Happiness loves silence...
The other day, in a daily updated window in one of the applications on my phone, there appeared the following hadith, “Most of the people in my ummah, after the predestination of God, will die through the effects of the evil eye.” I contemplated for a long time on the matter of why the evil eye would now become so widespread and why people would die from it.
Then I came to the following conclusion: the cause of the spread of the evil eye may be the Internet and social networks, through which our contemporaries flaunt their entire personal lives. Just take a look at Instagram: some people make live broadcasts from the kitchen, show how they cook and then eat delicious food, some girls show how beautiful they are or just share their family idyll and prosperous home atmosphere. Photos of personal pages are full of the abundance of one’s wealth.
It feels like people live just to show off something on their social networks. We see the same thing in “WhatsApp” as well, where every profile has a photo of young children, couples in love, gifts of flowers, jewelry, cakes, sweets and other things. And it’s not only about luxury or material benefits shown through social networks; the point is a great desire for this “happiness” to be seen by as many people as possible. But there are hundreds, thousands, millions of prying eyes who are unlikely to view this happiness with the same warmth and love as we do.
Recently, a girlfriend of mine had a big scandal in the family. A deep crack occurred in the relationship of young and loving spouses. Soon their baby fell ill. Of course, there can be a number of reasons for this. But one of them is probably the fact that this girl on social networks almost every day posted photos of her baby, her spouse with a bouquet and herself in an embrace with her husband and eyes glowing with happiness. Most probably not everyone looks at these photos and sincerely says, “Praise the Almighty, how beautiful this couple is! May God grant them happiness and health!” On the contrary, most people look on them with envy and even malice.
Envious people wonder why this girl has such a husband who presents her with such gifts or why she has such a sweet baby and why she is so lucky. And so on. How many dream of children but cannot have them! It thus hurts them when they see in the avatars of almost 90% of their friends the faces of happy babies.
How many dream of prosperity in their family! And our cakes, chicken breasts with creamy syrup, salmon rolls and so much more just add bitterness to their lives. How many dream of a reliable and loving life partner?! But, alas, they have no one nearby. And how many have survived divorce or just lost a person dear to their hearts.
In any case, it is wrong to show off one’s life, particularly from the point of view of our faith. After all, Islam calls us to be humble in everything. It is better for a person not display one’s happiness in this way, not to cause envy in people and not to boast about one’s wealth and perfect relationships.
The fewer people at large know about your happiness, the greater the chance to maintain it. The greater the chance that the evil eye and damage will bypass you as well. And, as true wisdom reveals, remember that you should hold on to your happiness tightly and rarely show it to those who are not closest to you! Happiness loves silence!
SOFIA MUSAEVA
AS-SALAM NEWSPAPER CORRESPONDENT
