Page 47 - Faith: The Way to Happiness
P. 47
The Unhappiness of the Society of the Ignorant
important event of a person who believes in fate and submits to it
and one who does not believe in it. Let us say that the important
event is the university entrance examination, considered a turning
point in the life of every young person. Let us assume that the two
people referred to enter this examination. Because these two people
d i ffer greatly in their view of fate their psychological approach to
the examination and its effect on them will also be very different.
The person who submits to the fate created for him by A l l a h
will not suffer the stress and tension an examination can cause be-
cause he knows that the mistakes he makes during it and their out-
come are known in the sight of Allah before he enters the
examination and have been created for him by Allah as a blessing
because the examination has already taken place and ended within
his fate. This person will simply wait to see the outcome of taking
that examination. He is aware that there is no power other than
Allah which can intervene in the result. The knowledge that his re-
sult has been created by Allah for his benefit, whether it is a pass or
a failure, prevents him from succumbing to examination worries
and stress. Because of his devotion and submission to Allah, he ac-
cepts any result, good or bad, because the result is what A l l a h
wishes.
Because such a person does not become nervous or stressed, he
avoids the damage and loss which this might cause him. A nervous,
stressed person cannot be at ease, cannot collect his wits, cannot use
what he knows and can easily make mistakes. It is obvious that
being in such a mental state during an important examination will
have a negative impact on a person's examination performance.
Because of trust in fate, a person escapes from this negative burden
which examination psychology imposes and increases his chance of
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