Happiness in Islam is based on patience (Sabr) and gratitude (Shukr)
Alhamdulillah,I started this project with a vague intention of understanding the psychological source if happiness from an Islamic perspective. Having understood the non-Islamic perspective and the Islamic perspective, I have reached a point where for me, the source of happiness is obvious. What is important is that we can learn to become happy and we can learn to become unhappy. Insha Allah, our efforts with the Productive Teens project will see whether we can go from a theoretical discussion to a successful action research. In the meantime, everything that I have been working for over the last three years is summarized in this hadith
Current status
Literature review is on-going. I am now immersing myself is social psychology. I have about 200 students ++ working on making videos for the Productive Teens project.Is Happiness Dispositional or Situational?
I did it again. Not for the first time, I thought that I understood something and then I read a book that forces me to re-think my assumptions about what I thought I knew was true. In this case, I read Philip Zimbardo's The Lucifer Effect. Zimbardo says that many disciplines take a dispositional view For example, a dispostional view of happiness is that happiness is "inside" an individual). It "belongs" to the individual. However, social psychologists tend to take a situational view oft hings. Yes, individuals are important but how they feel and behave depend on the group dynamics and other environmental factors. If that is the case, happiness would be an attribute "shared" by all group members when the social dynamics are just right. I will probably need a few months to do some more reading and think about it before I can formulate my opinion on this question.
Can You Find Happiness By Taking Drugs?
For the last couple of weeks, I have focused my literature review (which never stops)on the question whether one can find happiness by taking drugs. The answer seems obvious: No. But why? Aren't drugs "sources of pleasure"? Let's briefly talk about the process of addiction. Whenever we do something, there are chemical reactions in our brains and electrical pathways are created on the surface of our brain. From a purely scientific perspective, happiness is what happens when certain chemicals are released in the brain. These chemicals can be released by taking certain substances (like alcohol, cigarettes, soft drugs or hard drugs)or by behaving in a certain way (like sexual relationships, shopping, working hard and being rewarded by the boss and so forth). Such behaviour creates stronger pathways in the brain. Repetition of such behaviour leads to deeper pathways. Ultimately, addiction arises when the structure of the brain (it's anatomy) and the way it is organized (physiology)changes so that the anatomy and physiology of an addict's brain is different from that of a normal person. Typically, addiction leads to a harmful way of living where short-term pleasure is always followed by long-term pain. The funny thing is that we now know - scientifically - that such an approach to finding happiness is totally counter-productive. We also know - scientifically - that one of the best ways to find happiness is through developing a spiritual connection with God. Andrew Newberg and Robert Waldman in their book "How God Changes Your Brain" tells of research in which brain scans of people who did not meditate (i.e. "baseline scans")were compared to brain scans of people who did meditate (i.e. "meditation scans"). They found that meditation and prayer did much more to stimulate the parts of the brain that leads to internal peace of mind. However, there is ONE CONDITION. Andrew Newberg and Robert Waldam found that when people perceived God as being a tyrant, the brain released chemicals that lead to a situation of fear and anti-social behaviour. When people perceived God as being loving, kind and merciful, the brain released chemicals that lead to happiness and pro-social behaviour.
Happiness: A summary of the literature so far
Happiness is something people have been seeking since the dawn of humanity. For many centuries, people assumed that happiness was linked to good character (the Greeks in particular). In those days, happiness was a concept that we would translate roughly as "peace of mind" rather than "enjoyment". With the advent of Islam, the Qur'an tells us about the source of unhappiness (our desires as described in 57:20) and the source of happiness (remembering Allah in 13:28). As history continued and the paradigms found in the west started to influence the rest of the world, a shift started. Happiness became about possessing things and achieving goals (I am referring to Gretchen Rubin's "The Happiness Project" which I reviewed in April 2012 in this blog). The paradox is that we have limited resources and unlimited wants. Thus, we can never be happy unless and until we control our wants. In particular, we need to be able to deal with problems effectively. For the last 30 years, many psychologists have worked on understanding the psychological processes linked to happiness (i.e. people like Martin Seligman). Underlying all of this, the assumption is still that people can create happiness for themselves. Most people assume that you won't find happiness by referring to Revelation. I now come to the Happy in Islam project. In 2008, I had a Malay student that was having problems in his academic performance. I tried all the usual stuff - explaining the need for setting goals, managing time, learning more effective study skills - and so forth. Nothing worked. Not giving up, I asked him to watch Islamic videos. It turned out that his difficulties were rooted in his pessimistic view of the future. If you believe that tomorrow is going to be worse than today, there is no reason for you to plan for tomorrow. You just want to enjoy today. When I joined the International Islamic University Malaysia in 2010, I tried to get my class to watch Islamic videos on a weekly basis. It worked for 75% of students. I have now done this project with over 700 students and the results are almost always the same. I have used questionnaires that measure spiritual intelligence so I have an idea of which constructs change significantly every semester. With the launching of the Productive Teens project starting in 2014, we will see whether we can see a similar pattern with Malay youth. If we do, then the data will confirm the ayat in 13:28 "Those who believe and whose hearts are set at rest by the remembrance of Allah; now surely by Allah's remembrance are the hearts set at rest."
