Page 61 - Faith: The Way to Happiness

Satan, the Voice of Misery

hope. They may fall into despair at any moment because of this. The
believers, however, nourish a powerful hope in their hearts even at
the most difficult moments because of their trust in our Lord. A per-
son who can always remain hopeful is also protected from the stress
and troubles caused by hopelessness and pessimism and the health
problems and physical damage which these can bring. Such people
manage to avoid a weary and defeated state of mind and have a
fresh and lively appearance. This fresh and lively spiritual state also
reflects itself in their actions and gains them a cheerful, easy, normal
and balanced personality.
A person whose source of hope is the Almighty Allah never, by
Allah's will, loses hope or the peace and good cheer he feels because
of it.

Satan Inspires Emotionalism
Another influence which makes people unhappy comes from a
s o u rce from which nobody expects it, the person's own emotions.
How can these feelings which are re g a rded as harmless become
harmful instead?
In communities which are far from religion, it is very diff i c u l t
for people to know what is true and what is false because all con-
cepts are in conflict with one another. A person does whatever he re-
gards as logical and correct and in this behaves with great will and
determination. A large number of wrong ideas receive approval and
a re admired while in contrast correct ones are re g a rded as wro n g ,
criticized and violently opposed.
Emotionalism is at the head of the list of these confused con-
cepts. Emotionalism may be defined generally as the evaluation of
everything on the basis of one's emotions and the shaping of one's

59