The Search for Inner Peace

By Dr. Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips

The topic of inner peace addresses a universal need. There is nobody on this planet who does not desire inner peace, it is not a desire that is new to our time; rather, it is something that everybody has been searching for throughout the ages, regardless of colour, creed, religion, race, nationality, age, sex, wealth, ability or technological advancement. People have taken a variety of different paths in trying to achieve inner peace, some through accumulating material possessions and wealth, others through drugs, some through music, others through meditation, some through their husbands and wives, others through their careers and some through their children’s achievements, but yet the list and the search goes on.

In our time we have been led to believe that through technological advancement and modernisation we would attain a level of creature and physical comfort and through this we would attain inner peace, however, if we were to take the most technologically advanced and most industrialised nation in the world, America, then we would see that what we have been led to believe is not factual. The statistics in America show that 20,000 people a year suffer from depression, and that the suicide rate, those who kill themselves and die from suicide is double the rate of those who die from AIDS, yet we hear more about those who die from AIDS than we do about those who die by committing suicide, so this is the reality – technological advancement and modernisation has not given inner peace and tranquillity.

Many of us mistake personal pleasures for inner peace; we achieve elements of pleasure from a variety of things, be it wealth, sexual relations or other than that, but it does not last, it comes and it goes. So it is not really inner peace, so the search goes on. Inner peace is for the most part of our lives very elusive; we can never seem to get our hands on it. Yes we have personal pleasures from time to time and we are pleased with various things from time to time, but this is not inner peace, true inner peace is something that will transcend all the trials and difficulties of life, but we cannot seem to achieve this state.

Peace is not something that will exist in this world around us because when we define peace according to the dictionary definition it states that peace is ‘freedom from war or civil strife’, where do we have this? There is always a war or some sort of civil unrest happening somewhere in the world. If we look at peace in terms of the state level then peace is freedom from public disorder and security, but where in the world do we have this in a complete form? If we look at peace on a social level, family and work, then peace is freedom from disagreements and arguments, but is there such a social environment that never has disagreements or arguments? In terms of location, then yes, we can have a place which is calm, peaceful and tranquil, islands for example, but this external peace only exists for a small amount of time, sooner or later a storm or a hurricane will come, etc. Allaah says:

“Verily, We have created man in toil [struggle].” [Al-Balad 90:4]

This is the reality of the life we live; it is a life full of tests. Allaah says:

“And certainly, We shall test you with something of fear, hunger, loss of wealth, lives and fruits, but give glad tidings to the patient ones.” [Al-Baqarah 2:155]

To deal with our circumstances, the circumstances of toil and struggle in which we live, patience is the key, but if we go back to the inner peace that we are looking for, then patience cannot manifest itself if we do not have that inner peace. We have to identify the obstacles in our lives and remove them, the obstacles which prevent us from achieving a maximum inner peace, we are living in a world of toil and struggle, but yet within ourselves it is possible to attain inner peace, peace with that environment, that world in which we live. To do so we have to remove the obstacles, we have to develop some kind of strategy, it will not come about [i.e. the obstacles will not be removed] just by thinking that we need to remove them; we have to develop some steps. So how do we go about removing these obstacles so that we can achieve what is possible of inner peace?

The first step is that we have to identify the obstacles themselves, we have to be aware of them, because if we cannot identify them then how can we remove them, so the first step is to identify the obstacles. The second step is that we have to accept them as obstacles, [for example] anger is an obstacle to inner peace, if a person is angry and is worked up and has blown a fuse and gone ballistic, how can such a person have inner peace in that circumstance, it is not possible. So we recognise here [that anger] is an obstacle to inner peace. However, if a person states that: “Yes it is an obstacle but I do not get angry,” then such a person has a problem, they have not accepted that obstacle as a problem, such a person is in a state of self denial, and they deny it is an obstacle so they cannot remove it.

If we look at the obstacles in life we can put them under a variety of headings: Personal problems, family issues, financial dilemmas, work pressures and spiritual confusion, and there are many issues under these headings. We have so many problems, so many obstacles that they are like illnesses. If we try to deal with them one by one we will never get through them, we have to deal with them as they come.