Surah Al Hadid, Ayat 20: Real Happiness as described in the Qur'an
This is lecture by Nouman Ali Khan. He gives an explanation of 57:20. It describes five stages of happiness: play, entertainment, beautification, pride and spending money on children. An insightful look into happiness from the perspective of the Qur'an.Happier becauseof a different and more positive perspective
Down-time, dyslexia and happiness
Over the next few weeks, I will do very few postings as my students are 'on holiday'. Nonetheless, my work is on-going. I am more and more interested in how certain processes - like dyslexia - affects Muslims. My understanding is that there are hundreds of thousands of Malays who are dyslexic and don't know about it. A really cool website is "The Dyslexic Advantage". Anyway, dyslexic is not a problem but it does have to be managed. Whether or not you are successful / happy / grateful to Allah depends on your ability to understand yourself (including the way your mind processes information) well enough to turn apparent disabilities into strengths.Giving hope to people without hope
Earlier today, I meet a trainer. He has to organize a 4 hour workshop for about 100 teenagers in trouble. These teenagers have been 'rejected' by their parents and their teachers. They are involved in pretty much every social problem you can think of. He asked me whether he could show some of the videos that MGT4110 / MGT4820 / MGT6610 students made......Hopefully, these videos will give hope to those without hope....
From Allah to Allah
I have re-read Paul Coelho's "The Zahir". There are some things that made sense and some things that I disagreed with. He says that this life is a journey. We need to have goals but these goals are there to guide us on the way, not to become obsessions. Unfortunately, many people get lost because achieving the goals becomes the purpose in their life, not simply a means of completing their journey. Worse, they betray who they truly are in order to become what Society expects them to be. From an Islamic perspective, min Allah ilaa Allah. We come from Allah and we are journeying towards Him. I agree that many people betray who they truly are in order to become what Society wants them to be. However, I disagree with Paul Coelho because it is not an individual journey. It is a collective journey. The first steps on this journey has to do with seeking knowledge about our purpose in life. The answer to that question is found in the Qur'an. It is a simple answer and we don't need to make it more complicated than it is. The next steps have to do with understanding how to live according to what Allah wants us to be, not what Society wants us to be. That is more difficult because we have to rebel against some of our cultural traditions. The last point is that 7 billion people are undertaking the same journey. It's all very simple. Relating thia posting to the Happiness in Islam project, if you get obsessed with your goals, you will never be happy. If you take goals as simply signposts but you never forget your true origin (min Allah) and your true destination (ilaa Allah), then Allah will - in His Mercy - make you feel content and happy during your journey to Him.
Happiness: An Islamic definition
A simple definition of Happiness from Hamza Yusuf: to be satisfied with the Qadar of Allah by serving othersPlans for 2013
Alhamdulillah, I have about 200 students shooting 30 videos this semester. I plan to do another 30 videos starting in September 2013. In the meantime, I am looking for 5 secondary schools in the Gombak area to agree to a pilot project for 2014. Mr. Fazrul Ismail, of Total Success Sdn Bhd, has agreed to provide some free training for the teachers so that they improve their facilitation skills. By 2014, we hope to do a year-long validation of the Productive Teens methodology. By the end of 2014, we would like the schools to issue a testimonial in regards to the outcome of the Productive Teens project in their schools. Hopefully, with these testimonials, we can start talking to the Ministry of Education ....210 students shooting videos
Learning from the experience of last semester, I now have 210 students (MGT6610, MGT4110 and MGT4820) shooting videos. These videos will be linked to the productiveteens.com website (which will be totally re-vamped thanks to the help of En. Fazrul Ismail at Total Success Sdn Bhd). Hopefully, in 2014, problematic teenagers in selected schools will surf the Internet under the supervision and coaching of one of their teachers. They will go through the productive teens videos one by one (which will, insya Allah, combine Islamic content and everyday self-management skills)as the school year progresses. These weekly discussions will focus around the content of the video and include group discussions and appropriate role-play. As the school year progresses, these problematic teenagers should (insya Allah) be able to changer their behaviour (first) and then change their perception of themselves (later). We hope that a few successful pilots would help persuade schools that using productive teens is an effective way to help some of their under-performing students. We hope that the students would become happy and productive Muslims at the outcome of this project. I don't (by the way) blame these students for their current situations. Many teenagers are exposed to mixed and confusing messages from their peers, their parents and their teachers. We simply want to show these kids practical steps to change their lives for the better.
WE will not be the lost generation
This video captures very well the spirit of the Happy in Islam projectConference in Thailand: 14th to 16th January
Alhamdulillah, I presented a paper that documented the results so far of the Happy in Islam project and outlines some ideas regarding the Productive Teens project. So far, so good.
Next milestone: Conference in Thailand and the Productive Teen website
Slowly, things are moving. Insha Allah, I will be presenting a conference paper in Thailand on January 13 2013. It will summarise all the data collected (including the measures of spiritual intelligence). It will describe the next stage of the project which is the building of the Productive Teen website and the production of more videos by students at the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). The next group starts this Thursday and two other groups will start in February. Hopefully, I will have about 200 students trying to help Malay teenagers empower themselves
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
