Optimism Is Part Of Islamic Faith: Ismail Kamdar
"You must approach life with responsibility and optimism."
In an interesting article, "Taking Ownership Of Your Choices", Ismail Kamdar quotes:
"Abu Huraira reported that the Messenger of Allah said, “Allah Almighty says: I am as My servants expects of Me. If he thinks good of Me, he will have it. If he thinks evil of Me, he will have it.” (ṢAḤĪḤ IBN ḤIBBĀN 639)"
Ismail goes on, "A believer must be optimistic. He must think good thoughts about God and hope for the best. A negative attitude towards life is a negative attitude towards the Creator. The believer views everything in his life as part of God’s Plan. He sees the lesson in every mistake, the growth in every trial, and the blessing in every success. The believer takes full responsibility for his own actions but attributes all success to the Creator. This is part of gratitude and living a life of worship.
That reminds me of an article by Hala Bader al-Humaidhi in the Gulf Times entitled, "Lighten up, forgive yourself!" who wrote, "Wisdom does not appear out of thin air, it can take time and experience and for that, one has to be patient. While being patient; one has to be optimistic as well because without positive vibes everything is rendered bleak. Islam preaches optimism and patience for this very reason. No person ever ascended to the status of a hero without first suffering from the past and then learning from it."
So too, Arfa Sarfaraz Khan, President of the United Muslim Sisters of Latrobe Valley, told me, "I believe optimism is the strength for survival, so I try to stay optimistic. And my faith, Islam sees optimism as a strength and pessimism as a sin."
And an interesting article by Shaykh Abdullah Waheed entitled "Optimism in Times of Adversity: How The Prophet Did It", concludes with a prayer, "We ask Allah to grant us the ability to maintain our optimism in our adversities. We ask Allah to grant us an understanding of Islam so that we may help others overcome their adversities. We ask Allah to relieve the adversity of the Ummah."