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Happiness and Worshipping God

Prayer and worship of God can remove sorrow and cause happiness. Imam Sadeq recommends that when a worldly grief overcomes someone, he should perform ablution, go into a mosque, and pray to God (Akbari, 2006, p.189).

The ultimate goal of man's creation is submission to God: "I have not created the Jinn and mankind except to serve me" (Thariyat, 51:57). But those are they who can achieve such a position as to obtain the necessary knowledge for cognition of God, because it is impossible to worship God without knowing Him. On the other hand, how is it possible that a person knows God as He deserves and does not love Him? In such a case, for the one who knows and loves God, God's remembrance will cause a sacred tranquility and happiness in him, as the Qur'an says: "in God's remembrance are at rest the hearts" (Ra'd, 13:28). It is regarding such a status that Imam Sajjad says, "My God, who can have tasted the sweetness of Thy love, then wanted another in place of Thee? Who have become intimate with Thy nearness, then sought removal from Thee?" (The Whispered prayer of the Lovers). The prophet of Islam considers the happiness of the believers in meeting with friends, the time of breaking a fast, and worship in the last hours of night.

So much is certain that Adam had a joyful life when he lived in Paradise, but when God ordered him and Eve, "draw not nigh this tree, lest you be evildoers" (Baqarah, 2:35), and they did not obey, God commanded them: "get you all down, each of you an enemy of each; and in the earth a sojourn shall be yours and enjoyment for a time" (Baqarah, 2:36). Therefore, they came to the earth. Man's grief started at the separation from the paradise and God, because man did not feel harmony with this world and worldly materials.

We should only grieve when we are not acting towards achieving the goals for which we have been created. It means when we are not good persons, when we do not help others, etc. The Qur'an introduces God's bounty as the cause of happiness and something that is better than worldly things: "Say: in the Bounty of God-and His mercy-in that let them rejoice, it is better than that they amass" (Yunos, 10:58).

Adapted from the book: "Foundations of Happiness"

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