Strolling in joy

Joy and happiness in the Islamic life

Introduction

Joy and glee are an inner state of a human being that even has external phenomena. This form is the product and an effect of a kind of knowledge from the realization of goals and wishes and it forms when a human being achieves one of his or her goals or desires or that he or she considers the probability of its realization high.
Joy is attained from the feel of satisfaction and when a human being does not reach his or her goal or sees his or her wish in vain, then the state of grief and anguish dominates him or her. It means that depression and anguish are a state that is attained from the feel of dissatisfaction and failure.
The holy Quran has used the words ``glee and exhilaration’’ not only for the praised festivities but also for the despicable exhilarations. In the Al-Inshiqaq Surat of the Quran it is mentioned that: ``But the one that his or her implementations letter is given to his or her right hand……….will return back joyously to his or her family; but the one that his or her implementations letter is given at his or her back……will burn in the burning flames of the fire. Since he or she among his or her family was always glad with (blasphemy and sin).
In the 76th verse of Al-Qasas Surat we read that: `` [remember] when his folks told him: do not perform so much happiness with pride, so that the Almighty God does not like the proud merrymakers.’’ But in the 58th verse of Jonah Surat the same word is used with a positive meaning. Joy generally has the instantaneous and temporary state and in case it can have a more stable value when it leads to the satisfaction and eventually welfare and prosperity. The joys that endanger our prosperity, fortune and perfection not only they are not valuable, but also one should abstinence from them.
Imam Ali (peace be upon him) mentioned that ``Perhaps the instant pleasures that souvenir long grief’’. On the other hand, to be happy is one of the inborn desires of a human being. It is due to the same reason that the Almighty God considers one of the rewards pertaining to futurity of the pious men and one of the blessings of the heaven’s inhabitants to be happy and be away from grief and sorrow. In apposition, including the sufferings pertaining to futurity that is considered for those who are wicked, is to be sad and have the grumpy faces with downhearted expressions.
A human being inherently loves to have lasting and durable joys. Imam Ali (peace be upon him) in the oration Motaghin (oration 193) considers one of the characteristics of the pious men the permanent merriment. As the permanency of the happiness is more, it will be more amiable and more desirable. The human being always escapes from the short-term joys that are followed by the long-term grief and sorrows. Although it is possible that when encountering with such affairs due to the false passions he or she is unable to take rational decisions and commits such joys and pleasures that are followed by a lifelong grief and sorrow.

The status of joy in the Islamic lifestyle

The pure Imams (peace be upon them) had a special attention to the joy and tried to determine the limit of joy and glee that is praised in the framework of the Islamic lifestyle. In an anecdotal from the Imam Moses Kazem (peace be upon him) we read such that: ``Make an effort to divide your time in four parts: allocate a section of it to praying for God and consider a part of it for your life affairs and income, and spend a section of it for discussion with your brothers and trusted people’, those individuals that make you identify your faults and honestly encounter with you and a allocate part of your time to the exploitation of the legitimate pleasures and know that this is the fourth section where you can as well carry out some of your other activities.’’
Islam not only does not oppose joy and glee, but it considers the enjoyment from the legitimate joys as a necessary affair for the human beings. Imam Ali (peace be upon him) recommends that during the joy exploit the joys and glees that are legitimate: ``When the day of happiness is in your custody do abstinence from it since when you fall in the hands of the grief day it will not relinquish you.’’

The creation of mirth in the hearts of faithful brothers

One of the specifications and the manners of Muslims is that they have a serious effort to make the other Muslim happy. The most generous prophet (peace be upon him) mentioned that: ``The truth is that making the pious men happy is one of the most lovable things in the presence of the Almighty God.’’ Imam Reza (peace be upon him) mentioned that: ``In fact after performing the necessities no other thing in the proximity of the ultimate and honourable Almighty God is not loved as making a pious man happy.’’ Imam Sadegh (peace be upon him) mentioned that: `` Do not think that when you make a pious man happy you have made him only happy rather an oath to the Almighty God that you have made us happy, on the contrary to a higher scale, an oath to the Almighty God that you have made the messenger of the Almighty God happy.’’ In a narration from the Imam Hussein (peace be upon him) we read such that: ``The highest things after the prayer, is to make the heart of a pious man happy with an affair that nil sin is in them’. Imam Sajjad (peace be upon him) mentioned that: ``Keep an abstinence from the joy and glee via a sin because the joy is a bigger sin as compared to its commitment.’
From this group of narrations there are points that can be used and thus we address a few of them as under:
1- One of the best prayers and activities from the viewpoint of Islam is to make the pious men happy and as well make them vivacious.
2- Making a `pious man’ happy is valuable.
3- Making use of the tools and devices that are not compatible with the pious life is not correct to make a pious man happy. In addition to this, a pious man will not be happy with the tools that are sinful; therefore if a person makes the other people happy through the way of sin, not only he or she has not carried out an admirable job but also has committed a great transgression.
4- Happiness from sin is considered worse than the sin itself.
Considering the collection of the Islamic teachings about the lifestyle of the pious men, it can be such concluded that to make the pious men happy with carrying out the tasks that are futile and the humorists that are weak cannot be perceived as an evidence of one of the best prayers. The holy Quran accounts one of the characteristics of the pious men as such: `` [The pious men are those that] escape from the abrogation and impractical speeches’’

