In literal terms “satisfaction” means fulfillment of one’s wishes and desires. When we expect something and our expectation is fulfilled, in a way we desired, we feel a sense of contentment, which is called satisfaction. This type of satisfaction, which results from the fulfillment of one’s desires, is limited and gets liquidated as and when the sphere of expectations and desires increases. At that time the definition of satisfaction changes to “fulfillment of one’s desires and expectations to the extent that they never turn back “or in other words the satisfaction of an eternal nature. Therefore, satisfaction can be divided in to two types:
- Satisfaction of an individual which is prone to the temporal changes.
- Satisfaction of a higher level which is not influenced by time and hence an eternal one.
When we affirm that we are satisfied with the food served in our dinner, we mean that the food has fulfilled all expectations regarding our apatite. In a similar way when we say we are satisfied with the sleep we had last night, it means that we slept under circumstances which fulfilled all our expectations. Now this analogy can be extended to different dimensions like expectations and their fulfillment with respect to one’s family, relatives, friends, his job, expectations of parents from their children and their fulfillment and vice versa, or regarding ones faith. From this we observe that our satisfaction regarding any of the subjects mentioned above is actually delimited by “the number of expectations which remain unfulfilled”. Now the question is as to wherefrom these expectations arise:
- The quality of life: – This is an important factor which, especially in the contemporary world, has emerged as an important source of expectations. Our level of dissatisfaction increases upon seeing our fellow being enjoying better qualities of life. When we see our neighbor has bought a new car with a lot of new and modern gadgets, we get prompted for some obscure reasons and start feeling an utter need for a similar one. Now the question is, did we ever feel a desire for that car? Or, was it our need? We even did not have the concept of such a car in our past. At this time we are left with two options: 1. To get carried on with the wind and manage to buy a similar car with at least the same gadgets or 2. To curtail our expectations and desires and try to remain satisfied with whatever we have. The second option would be the biggest challenge; therefore we go with the first one. In this case also, we see that upon being satisfied for a limited time we are again caught in, in a similar situation. A viscous circle of desires and wishes is created and our needs start turning into luxuries. Nevertheless, let us imagine a world where there is no difference in the quality of life. There will be no prompter and there will none who gats prompted. The world will start moving to be an abode of peace and harmony
- Emotional state: – Human beings are gifted with the wonderful trait of being emotional. And almost all the aspects of society are actually controlled by these emotions. We recognize our parents, our children, our friends and all those who are in close proximity to us, through these emotions. But expectations on the basis of emotions may, sometimes, lead to complete disappointments resulting in to dissatisfaction. During some exigencies a person gets daunting experience when he finds his friend not turning with the level of compassion he had expected. Similarly parents develop indifferences for their children when they see them not going at par with their expectations. Owing to the limited knowledge that the humans posses, it was not possible to ascertain as to whether the friend was right or wrong or why did not the children demonstrate a better performance. Therefore, it is not the friend’s casual approach or the poor performance of children, but the level of expectations, which we had with them, that caused dissatisfaction in our mind.
- Favor and human sympathy: – One of the natural states of man is that he is always fishing for complements, by doing favor to someone, he always develops a sense of expectation for a similar one in return. It annoys him to a large extent when he finds anything less than expected in return, thereby creating a lot of chaos and confusion in ones mind. Similarly humans have been bestowed upon by a moral quality known as sympathy. This quality of human beings serves as an important factor in differentiating them from the other animals. Believing human beings to be sympathetic, sometimes a deprived and a distressed person starts developing a sense of expectations which upon shattering cause him more troubles. Suppose a man feels uncomfortable due to some physiological disorders and expects his fellow, on believing him to be adorned with this moral quality, to comfort him. If his fellow does not turn towards him with the affection he had expected and will not make an attempt to help him out, he will be disappointed and a sense of dissatisfaction will arise.
- Level of confidence: – Every human being has been given a particular type of quality which makes him unique in that sense. Some of these qualities are noticed while others remain unnoticed throughout the course of life. Those who succeed in beholding and noticing the qualities they have been provided with, develop a sense of confidence. This confidence sometimes crosses a thresh hold limit wherefrom this moral quality starts turning into a curse for them. Upon increased confidence level, they start expecting a good catch from their superiors, and or their fraternity. At any point of time when they are deprived of the appraisal, they had expected, they start developing a sense of dissatisfaction.
All these states and stages of mind can be controlled and regulated only through a judicious and wise thinking. All we need to do is, to control our emotions, delimit our desires and develop a feeling of satisfaction because satisfaction is nothing but a feeling in itself. When one controls his natural instincts and starts feeling a need of change in his self, he becomes an intellectual. But being intellectual is not sufficient in itself because intellectuals also have desires and wishes. Therefore, dissatisfaction and discontentment can hamper their progress as well.
Owing to our wondering and hunt for an eternal satisfaction we must first of all be able to know the principle cause of our creation. An animal employed in the field, for various agricultural needs, has been created to serve the human beings and thus has been provided with the skill to accomplish this task in an efficient way. If he passes through all types of hurdles and difficulties while serving for his cause, he feels satisfied because his purpose of creation has been fulfilled.
The cause of human creation as envisaged in the divine message is to worship the Exalted, as is said:
وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ {57}
And I have not created the Jinn and the men but that they may worship Me. (51:57).
Here worship doesn’t only mean to bow down physically but to dispose of the rights towards his creator as well. Now disposing the rights of creator means to strive in understanding Him and He can be understood only through His attributes. He is the fountainhead of all the attributes like Rahman, Rahim, Malik, Aziz, Jabbar, Aleem, Qahar, Khafid, Muthil, etc. Man is unique among His creations that have been provided with these attributes and those who practice them with maximum efforts are deemed worth and start coming closer to their fountainhead, the Creator Himself. Prophet of Islam (PBH) stands unique in a way that he practiced the highest levels of these attributes among the bashr (human beings) and thus indeed became the most loved and revered bashr of the world. These attributes are the eminent links between the Creator and His creation. All human being practice these attributes as per the level of their status, in every aspect of their life. We practice them during our conversations, eating, while discharging our duties, during happiness and discomfort, during hegemony and helplessness, etc. thus these attributes of the Creator are displayed by every human being as per their status and stature. The more efficiently we practice these attributes the closer we shall move towards the Creator. Therefore, we conclude that discharging two types of duties, that is towards Creator and his creation, are actually interconnected and interdependent and we cannot expect a person to deal with equity unless and until he becomes an epitome of all these attributes together.
Upon attaining such a grand status a man starts developing comfort, both physical as well as spiritual and upon getting closer and closer to his Creator he starts getting satisfaction. This type of satisfaction has been stated in holy Quran as:
يَا أَيَّتُهَا النَّفْسُ الْمُطْمَئِنَّةُ {28} ارْجِعِي إِلَى رَبِّكِ رَاضِيَةً مَّرْضِيَّةً {29} فَادْخُلِي فِي عِبَادِي {30} وَادْخُلِي جَنَّتِي {31}
That “O soul at rest ! return to thy Lord well pleased with him and He well pleased with thee. So enter thou among my chosen servants, and enter thou my Garden”. (89:28-31)
The soul remains at rest and the person loses all his interest and passion for the worldly things. Even the world’s most fascinating things can not attract him. He loses all his desires and wishes and there are no more expectations. At this stage he rushes in full flow towards his Creator surpassing all types of hurdles, thus an eternal satisfaction is achieved.
The author, Dr. Nadeem Mubarik, is a DNA fingerprinting Expert at forensic Science Laboratory Jammu and Kashmir, Srinagar
mubarik.nadeem@gmail.com
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