By Muhammad Erfan Sheikh
We have a variety of food to deal with hunger, fascinating clothes to fulfill the requirement of fashion, tourist destinations to provide relief from the burdens of work, for sickness we have medicines and latest technologies to heal us from fatal diseases, and for entertainment we have music, movies, social media. But have you ever thought about something which is not accessible through money or whose availability is not possible in any market of the world? That precious thing is “Happiness”. The luxuries mentioned above are materialistic and mere needs of life. You can buy them with money and they may give you some kind of happiness but that happiness is not everlasting rather its temporary. You get actual happiness, when your dreams are fulfilled, when you achieve your aims, when you build a strong, true and sincere relation, when you help others and when the behavior of others is satisfactory. These things will give you inner satisfaction which is the actual definition of happiness.
Origin of the statement, ‘Worldly treasures and money cannot buy happiness’ dates back to the origin of human him self. Adam and Eve in heaven were blessed with everything a person could imagine and things of today are in no manner comparable to what they had there. But one thing still attracted them, they wanted what they were not allowed to have, the eternity. The longing of which shows that they were not satisfied with all the treasures they had and this lack of satisfaction further showed their ignorance towards happiness. If those treasures were the source of happiness why they wanted something else? Adam took the fruit which he was not allowed to have and hence was punished. As a punishment he was not only abandoned from heaven and thrown to earth but also was separated from Eve. They suffered and craved for many years and for two things only, Allah's forgiveness and companionship of each other. They did not ask for heaven or the treasures they had in heaven instead asked for the presence of each other by their side. They met again and were happy and satisfied with whatever they had. This shows that a true and strong relation can give you the actual definition of happiness.
I personally observe that in this modern era, people are getting away from the nature and their loved ones. Even there is a gap taking place between blood relations and the people are just busy in handling and expanding their businesses and properties. They don’t have time even to attend family get-to-gethers. Money is considered as the supreme power in our society. It shows our interest towards money and negligence from the nature. Happiness is something which we cannot buy with money. It is internal, we just need to own it. By money we can buy any material thing which we feel need for but happiness is not available in any market of the world.
Moreover, actual definition of happiness is inner satisfaction. In fact, money can buy bed but not sleep, it can buy books but cannot give you brain, it can buy medicines but it cannot give you health, it can buy you blood, but not life, it can give you house but not home and it can give you a passport of anywhere but not of heaven.
