Don't Be Sad - By Aaidh ibn Abdullah al-Qarni (A Few Excerpts from the Book about Happiness)

This website contains a few excerpts from the popular book "Don't be Sad" (original in Arabic) that discusses Happiness from an Islamic perspective.

There may be some grammatical errors in translation. You can download the actual E-book for free from islamhouse.com

Islamic Links

Home Page of Happiness

Things that bring about happiness

1. Good deeds:

Whoever works righteousness, whether male or female, while he [or she] is a true?
Believer [of Islamic Monotheism] verily, to him we will give a good life [in this world with respect, contentment and lawful provision]... (Qur'an 16: 97)

2. A pious wife:

`Our Lord! Bestow on us from our wives and our offspring who will be the comfort of our eyes... (Qur'an 25: 74)

3. A spacious house: The Prophet (Blessings and Peace be upon him) said:

"O' Allah, make my house spacious for me."

4. Sustenance that is derived and earned through honest means: The Messenger of Allah (bpuh) said:

"Verily, Allah is Tayyib (good and pure), and He does not accept other than what is good and pure."

5. Good manners and a spirit of fellowship with people: And He has made me blessed wheresoever I am... (Qur 'an 19: 31)

6. Being debt-free and not being a profligate spender:

(And those, who, when they spend, are neither extravagant nor niggardly...
(Qur'an 25: 67)

And let not your hand is tied [like a miser] to your neither neck, nor stretch it forth to its utmost reach [like a spendthrift]... (Qur'an 17: 29)

The ingredients of happiness

1. A thankful heart and a tongue that is moist with the remembrance of Allah.

An Arab poet said:

"Thankfulness. Remembrance, and patience,
In them are blessings and rewards."

2. Another ingredient of happiness is the keeping of secrets, especially one's own secrets. Among the Arabs there is a famous story of a Bedouin who was entrusted with a secret for a fee of twenty dinars. At first he remained true to the deal and then suddenly, in a fit of impatience, he went and returned the money he wanted to unburden himself from the load of the secret. This is basically because secrecy requires steadfastness, patience, and willpower.

`O' my son! Relate not your vision to your brothers... (Qur 'an 12: 5)

A weakness of man - which is just one of his many weak traits, is that he constantly feels the urge to reveal the details of his personal affairs to others. This sickness is an old one in the annals of history. The soul loves to spread secrets and disseminate stories. The connection between this topic and that of this book is that whoever spreads his secrets will inevitably feel regret, sadness, and misery.

And let him be careful and let no man know of l'ou. (Qur 'an 18: 19)