The praiseworthy joys

Based on the Islamic teachings, the joy and glee is valuable in case that primarily is obtained through a legitimate way and secondary is in the service for the perfection of human beings. In these teachings, the evidences have been stated for the joy:

The humor

The most generous prophet (peace be upon him) considers one of the characteristics of the pious men as being a humorist. Some of the pious men in the beginning of an acquaintance with the Islam were thinking that should always have a special seriousness and due to the same reason were self-restraining themselves from any kind of laugh and humor. The most generous prophet (peace be upon him) in an encounter with this group mentioned that: `` But I pray and sleep, some days I fast and some other days I don’t, I laugh and I cry, so the person who does not follow my methodology and style and implements some other type of style and methodology then he or she is not of my kind.’’
Younes Shibani, one of the associates of the Imam Sadegh (peace be upon him) mentioned that: One day Imam (peace be upon him) asked me: ``I want to know that what status a humor has among you?’’. I mentioned that: ``Very low’’. He mentioned that: `` You have not to be such since undoubtedly humor is for those who are good natured and doubtlessly you with conductance of this task are making your brother happy. The most generous prophet (peace be upon him) used to joke with the other individuals and he desired to make them happy. ‘’
Of course, joking in itself and by itself is not valuable. It is considered as a tool for happiness and prosperity. Due to the same reason it is assimilated with the conditions and restrictions. If it surpasses its boundaries, it will be converted to its contradiction and instead of servicing in the happiness of an individual and the society it will cause their misery and depravity.
In the humor one should not surpasses the border of honesty and reality. Imam Ali (peace be upon him) mentioned that: ``No creature will be able to taste the pleasure of the faith unless he or she abandons the lie in the humor or seriousness.’’
A joke should never be accompanied with the mockery of the others. Making a joke with an alien from the viewpoint of Islam is not correct. The most generous prophet (peace be upon him) during the last sermon that he read to the people, mentioned that: `` The man who makes jokes with an alien woman for every word that he has spoken to her in this world, he will be imprisoned for a period of thousand years in the hell and if the woman also supports and accompanies that man and makes jokes with him then the same sin of the man will be imposed on her too.’’
The other condition for the value ness of the humor is that an individual should refrain from a lot of humor. The most generous prophet (peace be upon him) mentioned that: `` Much of the humor is bound to vanish the prestige and fade the faith.’’

The happiness during the joy of the saints

Among the signs of love that we bestow to an individual the most essential is that we become sad with his or her grief and become happy with his or her happiness. Imam Reza (peace be upon him) in reference to this context mentioned that: ``If you want to accompany us with the highest possible degrees, then you should be sad with our sorrow and rejoice in our happiness.’’

Meeting the faithful brothers

One of the other joyous affairs in the life of a pious man is meeting his faithful brothers. The most generous prophet (peace be upon him) with an address to Imam Ali (peace be upon him) mentioned that: `` O’ Ali, the joyous moments of a pious man in the world is in the following three periods: meeting the brothers, provision of a breakfast to a person who is fasting and night prayers at the end of the night.’’

Good deed

Each and every individual in a natural form when he or she ponders over his or her good deeds and the services that he or she has availed to others, then he or she becomes happy. This kind of joy is distinguished and appreciated among the other kinds of the joys. Imam Ali (peace be upon him) in a letter addressed to Ibn Abbas wrote that: `` I did not enjoy any other kind of speeches to the extent of this kind of preaching after I heard the speeches of the messenger of the Gods: sometimes a human being becomes happy about a thing that he or she will not cut-off from him or her and will become sad for the things that he or she does not achieve.; So you should not for the fear that the best thing about his or her world is to enjoy the worldly pleasures or making use of the anger that you have in your heart, but on the contrary, you should kill a thing that is false and or give a life to a truth and your happiness should be to a thing that you have sent beforehand and do not sigh on the things that you leave behind and keep your efforts and courage for life after the death.’’
Imam Sadegh (peace be upon him) mentioned that: `` A human being gains the happiness and the pleasure when he or she is faithful, observes the rights of the others and resists and endures against the difficulties.’’

