Making the Choice to be Happy

Suppose there was a way for you to increase your positive thinking, optimism and level of success. What if I also told you that it could also increase your level of happiness, creative thinking, confidence, self esteem and energy level? Sounds too good to be true? Well, these possibilities are real and they are right at your fingertips. It’s really very simple: All you have to do is to adopt a more positive attitude and the changes that will begin to occur in your life will astound you. Having a positive attitude is an enormous help when it comes to coping with the usual ups and downs of life.


When you have the ability to look at life’s bright side, your entire life is filed with light. This light not only after your outlook on the world, your environment and the people around you but if it is strong enough, it becomes contagious, cuz positive people are just more pleasant to be around. The Prophet (SAWS) said “Be cheerful, not threatening and make things easy, not difficult.”(Bukhari and Muslim)

Positive people display confidence and self esteem; they incorporate constructive and creative thinking and tend to view failures and problems as blessings in disguise; they seek solutions, opportunities and expect success in their lives; they are inspired with endless possibilities, they provide inspiration to others; they are motivated towards the goals they set, they don’t give up easily and believe strongly in themselves and their abilities. They simply make the choice each day to be happy.

Adopting a more positive attitude benefits the true believers.”Nothing will weigh more heavily in the balance of the believing servant on the Day of Resurrection than a good attitude(towards others).Verily Allah hates those who utter vile words and obscene speech.”(Tirmithi)

There are many things that we can do on a daily basis to push ourselves along the road to attaining a more positive attitude:

 Keep up daily obligatory salah. Salah is a powerful link between us and our Lord.It is an escape into the merciful folds of Allah’s pleasure and protection. By making salah five times a day, we derive strength,contentment and steadfastness. We emerge more peaceful and balanced. Faith is essential in establishing and maintaining a positive frame of mind.

 Give your appearance the attention it deserves. A negative self-image can lead to a negative attitude, while grooming and clean, attractive clothing can lift your spirits and build your confidence .The Prophet (SAWS) said “Allah is beautiful and loves beauty”(Muslim).

 Monitor your self talk. Do you ever think about the dialogue you have with yourself throughout the day? Do you say negative and critical things to yourself like “Im always making mistakes” or “Im just no good at math” .The more frequently these negative thoughts are repeated, the stronger they become. Make yourself fully aware of any negative self talk you may be engaging in. Then immediately begin replacing those thoughts with positive productive ones.

 Change your vocabulary. When someone asks, ”How are you?” Rather than respond with “alright”, why not instead say ”wonderful” or “superb”. Think about the words you habitually speak and replace them with ones that empower you.

Developing a positive attitude is an essential part of our Islamic faith.
Sharing this attitude with others helps us to be more complete in our worship.

The Prophet (SAWS) said, “The most perfect in faith among the believers are those who are best in their attitude toward others” (Tirmithi)

---Kimberly Ben (Al Jumuah)