Page 34 - Faith: The Way to Happiness

FAITH: THE WAY TO HAPPINESS

As we are told in another verse:
He has given you everything you have asked Him for. If
you tried to number Allah's blessings, you could never
count them. Man is indeed wrongdoing, ungrateful. (Surah
Ibrahim: 34)
Allah has given people everything, but the feeling of ingrati-
tude within people prevents them from thanking Allah as they
should. In the Qur'an, Allah tells us that He will only increase the
blessings of His grateful followers and will repay the ungrateful
with torment:
[Musa said to his people,] "And when your Lord an-
nounced: 'If you are grateful, I will certainly give you in-
crease, but if you are ungrateful, My punishment is
severe.'" (Surah Ibrahim: 7)
The desire of many people to possess the blessings of the world
does great harm both to themselves and to the societies in which
they live. Since they cannot satisfy their constant desire for newer
and better, the trouble and sorrow felt by such people is very deep.
Due to their attachment to this world, these people develop, "an in-
satiable love of wealth." (Surat al-Fajr: 20) When they are asked for
material help or asked to share what they possess people like this
display very selfish and cruel behavior due to their excessive attach-
ment to their possessions, as Allah points out in this verse: "Truly he
is fierce in his love of wealth." (Surat al-Adiyat: 8) Mostly they give
something unimportant just for show while clinging on tightly to
the rest of what they own. In connection with this, the rich in a com-
munity get richer and the poor get poore r. This constitutes a gre a t
obstacle to the achievement of peace and justice in society.
This passion inside people for increasing their possessions
leads to miserliness, a behavioral aberration whose wrongness is de-

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