Fighting Hopelessness

Question Answered by Jhangeer Hanif

Question

My problem is that I feel hopeless all the time not just because I think too much but because whatever happens to me is against my will. It is okay if it happens once or twice but it seems to happen chronically. My second question is that I am not good in communication also. I want to become assertive but I think my fate doesn’t help me with this as well.

Answer

As long as the wheel of life is destined to move on, problems and difficulties will keep popping up. The Almighty has sent us in this world in order to test and try us. The nature of this trial of life varies from person to person. Some people are placed in difficult times and others in prosperous ones, according to the just and wise scheme of the Almighty. The underlying objective, however, remains to test them which one of them is good in deeds. So, the befitting attitude is to submit to the scheme of Allah because it will lead us to the Garden of Paradise. The benefit, we shall reap, in this world because of this submission, is to be contented and satisfied. Try as hard as we may, we cannot undo whatever Allah has willed for us. However, if we learn to see our happiness in the failures that He has willed for us it will not only earn us entitlement to Paradise but also give us a contented heart.

The second question must also be understood in the perspective of the explanation delineated above. Allah has created people of varying skills and capabilities. Some people are awarded the ability of articulation as good as to become immortal orators and some are deprived of the very ability of speaking. While the former group of people is supposed to prostrate themselves in gratitude, the latter group is required to prostrate themselves in submission to God’s will. I think it is rather difficult to be a good Muslim when you are engulfed by God-gifted talents and skills. Our misery and deprivation remind us of Allah and help us to be closest to Him. So the deficiency that you have related is not to be feared. Moses (sws), the great Prophet of Allah, had problems with communicating the message of Allah to the people. What he did is that he prayed very sincerely to the Lord to compensate for the lack of it:

O Lord, relieve my mind, and ease my task for me and loose the knot from my tongue that they may understand my saying. (20:25-8)

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