Dealing with fear

A few weeks ago, I attended a public seminar given by a leading Malaysian psychologists. We discussed the problem of why people lie and cheat. He argued that people only lie and cheat because they are afraid. They might be afraid of their parents, their teachers, their peers or even of themselves. In a previous posting, I have already discussed why people fail to learn, fail to develop themselves. They are afraid.

The next question is: why are people afraid? Maybe, one of the reasons is that they are busy trying to meet other people's high expectations. Ultimately, Muslims should understand that trying to meet other people's expectations is a waste of them. If meeting your parents' expectations is discouraged if that spoils your pure niat. The only thing worth doing is trying to please Allah SWT. Allah SWT does not expect us to be perfect. He simply wants us to see whether we are trying to improve or whether we have given up and we are only following the crowd ... like the sheep going to the slaughterhouse.

It might seem corny but I have been trying to establish a few principles of life. So far, I have come up with four golden rules. As long as anything you do does not contradict one of these rules, you are okay.

1. To worship Allah to the best of our ability (after all, that is why we were created,...)
2. To be grateful for what Allah has given us and not to complain for what Allah has not given us
3. To make a contribution to the society, if only by smiling to others
4. To have fun