Philosophy of Happiness
We all have our rough days, even me :)
Yesterday was a particularly difficult one - and it didn’t help that it was a Wednesday (my least favorite day of the week in London). We were in our lesson planning groups looking through at a randomly assigned unit that we have to prepare and present in a few months. And it was in the middle of this randomly assigned unit, on page 58 to be exact, that an incredibly uplifting passage jumped out at me…what timing, what timing…
“I would counsel my heirs to seek satisfaction, not in the flux circumstances, but within themselves: I would have them resolute, self-controlled, independent, but not rebellious. Let them seek communion with that Eternal Reality which I call Allah and you call God!
“I shall invite my heirs to feast their eyes on the miraculous beauty of the earth - the rivers and seas to slake the earth’s eternal thirst, hills like the tents of a great encampment, forests like an army with banners; wide open spaces, dawns and sunsets, the indomitable arch of the sky. All these great gifts are freely given to the man with open eyes, open hands and open heart.
“Never forget this: This society in which we live cannot give man happiness. If we miss that, you miss my point altogether. Society can give a man space to breathe and freedom to move in it, it can afford him the means of keeping himself healthy and making and making himself strong. But happiness never depends on one’s surroundings; it depends altogether and exclusively on oneself.”
Source: Message of His Royal Highness Prince Aga Khan III, Mombasa, 1955. Cited in K.K. Aziz, Aga Khan III: Selected Speeches and Writings of Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah, pp. 1413-1415.
