Count your Blessings....

“Reflect upon your present blessings -- of which every man has many -- not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” ― Charles Dickens

Have you ever felt that nothing is going right in your life? Do you feel that you have suffered a series of bad luck? Do you feel unloved or unappreciated? Do you feel that God is punishing you? Are you feeling blue?

Well…push all those feelings aside. Ignore those negative whisperings in your ears or the cruel voices in your head. Don’t jump off the cliff or set yourself on fire if you are sad or depress as neither will solve your problem but instead will create bigger problems for you in the Hereafter. In Islam, suicide is totally unacceptable.

Narrated Thabit bin Ad Dahhak: The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “Whoever intentionally swears falsely by a religion other than Islam, then he is what he has said, (e.g. if he says, ‘If such thing is not true then I am a Jew,’ he is really a Jew). And whoever commits suicide with piece of iron will be punished with the same piece of iron in the Hell Fire.” Narrated Jundab, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “A man was inflicted with wounds and he committed suicide, and so Allah said: My slave has caused death on himself hurriedly, so I forbid Paradise for him.”
Sahih Al-Bukhari – Book 23 Hadith 445

Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “Whoever purposely throws himself from a mountain and kills himself, will be in the (Hell) Fire falling down into it and abiding therein perpetually forever; and whoever drinks poison and kills himself with it, he will be carrying his poison in his hand and drinking it in the (Hell) Fire wherein he will abide eternally forever; and whoever kills himself with an iron weapon, will be carrying that weapon in his hand and stabbing his abdomen with it in the (Hell) Fire wherein he will abide eternally forever.”
Sahih Al-Bukhari – Book 71 Hadith 670

Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “He who commits suicide by throttling shall keep on throttling himself in the Hell Fire (forever) and he who commits suicide by stabbing himself shall keep on stabbing himself in the Hell-Fire.”
Sahih Al-Bukhari – Book 23 Hadith 446

            So what can you do? Count your blessings and bad luck. Seriously! I mean literally count your blessings and bad luck. Someone shared with me a brilliant method of shaking out the blues.

            This is what you do. Find two jars or containers and marked one of them positive and the other negative. Every time something good happens to you, write it down and put it in the positive jar. If you experience a negative experience also write it down and put it in the negative jar. May I suggest that you start each day by writing down ‘woke up’ as your first positive entry. Then, write down ‘food for breakfast’, ‘car to drive’, ‘clothes to wear’ and so on. Everything that is positive in your daily life is considered as a blessing hence should be written down and put in the jar. Only incidents which are clear cut negative should be written down such as “death of cat’ or ‘lost a tooth’. Whatever you do, DO NOT CHEAT!

            At the end of the week, tally up all your positives and negatives and then only you will truly see that you are indeed blessed…..