How do I make myself to be content?
Question: I know that contentment is the cause of psychological ease and the way to attain happiness, but the question is: how can I be from the people of satisfaction and contentment?
The answer:
1. Thank Allah for every blessing especially for those that others do not have!
2. Do not yearn for the pleasures that other people have!
3. When someone criticizes you, accept his criticism and do not stickle or deny it while you know your state well! I do not mean that you should acknowledge whatever people tell you even if it is not true, but I mean that you have to accustom yourself to accept criticism from others and not to attack the advisors. The very acceptance of criticism and gratitude to a criticizer is a high moral value. In other words, you have to accustom yourself to accept criticism while indifferent to whether or not it is true because this is a civil feature and a practical invitation to reject violence and dictatorship which are the causes of most of our misfortunes.
4. Take lessons from your mistakes!
5. Adapt yourself to every problem you face! Accommodation is a successful way to get rid of problems or to limit their destructive effects.
6. Try to be truthful to yourself and kind to others, for a double-faced person is unsuccessful!
7. Offer your love, kindness, and help to even those who do not offer such things to you!
8. Always think of what you shall ultimately meet, whether willingly or unwillingly! I mean death and the afterlife because death divides man into two parts: one part remains in the earth until the Day of Resurrection, and the other part is sent to Heaven until the hour of Punishment.
9. Know well that the heart is a sacred sanctum; if you visit it at night and asked its Lord for your needs, He orders His angels: ‘Give him! It is I, Who have promised him, and it is I, Who carry out My promise. Have I not said, (And when My servants ask you concerning Me, then surely I am very near; I answer the prayer of the supplicant when he calls on Me, so they should answer My call and believe in Me that they may walk in the right way)20.
10. Be certain and do not forget that if man possessed the entire earth, he would be greedy to possess the heaven too, but when death comes, he finds himself with neither the earth nor the heaven! Then, for what is this greediness?
11. Always, remember the advantages of contentment and the disadvantages of greed!
12. To acquire these qualities, read about them in books and associate with those who have these qualities in their conducts!
With these points, I hope that you will arrive at your aim; and do not forget me in your prayers!
