What’s the True Secret to success?

Happiness, health and peace of mind: those are the basic hopes and ultimate endeavours of every human being. Naturally, we are in continuous pursuit of happiness, health and peace of mind, but unfortunately for many of us, life often seems a constant struggle. Meanwhile, people tend to be in an unremitting quest for material possessions, making that the focus of their lives, while health and happiness seem ever elusive.

When a certain idea is repeated frequently enough, it gradually becomes engraved in our minds. Whether this idea is true or false, if we allow it, it soon takes root in our beliefs and becomes a mindset, or part of what we think of as ‘common sense’. Through the media, school curricula and workplaces, all day long we are fed a diet of the ‘virtues’ of consumerism. The value of a human being has been reduced to what he or she owns—money, car, house, fame, position—or even worse, to the way he or she looks; a man should be handsome and attractive, while a woman should be beautiful, with a nice, slim figure.

Blindly copying the opinions, customs and manners of others can be very dangerous. It can cause us to hold false beliefs and to submit to erroneous modes of thinking. For us as Muslims, besides striving for success in this world, we also seek the eternal happiness and bliss of paradise:

{And of them there are some who say: Our Lord, give us in this world that which is good and in the hereafter that which is good, and save us from the torment of the fire!} (Qur’an 2: 201)

The question is: How can we reach worldly success along with eternal satisfaction? What is our own Islamic way, the ‘True Secret’ to temporal as well as everlasting happiness?

Before revealing the ‘True Secret’, let me tell you about something that happened to me a few years ago. In a local newspaper, I read an article written by a middle class employee who had barely been earning his living. At the beginning of his story, he had no money to marry and start a family. Years passed, and he lost all hope of making his dream of a family life become a reality.

One day, returning home from work, he passed by an orphanage. Seeing the poor orphans, he thought about how fortunate he was compared to those little ones. He suddenly felt grateful for his situation and decided to help those children. “I cannot afford to build a home in this life, so let me seek one in paradise, inshallah (God willing),” he thought. Acting with total faith, altruism and dedication, the man started setting aside five percent of his monthly salary to help the orphans. His life went on as usual, and he did not regret his decision for a single moment, even though he occasionally became penniless before the end of the month.

Sometime later, a job opened up in his company’s branch in one of the Arab Gulf countries. Usually an opportunity like this was only available to someone with connections or was given as a way of showing favouritism, but to his surprise, his boss nominated him for the post, and he got the job. His life changed completely, as he reported in his story in the newspaper. He is now happily married, living in a nice, big house, and earning a decent living. Most importantly, he added, he never forgot to deduct the five percent of his salary to give to the little children in the orphanage.

I was so very touched by this tale of total faith, altruism and honesty that I suggested that my husband and I do as the man did. “We should deduct part of our salary to give to the less fortunate,” I said excitedly. My husband’s reaction was an eye-opener. He said, “If you think this is a magic prescription for wealth, then you have the wrong intention. If you want to do it, you should do it only to seek the pleasure of Allah.”

His words made me reconsider my motives for a moment, and then I responded that I really was seeking the pleasure of Allah (Subhânahu wa Ta‘âlâ – Glorified and Exalted is He). I thought that I already had so many blessings for which I was truly grateful, and I wanted to help others as a sign of gratitude. Clarifying my intention helped me to honestly mean it. So my husband and I participated in an orphanage construction project, giving part of our monthly earnings to help the orphans. We went on with our daily lives, not forgetting to pay our share every month.

Two years went by, and my husband was offered a job in another country. We were packing up when I found a folded piece of paper that I had kept in one of my drawers. It was the article I read two years back. Only when I saw it did I start to reflect on my life, and I realized how dramatically it had changed within those past two years. We had our own house instead of an apartment; my old, difficult to start car had been replaced by a brand new one with automatic transmission; and we could now afford an expensive international education for our children. Subhân Allâh (All glory be to God)! It was truly an unexplainable phenomenon, a divine prescription that asked only for pure faith and honest intention!

Our Prophet (salla Allâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam – blessings and peace be upon him) used a very touching story to teach us the same concept, to assist us in the difficult situations we face. It’s the story of “The three people in the cave”:http://www.iiph.com/blog/2-uncategorised/26-the-three-people-in-the-cave

Have you figured out what the true secret to success is? Find the answer in The True Secret by Dr. Amira Ayad:http://www.iiph.com/en /self-help-behaviour-and-psychology/87-the-true-secret.html