We need to identify them, put them in some general categories and tackle them as a group as opposed to trying to tackle each individual obstacle and problem. To do this we have to first of all remove obstacles that are beyond our control. We have to be able to distinguish which obstacles are within our control and which ones are beyond our control. The ones which are beyond our control we perceive them as obstacles but the reality is that they are not. They are the things that Allaah has destined for us in our lives, they are not really obstacles, but we have misinterpreted them as being obstacles. For example, in this time one might find oneself born black in a world which favours white people over black people or born poor in a world that favours the rich over the poor, born short, born fat, born crippled, born in a variety of different ways. These are all things which were and are beyond our control. We did not choose which family to be born into; we did not choose which body for our spirit to be blown into, this is not our choice. So whatever we find of those kinds of obstacles then we just have to be patient with them and realise that in fact they are not really obstacles and to function according to what Allaah told us:

“…and it may be that you dislike a thing which is good for you and that you like a thing which is bad for you. Allaah knows but you do not know.” [Al-Baqarah 2:216]

So the obstacles that are beyond our control, we may dislike them and we may want to change them, and [as we know] some people spend a lot of money trying to change them, Michael Jackson is a classic example, he was born black in a world which favours white people, so he spent a lot of money trying to change himself, but the changes that he made did not give him what he was looking for. Inner peace can only be achieved if [at least] the obstacles which are beyond our control are accepted by us as part of Allaah’s destiny and that is if we accept them patiently, we could accept them as part of Allaah’s destiny but be impatient with them, but this is wrong; rather, we have to [also] be patient with them. Know that whatever happens which we had or have no control over then Allaah has put in it some good, whether or not we are able to grasp what is good in it; it [the good] is still there. So we accept it!

There was an individual in a newspaper [in Cairo], it had a photograph of him in the article and he was smiling, he had a smile on his face from ear to ear, he had his hands out with both thumbs sticking up, his father was kissing him on one cheek and his sister on the other cheek and he was smiling ecstatically. Underneath the photograph it had a caption. He was supposed to have been on a gulf air flight the day before, Cairo to Bahrain, he had dashed down to the airport to catch the flight and when he got there he had one stamp missing on his passport. In Cairo you have too have many stamps for this and for that, you get this person to stamp this and sign that and that person to stamp that and sign this, but he had one stamp missing. There he was at the airport, he was a teacher in Bahrain and this flight was the last one back to Bahrain and if he missed this flight he would have been late for work, and if he was late it could have meant that he would have lost his job. So he nagged them to let him on the flight, he became frantic, he was crying and screaming and going berserk, but he could not get on the plane, it took off without him. He went [to his home in Cairo] distort thinking that he was finished and that his career was over. His family comforted him and told him not to worry about it. The next day, he heard the news that the plane [he was meant to be on] crashed and everybody on board died. There he was, ecstatic that he did not make the flight, but the day before it was the end of his life, a tragedy that he did not get on the flight, but there he was now ecstatic.

These are signs, and such signs can be found in the story of Moosaa and Khidr [which we should read every Jumu’ah, i.e. Surah al-Kahf]. When Khidr broke the bolts in the boat that he and Moosaa were on in order to cross the river Moosaa asked why he [Khidr] did that, why did he make a hole in the boat? The people were kind enough to take them across the river but Khidr made a hole in their boat and it may have caused the boat to sink and the people to drown. When the owners of the boat saw the hole in the boat they wondered who did it and thought that it was a nasty thing to have done. A short while later the king came down to the river and looked at all the boats and saw the one with the hole in it and said that he did not want that one so the owners of the boat praised Allaah due to the fact that there was a hole in their boat. [1]

There are others obstacles, things which are perceived as obstacles in our life, things in which we cannot figure out what is beyond them, it happens and we do not know why, we do not have an explanation for it. For some people this drives them into disbelief. If one listens to an atheist he has no inner peace and has rejected God, why did that person become an atheist? It is abnormal to disbelief in God, whereas it is normal for us to believe in God because Allaah created us with a natural inclination to believe in Him. Allaah says:

“So set you [O Muhammad] your face towards the religion of pure Islamic Monotheism Hanifa [worship none but Allaah Alone] Allaah’s Fitrah [i.e. Allaah’s Islamic Monotheism], with which He has created mankind. No change let there be in Khalq-illah [i.e. the Religion of Allaah Islamic Monotheism], that is the straight religion, but most of men know not.” [Ar-Rum 30:30] [2]

The Prophet Muhammad [sall-Allaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam] said:

“Every child is born with a pure nature [as a Muslim with a natural inclination to believe on God]…” [Al-Bukhaaree and Muslim]

This is the nature of human beings, but a person who reaches atheism and becomes an atheist and has not been taught it from childhood [their upbringing, i.e. parents, education] then it is usually due to a tragedy, if a tragedy happens in their life they have no explanations as to why that tragedy happened. For example, a person who became an atheist may say that he/she had a wonderful auntie, she was a very good person and everybody loved her, but one day whilst she was out crossing the road a car came out of nowhere and hit her and she died. Why did this happen to her of all people? Why? No explanations. Or a person [who became an atheist] may have had a child who died. Why did this happen to my child? Why? No explanations. [As a result of such tragedies they then think that] there can’t possibly be a God.

