Doing those things that bring you peace

 

Ibn al-Qayyim enumerated some of the factors that bring about tranquility:

 

1. Islamic Monotheism, or worshipping Allah exclusively without associating any partners with him (in worship), and without associating any partners with Him in all qualities that belong to Him alone. The disbeliever and the one who associates partners with Allah, the Almighty, are, for all effective purposes, dead and not alive.

 

(But whosoever turns away from My Reminder [i.e. neither believes in this Qur'an nor acts on its orders, etc.] verily, for him is a lye of hardship, and We shall raise him up blind on the Day of Resurrection.)  (Quran 20: 124)

 

(And whosoever Allah wills to guide, He opens his breast to Islam…)  (Quran 6: 125)

 

(ls he whose breast Allah has opened to lslam, so that he is in light from His Lord [as he who is non-Muslim]?)  (Quran 39: 22)

 

Allah, the Exalted, warned His enemies with the following verse:

(We shall cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve, because they joined others in worship with Allah, for which He had sent no authority…) (Quran 3: 151)

 

So, woe to those whose hearts are hardened against remembrance of Allah! 

(Quran 39: 22)

 

 

(And whosoever He wills to send astray He makes his breast closed and constricted, as if he is climbing up to the sky.)        (Quran 6: 125)

 

2. Useful knowledge, because the most happy, easy-going, and contented kind of person is the scholar. Why should scholars not be, for they are the inheritors of Muhammad (bpuh)?

 

(And [Allah] taught you that which you knew not.)  (Quran 4: 113)

 

(So know [O' Muhammad] that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah...)  (Qur'an 47: 19)

 

3. Good deeds. A good deed brings light both to the heart and to the face. Doing good deeds results in being blessed in one's sustenance, and the hearts of people are naturally attracted to the doer of good.

 

(We should surely have bestowed on them water [rain], in abundance)

(Qur'an 72: 16)

 

4. Bravery, for the courageous person is firm and strong and fears Allah alone. Difficulties and hardship neither shake nor disturb him.

 

5. Avoiding sins. Sinning ruins 0ne's peace of mind and makes one feel lonely and in the dark:

 

"l saw that sins cause the heart to die And addiction brings disgrace to the addicted."

 

6. Not being extravagant in that which is lawful. In other words, one should be moderate in speaking, sleeping, and mixing with people, and likewise one should be abstemious in one's eating habits.

 

(And those who turn away from Al-Laghw [dirty, evil vain talk, falsehood and all that Allah has forbidden].)  (Qur'an 23: 3)

 

(Not a word does he [or she] utter: but there is a watcher by him ready (to record it)  (Qur'an 50: 18)

 

(And eat and drink but waste not by extravagance")  (Qur'an 7: 31)

 

An Arab poet said:

"O' companion of the bed, you have slept excessively, don’t you know that after death is a long sleep."