What Everyone Is Looking For
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Ibn Hazm says he searched for one goal that every human being agrees on. Something that the scholar and the ignorant, the rich and the poor, the king and the servant, all want equally.
And he found it. Everyone, he says, is trying to drive away worry.
Think about it. Why do people seek money? To drive away the worry of poverty. Why do they seek fame? To drive away the worry of being ignored. Why do they seek pleasure, food, marriage, entertainment? To drive away boredom, loneliness, or need. Even the one who seeks knowledge, he says, is driving away the worry of ignorance.
Every action, every effort, every desire, comes back to this one goal.
But then he made a second discovery. Most of the ways people use to drive away worry do not actually work. Money brings new worries. Fame brings envy and fear of losing it. Pleasure ends, and leaves an emptiness.
So he asked: Is there any path that truly drives away worry, completely and permanently?
And his answer, after a lifetime of searching, was this: Yes. Turning to Allah, and working for the Hereafter. It is the only aim that does not disappoint.
