Serenity is a light from Allah and a relief to which resorts the fearful, in which the anxious finds comfort.
It entertains the depressed, appeases the tired, strengthens the weak and guides the confused one.
This serenity is a window that Allah opens upon Paradise to the believers among His servants, a window from which the heavenly breeze blows, the light shines, and the fragrance emerges. It’s a foretaste of what the believers offered as good deeds, and a preview of what is awaiting them as pleasures and delights.
In this worldly life is a paradise, which if one doesn’t enter, he won’t get into the eternal Paradise. It is the Paradise of the proximity to Allah, and serenity comes along with that same proximity.
The Sources of Serenity for the Believer
1. The Believer is Guided to his Innate Nature
The first reason of the serenity of the believer is that he was guided to his inner nature which is consistent, harmonic and responsive to the bigger nature of the creation. Thus, the believer lives with himself in peace and agreement, not in war and conflicts, and he lives with the people around him in transparency and cooperation, not in solitude and enmity.
The details of the divine approach go accordingly with the details of the inner nature. When you reconcile with Allah, you reconcile with your own nature; there’s such a mess in the heart that couldn’t be put together except by turning back to Allah. Every wealthy, smart, strong or handsome person has emptiness in the heart that cannot be filled in except by faith in Allah and the connection with Him.
There’s such a mess in the heart that can’t be fixed except by going forward to Allah; and, there is such desolation in the heart that can only be cleared by the companionship of Allah.
Humans are amazing creatures; they were made out of a fist of the earth’s mud, and a blast of Allah’s Spirit. Thus, focusing on the materialistic component and undermining the spiritual one is actually not doing justice to the human nature, and the one who feeds his materialistic needs (the mud) but starves the spiritual part cannot claim that he is giving to the human nature what it deserves. He has actually deprived that nature from one of its essential dimensions.
This nature can be covered by layers from the rust of misconceptions or the dust of lusts. That nature can deviate or be defiled by following assumptions and caprices, following blindly the tradition of the forefathers, and blindly obeying the rulers and the power holders.
One might also catch the disease of arrogance and vanity so that he considers himself self-sustaining and not dependent on Allah. However, the genuine human nature fades but never dies, and it dives but never drowns.
Thus, if one is subjected to overwhelming hardships and trials with no perspective of being helped, the superficial misleading layer would vanish, leaving place for the deep potential nature.
2. A Believer Has a Clear Objective and a Paved Way
The disbeliever lives in this worldly life dispersed between several concerns and pulled to various purposes. Thus, he’s always in an internal conflict and he’s confused between the various instincts, and which one to satisfy: the instinct of survival or the instinct of the genus. He’s confused between pleasing his own desires or the society in which he lives, and he’s also confused about which part of the society should he please.
Without faith or serenity or methodology or a goal or a divine revelation or prophetic statement – without certainties or constants or principles or right visions the human being is in loss.
The believer is relieved from all concerns, and he limits all the goals into just one which he takes care of and to which he diverts all efforts: this goal is the satisfaction of Allah, with which he doesn’t care about the satisfaction of the people.
A part of the dexterity of the believer is that he condensed all concerns into just one which is the pursuit of the path that leads to Allah’s satisfaction, and he’s the one asking for Allah’s guidance several times in Salat (guide us to the righteous path); it’s only one straight way.
3. Feeling the Company of Allah
In the depth of man there are hidden calling sounds, and pressing questions, waiting for an answer that dissipates anxiety and comforts the soul. What’s the existence? What’s the reality of this worldly life? What’s the reality of the universe? What’s the reality of Man? From where? To where? And why?
And these questions find a deep, harmonic and satisfying answer in the religion.
The believer that is connected to Allah is living in His companionship. If Allah is with you, who is it that that can be against you? But if Allah is against you, who is it that can claim being with you? That feeling of companionship is priceless. The scholars used the following verse regarding the general companionship:
And He is with you wherever you are. (Quran 57: 4)
However, there’s a specific companionship to the believers, the pious ones, the truthful ones.
Serenity is your source of happiness even if you lose everything.
If one knows Allah and holds tight to his path, he seals his connection with Him. This connection needs righteousness. That doesn’t mean that the believer doesn’t make mistakes; the believer makes mistakes but never keeps on making them.
The believer is a regretful sinner, and he repents as soon as he commits a sin. Thus, if one holds tight to the path of Allah after knowing Him then his relationship with his lord is sealed and out of this established relationship comes serenity.
Serenity is actually the biggest divine bestowal since it makes you another kind of man: optimistic. You feel you’re on the right path, and that you already live what Allah promised you in the hereafter.
The religion has forms and truths. If you perform the prescribed prayers, that’s a form of the religion, but if you tighten the connection with Allah in that same prayer, this is the ultimate purpose.
If this connection is fulfilled, the serenity will be revealed, and this serenity is a source of inexhaustible happiness; however, the lack of serenity is a source of endless misery.