Everything is amazing; yet nobody is happy!
Recommended lecture: Suliman Mulla - Depression vs Contentment
Download [ http://tinyurl.com/o9amjg ]
Watch Online [ P 1 | P 2 ]
After listening to that lecture, I had a hard contemplation about many things.
Its true that we all are depressed all the time these days, including myself. Alhamdulillah, this lecture opened my eyes to this deficiency in me so I will be working hard towards correcting it.
My Thoughts (with lecture highlights):
People living in better condition than we saw the human race ever live collectively in a very long time.
Its not to say that the entire world is living in the same condition as you or I, but that the world in general is living in better condition than it did just 50 years ago.
Just looking at North America, everyone was buying a house and selling and reselling to get one that is bigger and better. People have car(s) that they cannot actually afford, teenagers who barely got their licenses buying souped up ones through credit with less than $10,000 income and deep holes in their pockets. We are buying more clothes than we ever did, and throwing more things away than ever before. Whatever happened to being thrifty, and reusing broken things by fixing them? By mending our torn clothes and bikes, not throwing away perfectly new ones with a slight malfunction. What happened to saving shoe boxes to collect letters (need to buy an entire storage system from Ikea for this!) What happened to using a TV or a radio for years until it died, but now we replace our TVs every 3 years to get a bigger and thinner widescreen (I fear the time is not far when there will one entire room that will be a miniature wall-to-wall theatre in the house).
But that is not the saddest part of our modern condition. The fact of the matter is, we are all unhappy.
We have everything we could have possibly dreamed or and more in the tips of our fingers, then why? Human race can now do things that was only thought to be achievable in our wildest dreams... yet we are still not happy, even with our bodies.
Depression levels are the highest they have ever been in the world. People living in mansions cannot sleep in a peaceful night's rest without drugs, facing insomnia. Meanwhile, a beggar on the road sleeps midst traffic honks and blares in the shade of the tree and cool breeze.
Kids and adults have to take anti-depression drugs to keep themselves from being suicidal. Why?
We are feeling depressed and sorry for ourselves over the most trivial matters. Its one thing to feel this way when you loose someone, or are living in abject poverty, or are in a physical disabled condition etc. But its none of the above. The truth of the matter is....people are just depressed. And are doing drugs and drinking excessively in the 'happy hour' to keep themselves from remembering how truly unsatisfied they are.
Families no longer eat together, we actually rather prefer to eat in the company of our TV alone.
Few years ago, one person would be earning a living for 10 people in the family and they would be happy. Now all 10 people are earning and no one is.
We are unsatisfied with what we have and afraid to loose what we do. We just wants more and more, thinking that the next object is what will FINALLY make us eternally happy. This is our modern day poverty.
We all are searching for eternal happiness...yet are people really achieving it through this materialist endeavors?
People look at the other as worthless if they don't have a certain degree, a certain job, in a certain company. To achieve the status that others find respectable, we see that as our ultimate answer for happiness. And I see some families who are so poor, yet their smiles and happiness can light up anyone's day.
All this begs the question: What the heck is going on?
I highly recommend you hear/watch the lecture. InshAllah (God willing) you will be enlightened.
On a side note, a funny/sad but true comment on this subject by a comedian:
To prove to you how much we are wasting living our modern 'luxurious' lifestyle, watch this (very good video!) Talks about how our current consumerist system is putting the world in crisis, and how it was DESIGNED by the government in the past:
Bismillah Hir'rahman Nirraheem
Assalam o Alaikum dear Brothers and Sisters!
I hope to post things I discover and learn about Islam and life here InshAllah.
I am planning to post links/downloads to any lectures or videos I see (about anything interesting), as well as book recommendations. May Allah SWT help me, and make this blog fruitful and blessed.
I hope you can join in my discussions so that we can learn from each other.
Please check back for updates!
S.S.