Going back to the story of Moosaa and Khidr, after they crossed the river they came across a child and Khidr tore that child’s head off, Moosaa asked Khidr how he could possibly do such a thing, the child was innocent and Khidr tore his head off. Khidr told Moosaa that the child had righteous parents and if the child had grown up [Allaah knew] that this child would have become such a terror for his parents, to the point that he would have driven them into disbelief, so Allaah took the life of the child. Yes of course, for the parents, when they found their child, they grieved, however, Allaah replaced their child with one who was righteous and better for them. This child honoured them and was good to and for them, but the parents would always have a hole in their heart due to losing their first child, right upon until the Day of Judgement when they will stand before Him and He will reveal to them the reason that He took the soul of their first child and they will then understand and will praise Allaah.

So this is the nature of our lives, there are things, things which are apparently negative, things which happen in our lives which seem to be obstacles in our lives to inner peace because we do not understand them or why they happened to us, but we have to put them aside. They are from Allaah and we have to believe that ultimately there is good behind them, whether we can see it or not. Then we move on to those things which we can change, we identify them, having identified them we move to the second major step and that is removing the obstacles by developing solutions for them. To remove the obstacles we have to focus mostly on self change and this is because Allaah says:

“Verily! Allaah will not change the good condition of a people as long as they do not change their state of good within themselves…” [Ra’d 13:11]

This is an area which we have control over, even patience, although some people say that some people are just born patient. A man came to the Prophet [sall-Allaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam] and asked what he needed to do to get to Paradise, so the Prophet [sall-Allaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam] told him:

“Do not get angry.” [Al-Bukhaaree]

The man was an angry individual so Prophet [sall-Allaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam] told the man what he needed to do, so [changing oneself and ones character] it is something achievable. The Prophet [sall-Allaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam] said:

“Whoever tries to be patient, Allaah will give them patience…” [Muwatta of Imaam Maalik]

In western psychiatry and psychology they used to tell us to get it off our chest, let it all hang out, don’t hold it in because if we did we would explode, so better to let it all out. Later on they discovered that when people let it all out they would bust blood vessels in their brain because they were so angry, they found that it was actually dangerous and potentially damaging to let it all out. So now they say it is better not to let it all out. The Prophet [sall-Allaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam] told us to try to be patient, so externally we should give that façade of being patient even when internally we are boiling. And we do not try to be patient externally in order to deceive people; rather, we do so in order to develop patience. If we are consistent in this then the external image of patience also becomes internal and as a result complete patience is achieved and is achievable. Among the methods is to look at the material elements of our lives. These play a major part with regards to patience and us achieving it, the Prophet [sall-Allaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam] gave us advice on how to deal with these elements, he [sall-Allaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam] said:
“Do not look to those above you who are more fortunate, instead, look to those below you or are less fortunate…”

This is because no matter what our situation is there are always those who are worse off than us. As a general strategy with regards to our material life and the material life it is a huge part of our life, we seem to be obsessed with it, materialism and gaining all we can in this world seems to be the main point that most of us focus our energies towards, so if one must do this then they should not let it effect their inner peace. When we are out there dealing with the material world we do not keep focusing on those who are better off than us because we will never be satisfied with what we have if we do. The Prophet [sall-Allaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam] said:

“If you give the son of Adam a valley of gold he would want another one.” [Muslim]

The say that the grass is always greener on the other side, the more a person has the more a person wants. We cannot achieve satisfaction in the material world if we are chasing after it in such a way; rather, we should look to those who are less fortunate, this way we will remember the gifts, benefits and mercy that Allaah has bestowed upon us with regards to our own wealth, no matter how little it may seem. There is another hadeeth which helps us in the realm of the material world to put our affairs in their proper perspective which is a Prophetic example of Steven Covey’s [3] principle of “first things first.”

The Prophet [sall-Allaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam] stated this principle over 1400 years ago and laid this principle down for the believers, he [sall-Allaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam] said: “Whoever makes this world his goal, Allaah will confuse his affairs and place poverty before his eyes and he will be able to attain nothing from this world except for what Allaah has already written for him…” [Ibn Maajah and Ibn Hibbaan]

So a person’s affairs will not come together for him, he will be all over the place, like a chicken with his head cut off running wild. That is if he makes this world his goal. Allaah will place poverty before his eyes and no matter how much money he has he will feel poor, every time someone is nice to him or smiles at him he feels that they are only doing so because they want his money, he can’t trust anyone and is not happy. When the stock market crashes you read about those who invested in it committing suicide, he had 8 million and lost 5 million and only had 3 million left after the market crashed, but losing that 5 million for him was the end, he saw no point in living after that, and Allaah put poverty between his eyes. A person will not get from this world except what Allaah has already written for them, this is the bottom line, after all that running around, staying up late at night, being a workaholic, at the end of all that a person will only get that which Allaah has already destined for them. The Prophet [sall-Allaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam] said: “Whoever sets the Hereafter as his goal, Allaah gathers his affairs for him, gives him richness of [faith in] the heart and the world will come to him grudgingly and submissively.” [Ibn Maajah and Ibn Hibbaan]

