Page 33 - Faith: The Way to Happiness

The Unhappiness of the Society of the Ignorant

the world is merely an allurement. However, if a person believes
these decorations to be real and competes to acquire them, he will
depart by a great distance from the main purpose of his creation. At
this point his main purpose will be solely to satisfy the desires of his
lower self. Everything in the world is limited and defective so it is al-
ways possible to find something better, more beautiful or of higher
quality. For this reason the desires of the lower self have no end and
the person will never be happy with what he owns. Consequently,
instead of making such a person happy, acting in this way will drive
him into even greater unhappiness.
This unhappiness prevents ignorant people from being grateful
to Allah because they behave ungratefully for the blessings given by
Allah due to their ambition and passion. To them it is not important
who gave them these blessings or for what purpose; they do not
even consider this. What is important is to acquire everything they
like as quickly as possible and continually to increase the number of
their possessions. The situation of these people resembles a bucket
with a hole in it which can never be filled. When water is poured in
it escapes through the hole in the bottom. So long as the hole is not
plugged, it is impossible to fill the bucket. So long as people are not
grateful for what they own and do not know how to be satisfied
with it, no matter what blessings are given them, there will be no
change in their state. Even if they own the best of everything they
will not notice the beauty of what they possess and will not appreci-
ate it because they are still greedy for more. Allah points out the
state of such people in the Qur'an:
Leave the person I created on his own to Me alone, him to
whom I have given great wealth, and sons who stay with
him, and whose way I have smoothed. Then he wants Me to
add yet more! (Surat al-Muddaththir: 11-15)

31