faith: The Way to Happiness

The Unhappiness of the Society of the Ignorant

times people evaluate what has happened to them from diff e re n t
points of view. People who do not think correctly put everything
that happens to them down to luck. A c c o rding to the twisted logic
they put forward, people suffering disasters have been affected by
bad luck and have lost everything because of it. The pain they suffer
and the discomfort they feel intensifies this superstitious belief. In
fact, the truth is that there is no such thing as bad luck. The loss they
have suffered may be Allah's warning to them that what they have
done is wrong. In one verse Allah warns as follows:
Do they not see that they are tried once or twice in every
year? But still they do not turn back. They do not pay heed.
(Surat at-Tawba: 126)
However, because they are not aware of this truth, the troubles
which befall them recur again and again. This causes them to live in
a world of unhappiness. The fact that they stubbornly continue with
the same behavior when they suffer loss reveals the magnitude of
the desire to be praised and admired which persists within them. In
the Qur'an, Allah tells us that the desire to boast about what they
own is so powerful as to drive them out of their senses:
Fierce competition for this world distracted you until you
went down to the graves. (Surat at-Takathur: 1-2)
This boastful psychology is so strong that in order to obtain ad-
miration and praise people may tell lies about things they claim to
have done but have not really done at all. Allah has warned these
people by telling them that the return for such behavior is torment:
Those who exult in what they have done and love to be
praised for what they have not done should not suppose
that they have escaped the punishment. They will have a
painful punishment. (Surah Al ‘Imran: 188)
This misbehavior affects their relationships with others around

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