Religion cannot promise happiness ... betui tak?

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“Peaceful Mind”Samy Abdul Wahed, Creative Common License, Flickr

I have had it with preachers, gurus, imams, and rabbis selling their religion as a promise of happiness.

I’ve had it with the shallow self-help section of bookstores, that promises spirituality as an individual path to “fulfillment” without a notion of sacrifice, without community, and without radical and fundamental transformation.

I have had it with religion as self-help.

Sure, religion is not the opium for the masses.
It’s also not Prozac for the masses.

Religion cannot promise us happiness.

Look around.

Mad men walk into schools, shooting children and teachers.
A billion people live on a dollar a day.
Tsunamis kill more than a hundred thousand people.
Millions of Americans (overwhelmingly people of color) languish in the prison-industrial complex.
More than a hundred thousand Syrians have been killed, and millions have been made refugees.
Millions live under totalitarian regimes, under drones, under occupation.
At a more intimate level, your loved ones will die.
So will you.
So will I.
The one you love may not love you back.
Your partner may betray you.
Your children will, at least at some point, disappoint you.

How many of those who suffer from any or many of the above are good, faithful people?

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The state of contentment, an old Muslim Cambodian manCreative Commons license, Flickr

You can be a person of faith, and not find happiness in this world.
Happiness is not promised to anyone.  Not people of faith.  Not anyone.

If a religious leader promises you happiness, and you find yourself in an unhappy moment in life, did God fail you?
Worse yet, if you find yourself in an unhappy life, did the God of happiness fail you?

No.

Religions cannot promise happiness.
Religions should not promise happiness.

If we are truly fortunate, religion can be a path that brings with it contentment.
Contentment.

Happiness is overrated.
Contentment is where it is at.

Let us stop chasing happiness as a destination.
At best, it is not promised as a condition of the path.
At worst, it is a mirage.
The sign of a genuine spiritual path is contentment along the path.

The most beautiful religious people I know are content in joy, and content in tragedy.
They know that the task of religion is to remind us that we walk with God in every state.

We walk with God in the valley of death, and we walk with God on the mountaintop.

Where we are on the path is not guaranteed to us.
Religion offers us the company on the path, and how to process every state.

As the Muslims say, alhamdulilah ala kulli haal.    Praise be to God for every passing state.
All shall pass, and all that remains is the presence of God, the Eternal Guest of the heart.

The Islamic mystical tradition tells of a humorous story of a king who passed out slices of melon to a friend.   The friend relished each morsel, and after each said:  “how lovely, how delightful!”  The king finally tasted one himself, and found it to be somewhat bitter.   Puzzled, the king turned to the friend and inquired how he could have expressed such joy.  The friend said:  “I am your friend, not the friend of the melon.”

As this tradition says, to be a beloved is to be constant in love.  If we are attached to favors from the beloved, or in the relationship only to avoid the wrath of the beloved, then our connection is not with the beloved, but with favors/wrath.    And so it is with God.

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Content couplefrom Shutterstock

Peugeot Ahmadinejad Sudah Terjual

Masih ingat berita mantan Presiden Iran, Dr Ahmadinejad yang berhasrat melelong kereta antiknya untuk memenuhi tabung perumahan rakyat termiskin di Republik Islam Iran? Setelah memenangi pilihanraya Presiden penggal pertama dalam tahun 2005, beliau diminta mengisytiharkan asetnya. Apa yang beliau miliki ialah sebuah rumah berusia 40 tahun dengan keluasan 175 meter persegi di Selatan Tehran, dua akaun bank dan sebuah Peugeot tahun 1977. Peugeot 504 yang pernah dipandunya ketika menjawat gelar Datuk Bandar Tehran itu sudah pun ada pembelinya.

Harganya $2.5 juta.

Ia terjual dalam satu lelongan awam yang turut disertai oleh pembida dari lapan buah negara. Khabarnya motokar putih itu sejak awal lagi sudah dibida dengan harga 1 juta oleh seorang pembeli rahsia dari negara Arab.



Peugeot 34 tahun tersebut dilelong dalam satu pameran kereta klasik di Arvand Free Trade Zone wilayah Khuzestan.

Adakah Rasa Dalam Hati Pak Hamka Terguris Tragis Seperti Cerita-Ceritanya?

HAMKA pernah menghadapi dilema antara memilih keyakinan sendiri, atau tunduk pada keyakinan yang dipaksakan. dalam peristiwa solat Jumaat berasingan, HAMKA dibantah keras oleh ulamak lain yang tidak sealiran. ini kerana Islam itu dianggap sebagai 'agama rasmi', jadi hanya ada satu jalan yang 'disahkan' oleh kerajaan. solusi yang dicadangkan oleh HAMKA? HAMKA minta diisytiharkan sebagai seorang kafir, supaya dengan itu tidak perlu lagi HAMKA terikat dengan pelbagai peraturan kerajaan yang dipaksakan semata kerana Islam itu 'agama rasmi'. bayangkan kalau HAMKA hidup di Malaysia, tahun 2013. boleh rujuk Kenang-Kenangan Hidup untuk bacaan lanjut.

Madonna reveals she is studying the Holy Quran – Just Like a Prayer Girl

The Super Star and a Legend Singer Madonna revealed this week she has been studying the Holy Quran, a practice which has come alongside her efforts to build girls’ schools in Islamic countries.

“I am building schools for girls in Islamic countries and studying the Holy Quran. I think it is important to study all the holy books,” the U.S. pop icon said in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar published on Friday. Madonna added that she agrees with what one of her friends tell her; that a good Muslim is a good Jew, a good Jew is a good Christian, and so forth. The “Material Girl” recently got her fans talking after posting a picture on Facebook from a photo shoot in which she wore what looked like a chainmail niqab.

The picture was accompanied by the words: “The Revolution of Love is on…Inshallah [Arabic for 'God willing'].” Speculations over the “Like a Prayer” singer’s interest in Islam have sparked in recent years after the star began dating Brahim Zaibat, a Muslim of Algerian descent.

Last year, Madonna was pictured in Turkey with Zaibat as she wore a headscarf to visit a mosque in Turkey, according to news reports.In this week’s interview, the 55-year-old star also disclosed revelations from her younger years.

She recalled being held up at gunpoint, raped and having her seedy apartment burgled three times, saying she was scared at times before she started making it as a singer and dancer.“New York wasn’t everything I thought it would be. It did not welcome me with open arms,” she said.“The first year, I was held up at gunpoint. Raped on the roof of a building I was dragged up to with a knife in my back, and had my apartment broken into three times. I don’t know why; I had nothing of value after they took my radio the first time.”