Submission to the Almighty God

A human being when he or she performs his or her duties and responsibilities, then he or she has a happy and satisfying feel, but if he or she is not able to perform his or her duties and or is unable to carry it out due to the less functioning and or disability, then he or she will have a grief and humiliation, feeling, due to the same reason it is mentioned in the Islamic thinking that a pious man turns happy when he or she performs his or her religious duties. Imam Ali (peace be upon him) mentioned that: ``the happiness of a pious man is in the submission to his or her Almighty God and his or her grieves are based on his or her sins.’’

The wisdom of the Almighty God

The individual who considers him or herself as the creation of the God and as well his or her aim of creation as the recognition of the Almighty God, naturally, will that time gain the highest joy that he or she has achieved his or her goal, otherwise he or she will always be in the status of tragedy and grief.
In an anecdote from the Imam Sadegh (peace be upon him) we read that: if the people knew that in the wisdom of the dear and glorious Almighty God, which virtues are hidden, then they would not look upon the worldly blessing that the Almighty God has given to the enemies and the world in their proximity was less valuable than the affairs that they would trample under their feet and each mirror with the wisdom of the Almighty God’s blessings and would enjoy the wisdom of the Almighty God such as the enjoyment of the person who is always in the paradise gardens accompanies with the saints of the Almighty God.’’

The reprehensible joys

The value of the joy and joy creation is not absolute. The general rule in the Islamic lifestyle about the happiness and joy is that any kind of the joy and joy creation which is on the route to the access to the Almighty God and the divine consent, is valuable and worth carrying it out. In some of the other religious teachings for the instances of happiness and the creation of the happiness that are reprehensible is mentioned as follows:

Joy vis-à-vis a stricken individual

The Islamic decorum and morality pertinences that; when a human being has to face the stricken and grieved individuals and he or she has to encounter them, then he or she will express a sympathetic feeling. Imam Hassan Askari (peace be upon him) mentioned that: ``The expression of happiness for the grieved person is in apposition to the literature.’

Joy from the entanglements of the other people

The religious and humanity decorum pertinences that we should consider the entanglements of other people as ours and try our best to eliminate them. Especially if a Muslim gets entangled with an issue, the religious duty of ours compliances that to the extent possible, we should try to eliminate his or her issue, but if we cannot carry out such a task, we should never rejoice his or her entanglements. Imam Ali (peace be upon him) mentioned that: ``Do not get happiness from the error of others since you do not know what the era will do to you.’’

Joy with wealth and status

Most of the people if achieve a social status and opportunity then they will be happy. Or if encountered with high wealth and have an enormous income will be happy, but in the Quranic and Islamic logic such an affair should not in personam lead to their rejoicing. Such joys in the Quranic culture are accounted as the reprehensible joys. The holy Quran remembers the joys that observe the world, often in a contemptuous tone. These joys are not only in the services for the evolutionary movement of an individual, but also causes disrupt in the evolutionary movement of the other people, will distract a person to carry out his or her duties and leads to negligence, pride and ostentatious in him or her. The Almighty God does not like such kind of joys: ``The Almighty God does not like the proud rejoicing people.’’ Nevertheless, if an individual considers the exploitation of the wealth and status as a means to serve the nation and advancement of the Islamic and humanity goals, then the joy from accessing them is not only a problem for him or her but even it will be accounted as the positive joys for him or her.

Joy from the way of sin

The joys that are gained from the sinful routes and or the merrymakings that are associated with the conductance of sin and disobedience of the Almighty God, they are considered despicable in the Islamic culture. The most generous prophet (peace be upon him) mentioned that: ``The individual who commits a sin and he or she is happy about his or her work, then he or she will have to enter in a weeping state in the fire of the hell’’. Imam Ali (peace be upon him) mentioned that: ``Joy for the sin is uglier than its conductance.’’

The bacchanalian joys

A pious man can have the severest kinds of the happiness, but it is never permitted that to provide this state with the tools or the behaviors or the words that are sinful. One of the sinful tools that are unfortunately seen in most of the joys of the people is the dance and music and the bacchanalian musical instrument. Most of the Muslim thinkers believe that an allegro music is not an issue, but none of the Islamic religious jurisprudences have a persuasion in relation to the hearing of the music. In other words, listening to permissible music is not literally recommended, but it has considered a few kinds of the music as the forbidden music. Playing or listening to a stimulating, imaginative and exciting music is undoubtedly against the Muslim subsistence. In addition to this, it also narcotizes his or her wisdom and weakens his or her determination.