Potential

'Your remedy is within you, but you do not sense it. Your sickness is from you, but you do not perceive it. You presume you are a small entity, but within you is enfolded the entire Universe. You are indeed the Evident Book, by whose alphabet the Hidden becomes Manifest. Therefore you have no need to look beyond yourself. What you seek is within you, if only you reflect.’

Imam Ali (A.S)


"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Marianne Williamson - A Return to Love

The Promised Land

The Pursuit of Happyness

I watched a film the other day, one that really made me think. It was called the Pursuit of Happyness.

The Pursuit of Happyness features Will Smith as Chris Gardener, a man who has no money at all, and his son, Christopher. The storyline is pretty simple: Gardener is unhappy about his life situation, the film shows how he struggles and gets through it till finally he becomes a stockbroker (without any education), something he believes will make him happy, and it certainly seems to in the film.

But to me, Christopher was a far better example of happiness than Gardener himself. At one point in the story when Gardener finally falls into some money – enough to pay for a hotel room to sleep in, Christopher asks his father if they can go sleep in the bathroom of the train station again, because he thought it was fun. Gardener had to become a stockbroker to be happy, Christopher was happy as a tramp.

It highlights a massive misconception in our lives. Happiness is not found in anything except ourselves. A man who pursues happiness will pursue it forever. A man who is content will always be happy. A great lesson can be learnt from this. Rather than falling into the mindset that happiness can be found in certain things, choose to believe that we can put happiness into anything and everything.

God was seldom mentioned in the film, allow me to mention Him here. He is our ultimate source of Happiness – everlasting, everliving. Whatever my life situation, whatever occurs, One thing is consistent – Allah is present and in control. And as long as that is the case, how can I be unhappy?

Let us learn from Christopher, who was happy sleeping in the bathroom. Why was he happy? Because no one told him he shouldn’t be happy with the bathroom floor as a bed. Well when someone told me, why did I believe him? For if I didn’t, I would be happy too. If that is a result of inexperience and childishness, then let me be an inexperienced child forever.

Think about the blessings that surround you.

Be happy.