Of all of the things I am grateful to Allah for, the one I am most thankful for is my sense of reason and cognition. I also like to believe—although I suppose people around me would be better able to tell—that Allah has given me a fair share of wisdom.

The wisdom that Allah has granted me has allowed me to look beyond what is. It allows me to live a positivity centered life and to look to the future rather than to dwell in the past. It has allowed me to lead a life of contentment.

Contentment is a very distinct concept from happiness; happiness is short-lived, whereas the former is a state of being. One can be sad and content simultaneously. In a world where books are titled Solve for Happy and where movies are called The Pursuit of Happiness, it is easy to become deluded by this momentary concept, which can fade as fast as it can surface.

In my opinion, the aim of life is to be content with Allah’s decree, so He can be content with you. In Surah Tawbah, verse 100, Allah talks about the muhajireen (those who migrated from Makkah to Madinah for the sake of Allah) and the Ansar (the people of Madinah who welcomed the migrants with open arms) and He says something very profound.

رضي الله عنهم و رضوا عنه
They are pleased with Allah and He is pleased with them

And then Allah finishes the verse by saying He has promised them paradise and this is the greatest victory. And as a believer, our ultimate goal is Jannah. And in my opinion, this verse gives us a very easy formula to attain it. Simply by remaining content with Allah’s directive. This best generation of humans—who were not prophets, who had a spectrum of personalities like us, who did err yet repented immediately—has given us this framework to have a contentment mindset towards Allah’s commands in order to enter Jannah. There is obviously more (following the mandatory acts prescribed by Allah, in the very least) to entering Paradise, but this is one of the keys.

Life and its predicaments may not suit us as we see them. But the planner of planners, the One who knows the past from before time began until after it will cease to exist, the One with the biggest picture at His disposal has planned this for you. How could it possibly be worthy of our questioning?

In this world, our feelings may never truly be validated. Allah, however, does give us that space—not to question Him, but to be unsettled by something happening in our lives, to express it, and to take our time. Our prophet ﷺ was known to have been saddened by the deaths of loved ones, and to have dwelled in it and Allah did not ask him to just move on. Ya’qub عليه السلام was not asked to stop crying for Yusuf عليه السلام despite having lost his eyesight due to his grief.

Allah allows us humans to be human. It is us that have distorted what it means to be human. Materialism has taken over our beings and consumption has become the crux of our existence—the latest gadgets, fashion trends and even newest food obsessions; we must remain on top of them all.

We see life in separate pockets: Religion, Family, Friends, Finances, Academics, Politics, Spirituality, Sports. This, in my opinion, is one of humanity’s biggest failings. Everything in life is meant to be interconnected. If we look at every aspect of life with a unified lens—at the center of which sits our creator and His law—dealing with the good and the bad in life both become tranquil.

When our purpose in life is following the commands of Allah, we will establish our relations accordingly, maintain a halal income source, keep healthy because the body is an amanah (something Allah has entrusted us with), study to fulfill the hadith of seeking knowledge from the cradle to the grave, and run our countries in the way most pleasing to Him.

When we are able to look at life in its consolidated form with Allah at its core, we see evidence of His blessings at every turn, even through hardships. How could He, the One that loves us more than our mothers, allow for any harm to come our way, unless it would transform us into the best version of ourselves, one that we are still unaware we need to develop into.

Inevitably, there will come a time, when you see through that metamorphosis, are thankful for it, and welcome newer hardships more openly. It is because you have come to truly believe and enact the truth you always knew but didn’t allow to run through your veins: Allah truly loves you.