Such a person attains richness of the heart. Richness is not about having a lot of wealth, but richness is having wealth of the heart, and wealth of the heart is what? It is contentment, and this is where the peace comes from, when a person submits themselves to Allaah, and this is Islam. The inner peace is accepting Islam is our hearts and living by the principles of Islam. So Allaah will put richness in a person heart and this world will come to a person submissively, on its knees and humbled, such a person will not have to chase it. This is the Promise of the Prophet [sall-Allaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam] if a person puts “first things first”, and that is the Hereafter.

If it is Paradise that we want then that should be manifest in our lives, it should be the point of our focus, what we keep putting in the forefront. So how do we know when the Hereafter is our focus? If we sit down with a person and all we talk about are the latest cars, expensive houses, travelling and holidays and money, if the majority of our conversations is about material things or it is gossip, talking about this person and that person then it means that the Hereafter is not our focus. If the Hereafter was our focus then it would be reflected in our conversation, this is a very basic level in which we can judge ourselves, so we should stop and ask ourselves, what do we spend most of our time talking about?

So we need to re-focus, we need to put “first things first”, meaning the Hereafter before the life of this world, and if we do this we can achieve inner peace, and Allaah informed us of this in the Qur’aan, a precise step to take in order to attain inner peace, and Allaah says:

“Verily, in the remembrance of Allaah do hearts find rest.” [Ra’d 13:28]

So it is only by the remembrance of Allaah that hearts find rest, this is the inner peace, the remembrance of Allaah is in everything we do as Muslims [in Islam].

Islam is living a life remembering Allaah, and Allaah says:

“Perform the prayer for my remembrance…” [Ta-Ha 20:14]

Everything that we do [in Islam] involves the remembrance of Allaah as Muslims.
Allaah says:

“Say: ‘Indeed, my prayer, my sacrifice, my living and dying are for Allaah, Lord of all the worlds…’.” [Al-An’am 6:162]

So here is the way to achieve inner peace, to remember Allaah [subhaanahu wa ta’aala], to remember Him in all aspects of our lives, not as some people think, they think that remembrance [dhikr] is to sit in the corner of a dark room constantly repeating “Allaah, Allaah, Allaah…” This is not how we remember Allaah, yes, such a person is saying Allaah’s name, but if we think about it, if somebody came to you [and for example your name is Muhammad] and kept saying “Muhammad, Muhammad, Muhammad…” you would wonder what is wrong with that person, does he want something, is there something that he needs? This is not the way to remember Allaah, this is not how the Prophet [sall-Allaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam] remembered Allaah and there is no record of him doing that.

Some people say that we should remember Allaah by dancing around or swaying from side to side. This is not the way to remember Allaah, this is not how the Prophet [sall-Allaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam] remembered Allaah and there is no record of him doing that. The Prophet [sall-Allaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam] remembered Allaah in his life, his life was a life of remembrance of Allaah, he lived a life in remembrance of Allaah and this is the true remembrance, in our prayers and in our living and our dying.

In summary, the search for inner peace involves recognising the problems that we have in our lives, recognising our obstacles, recognising that inner peace will only come when we identify those obstacles and understand which of them we can change and that we focus on those obstacles we can change, the ones which are related to our self, if we change ourselves then Allaah will change the world around us and give us the means to deal with the world around us, even though the world is in turmoil Allaah gives us inner peace with it, we know that it is Allaah’s destiny and that it is Allaah’s trials and we know that ultimately it is for our good and has good in it.

Allaah created us in this world and the world as a means to attain Paradise and the trials of this world is our own spiritual growth. If we can accept all this, accepting Allaah in our hearts then we can find inner peace.

Footnotes:

[1] The king was an oppressor and was known for seizing every good boat by force, but the people who owned the boat were poor people and it was their only means of benefit so Khidr wanted the boat to appear to be faulty so that the king did not seize it in order for the poor people to carry on benefiting from it
[2] This verse was added to the transcription by the transcribers‘
[3] Stephen Covey is an internationally respected leadership authority and founder of Covey Leadership Centre. He received his M.B.A. from Harvard and a doctorate from Brigham Young University, where he was a professor of business management and organisational behaviour for 20 years

Transcribed [albeit not a verbatim transcription] [by islamictexts.wordpress.com] from: A lecture entitled: “The Search for Inner Peace” by Dr. Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips