Expansion

[REEYAN]

A happy and contented Man‏

Man is greedy, hasty, and avaricious by instinct. He is never satisfied. The more he gets, the more he desires or craves for. The rat race to outdo and surpass others to earn more and more money in our materialistic age speaks volumes of his complete absorption in the world and his unending desires and wants. The prophet of Islam, Hazrat Muhammad (Peace be upon him) said, “If a man gets two mountains of gold, he will crave for a third one”.

However hard we may try, we will not be able to find a single person who is satisfied with this world and his achievements. Given this very fact, every sane mind must reconcile with the fact the satisfaction is unattainable. Therefore, it is better to aim at contentment. Indeed, contentment is a great wealth for those who are well aware of the reality of this world, which is temporal and fleeting. The success of this world is short-lived. Only contentment can make a man happy in this world.
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It must be borne in mind that our life in this world is our trial or test. We are being tested here. We are going to be rewarded in the Hereafter according to our deeds we do here. We are supposed to maintain a striking balance between our religious duties and worldly affairs. A man who is contented with what he gets is a real happy person. A true happiness is possible. Following are some signs and qualities of a happy person in this world. Every one of us is supposed to adopt them if we wish to lead a happy and contented life.
1. He has unshakable and unflinching faith in his God.
2. His heart is free from pride, vanity, falsehood, rancor, grudge, prejudice, and ill will.
3. He is quite indifferent to public fame, as he loves his good deeds to be hidden. He expects their rewards only from God.
4. He keeps his conscience clean. His conscience is his strong retreat.
5. He has no expectations and hopes from others, as he depends on himself. He knows that high hopes and expectations always disappoint in the end.
6. The rules of state (guiles, tricks, dishonest dealings) are foreign to him. He only knows rules of good.
7. He always sings the praise of his Lord, and seeks His bounties and favors.
8. He is not jealous of others.

Though all these qualities look ideal, and sometimes, they are very difficult to follow, especially in this jet set age, our success, and salvation lie in them. We all are supposed to possess these qualities to lead happy and successful life in this world and in the Hereafter.


REGARDS

[REEYAN]

FRIENDSHIP IN OUR MATERIALISTIC AGE‏


True, loyal and faithful friends are indeed our prized possession supposed to be treasured forever. Their friendship is timeless and eternal. “For without friends,” Aristotle says, “no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.” Good friends are two bodies with one soul.

Regrettably and ironically, genuine friendship is hard to be found in our materialistic world where money and personal gains are considered as yardsticks or criteria for having friends. All the folk tales, stories, great sermons extolling the virtues and setting great standard of friendship seem to have lost their core meaning in our present age. The ideal friendship has been confined to books only. Its significance is reduced to nothingness in our jet-set age, where moral values are blurred and eclipsed by greed, avarice, self-aggrandizement, faithlessness and some other social evils and vices.

There was a time when it was unimaginable for a friend to cheat his friend. Cheating friends amounted to infidelity. Friends were considered two bodies with one soul. The spirit of self-sacrifice for the sake of friend was common worthwhile quality. They were gelled together in adversity. They were always mindful of each other’s interests and give each other room to grow. Jealousy, envy, prejudice, hatred, greed, hypocrisy were foreign to them. They were all-weather friends, treating their friendship as something great, noble and holy. It is indeed very painful to say that such an ideal friendship is rare in our present era. In their wild attempt to be part of rat race to hanker after worldly riches and benefits, friends, shockingly, have adopted an indifferent and devil-may-care attitude towards their friends, who are less fortunate than they are. This who-cares attitude is a grim reminder that genuine friendship has been adversely affected by our irrational and inordinate desire of self-aggrandizement, setting aside all the basic moral values and ethics.

All this creates a bleak, depressing and pessimistic outlook. One wonders whether he will ever be able to have good friends in this materialistic world. The answer is a big “Yes”. One must hope for the better. Pessimism must be replaced by optimism. Despite the fact that materialism reigns supreme in our times, loyal and devoted friends can still be found provided we make concerted efforts to locate them and encourage them to come out and let people know true friendship still exists, although it lays hidden by being eclipsed and overwhelmed by negative elements of our society. But its disappearance is not permanent. It will shine again.

Friendship is a noble quality. We hate to lose or deprive ourselves of this great and wonderful possession of ours. We are all supposed to make sincere effort to keep friendship alive for our own sake. Remember, Friends have no substitute, no match, no even money, nothing whatsoever. Following are some useful suggestions to keep friendship still valuable and worthwhile:

1. To have a friend, be a friend.
2. Never test your friend. He/she might not be in a position, though they wish to, to come up with your expectations because of their own problems and compulsions.
3. Be sincere with your friends. Your sincerity will win their hearts, and they will reciprocate your love, sincerity and devotion.
4. All friendships have their ups and downs. Learning to put aside disagreements makes companionship long-lasting.
5. There should be frankness among friends for self-revelation. One must take friend’s criticism as seriously as their expressions of admiration or praise.
6. Friends must show their unity, faithfulness and loyalty.
7. Friendship contains some trial, but true friendship endures the test and ever grows from