There is a classical opinion about happiness that may be related to the modern time, Saint Just, a French revolutionary writer, said: “Le Bonheur est une idée neuve en Europe” (Happiness is a new idea in Europe). This sentence is intended to say that happiness is a new concept that does not make the true happiness in heaven as the ultimate goal. Furthermore, happiness has to be achieved now not only in an awaited heaven which most of men do not believe fully, but one that is manifest in the material life and for that people rather rely on their rational strength. The faculty of rational thought is the light to the new path which then called Enlightenment that replaced faith. This is a discourse that the Enlightenment in the modern times as though makes people believe that mankind can attain perfection and happiness without having to wait for moments of grace and the life of the Hereafter. Likewise they say: Perfection and happiness can only be obtained at this moment of time and here - in the world. Eventually, it supposes to be not much different in outcome compared to the Modern Mystical Movements. However in those movements the outcome end up in ruin, mess destruction and suicide.
As an illustrative example, the U.N. Studies have shown that the so-called happiest states have the highest suicide rates. For more details, “Economists from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the University of Warwick in England and Hamilton College in New York examined the life satisfaction scores provided by 2.3 million Americans state by state, and comparing these with state suicide rates. Utah, for example, ranks highest in life satisfaction — but also has the ninth highest suicide rate in the U.S. The No. 2 happiest state is Hawaii, which comes in fifth for rate of suicides. New York, in contrast, comes in 45th in life satisfaction but has America’s lowest suicide rate.” In addition, due to several factors, suicide supported by things like social and cultural as well as the influence of apocalypse thinking. The striking example that can be taken from the phenomenon of suicide is the fact that a person's wealth and fame in the world does not guarantee a person not to end his life by committing suicide, such as the famous American singer, “Kurt Donald Cobain who started the grunge band Nirvana which made the leap to a major label in 1991 when they signed with Geffen Records. He committed suicide on April 5, 1994, in the guest house behind his Seattle home. So it is with Lee Alexander McQueen, a famous United Kingdom Fashion Designer who became head designer of the Louis Vuitton-owned Givenchy fashion line and, in 2004, launched his own menswear line. He earned the British Fashion Council's British Designer of the Year award four times, and was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire. McQueen commited suicide in 2010, shortly after the death of his mother.”
According to Aristotle who was a Greek philosopher in (384 BC – 322 BC), a happy person will exhibit a personality which is appropriately balanced between his reason and desire, with moderation characterizing both. In this sense, at least, "virtue is its own reward." True happiness can therefore be attained only through the cultivation of virtues that make a human life complete.
As we know, man consists of spirit, senses, heart, conscience, intellect, sense of rationality, and also instincts, all there on the capacity of having each. In the same vein of thought, religion as a guide path has been the ultimate guide to human happiness. Many opinions on happiness according to those righteous acts such as Ibn Khaldun who argued that: “happiness is the act of submission and desire to follow Allah and to abide by moral provisions”, Imam Al-Ghazali stated that: “The true happiness and pleasure is when a person can remember Allah”. A poet, very well known in the development of Islamic poetry, Zaid bin Tsabit said: “a happy man is the one who has gained safety from any human interference in the evening and morning”. As a support, Hamka also argues in his Tasauf Moderen (Modern Mysticism) the meaning of happiness, which can be drawn from a chapter in his book that describe happiness and virtue. In fact the perfection of faith in God depends on the perfection of the mind and human rationality. The primacy of the mind is to eliminate all the vices and tradition which were prohibited in religious teaching.
Overall, true happiness is not an easy thing to be achieved by the humans mind, it needs to be supported by clear concepts through religious doctrines for instance. Islamic Religious Mysticism makes the basic concept underlying to its achievement and guided by the teachings of classical and modern doctrines develope at this time. Two relatively equal mystical perceptions are developing much of human thought which led to the most precious thing in life (happiness) that steeped ingrained in the human nature.
Conceptually, Muhammad Iqbal stated about the self as the nature of man, specifically: he said: The self has two aspects – the appreciative and the efficient. The appreciative ego knows and feels the inner secret and mystery of life and universe. The efficient ego acts upon the external environment. The appreciative aspect of the self is often ignored by us. Appreciative self can be known only in moments of profound meditation and contemplation.
This is where humans started trying to find out if their mind is really happy or achieve a moment of happiness that can bring them into sadness again. Accordingly, Iqbal’s explanation on philosophy of happiness is an attempt to link happiness with wisdom and discretion in order not to lead to a misconception.
Moreover, the importance of this research is the expected to open of the veil to a pure truth of the meaning of happiness in Islam, through the so-called spiritual path which has been discussed by scholars such as Al-Ghozali, Muhammad Iqbal, Al-Attas, and Hamka. More or less, they argued that; Muslims are expected to feel the happiness that comes about with the belief and achievement of the true tauhid. Importantly, the point of the happiness of the people are the open views of the ultimate goal in life, avoid conflicts, and to build human advancement through self-purification that contained in the teaching of happiness in the Islamic mystical thought.
References:
- Dr. Ehsan Ashraf, A Critical Exposition of Iqbal’s Philosophy, New Delhi: Adam Publishers and Distributors, 2003, 17.
- Hamka, Tasauf Moderen, Singapore: Pustaka Nasional Pte Ltd, 1997, 21.
- Healthland.time.com/2011/04/25/why-the-happiest-states-have-the-highest-suicide-rates/
- Nikokris2008.multiply.com/journal/item/26?&show_interstitial=1&u=%2Fjournal%2Fitem
- Niahidayati.net/makna-kebahagiaan-dan-cara-mendapatkannya.html
- www.biography.com/people/groups/unnatural-death/suicide/
- www.philosophypages.com/hy/2s.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment