February 2023: Page 1, 2, 3, 4

Submitters Perspective

Page 2

Contentment

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Contentment of heart is an important blessing of God. Only God can grant it to whomever He chooses. Never lose hope; always trust in God. Never get bogged down by hardships in life for God promises ease after it. Appreciate the finer sides of your life and be thankful for it.

The materialistic success of this life may not be long-lasting, but contentment of heart is. Nobody can snatch it away from you. These two important aspects of life are just like our outer body and the inner self or soul. Our bodies define only our looks, whereas our souls highlight our personality. Our bodies will decay or get destroyed after death, whereas our souls are eternal. A happy life is not defined by being successful, by having the perfect job, house, cars and other luxuries. Instead it is defined by how righteously you live your life, how good an example you set, how beautiful your heart is, how empathic you are, how thankful you are.

Life is packed with the ups and downs, success and failure, tears and smiles but what makes us survive all this is hope, hope to do better, and hope to try harder next time. Hope to get God’s help. God alone ensures that we receive contentment in our hearts:

[48:4]  He is the One who places contentment into the hearts of believers to augment more faith, in addition to their faith. To GOD belongs all forces of the heavens and the earth. GOD is Omniscient, Most Wise.

In order to receive the blessings of contentment of heart one needs to be a believer in God alone. He grants us the peace and tranquility along with the addition of more faith into our hearts. For God this is not at all difficult. He is Most High, Omnipotent.

We should always be thankful to God for everything that He has blessed us with. Life seems beautiful with a family that supports you, with a friend who defends you,

with having parents who believe in you, with siblings who understand you, with a teacher who motivates you, etc. We cannot calculate enough such blessings of God that grant peace and comfort to our hearts. Every morning we need to thank God for the new lease of life. The more we thank God the more He enhances the contentment in our hearts and protects us from all kinds of evil forces.

[76:11] Consequently, GOD protects them from the evils of that day, and rewards them with joy and contentment.

Staying contended in life with what you have is a key to a happy life. Complaining and grumbling never leads to happiness. Staying focused on the current life instead of daydreaming of the good old days teaches you to accept the reality of life. We shouldn’t blame others for something that went wrong in life. Life is all about submitting to God. Stop worrying, trust God and set new goals in life.

We always say how fortunate we are to have received the wisdom and knowledge to accept submission to God alone. Let us thank God for saving us from going astray.

[39:22] If GOD renders one’s heart content with Submission, he will be following a light from his Lord. Therefore, woe to those whose hearts are hardened against GOD’s message; they have gone far astray.

Believing in God is the first step. Thereafter, one needs to nourish and develop the soul through the practices of worship. Taking that first step itself was a giant task which we took by God’s help. We are indeed very fortunate to have done that. We find many examples of people in the Quran, who had witnessed umpteen number of live demos of the miracles, yet they could not believe. Now that we achieved this great blessing from God, let us not waste it. Let us keep magnifying God. Only then can we win the final event of making it to Paradise.

[8:2]  The true believers are those whose hearts tremble when GOD is mentioned, 

and when His revelations are recited to them, their faith is strengthened, and they trust in their Lord.

Please God, bless us all with contentment of heart and make us feel His closeness all the time.

Abdul Ghani

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CHARITY: GOD’S SYSTEM

Part 2: Voluntary charity

In the previous article, we talked about Zakat. We know that from the time of Abraham, the percentage is 2.5% of the income. What if someone is able and eager to give more than 2.5% of income? Or maybe they have, by God’s grace, plenty of wealth and they want to give from their wealth without being extravagant (25:67)?

If one can afford to give more than just 2.5% of one’s income, that’s wonderful. No one should be criticized for being generous.

[9:79] Those who criticize the generous believers for giving too much, and ridicule the poor believers for giving too little, GOD despises them. They have incurred a painful retribution.

[2:274] Those who give to charity night and day, secretly and publicly, receive their recompense from their Lord; they will have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve.

[25:67] When they give, they are neither extravagant, nor stingy; they give in moderation.

You may earn 100,000 dollars and instead of giving just 2500 to your relatives, you give 10,000. Or you give all 100,000 to relatives and orphans and poor people because you’re a billionaire by God’s

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