It’s so ironic how people see the world through the lens of the possessions and personal belongings. We are surrounded by people who have been teaching us over the years that he who dies with the most toys, wins.
We have started conceiving happiness by quantity of things and not the quality. We have assumed that driving the fastest car, wearing the nicest clothes, having the best hairstyle is all happiness is about. This, I think is not how happiness should be consumed. You can never centre your life around things that have no absolute value.
I like how Sean Covey has said “our confidence needs to come from within, not from without, from the quality of our Hearts and not the quantity of things we own. After all he who dies with the most toys... Still dies".
How perfectly he has explained our utter need, to purify our hearts. How can you even love a person when you supposedly love them, for the things they own. Love is beyond such things. Whether it is the love for your partner or for your country. How can a person call himself a patriot if he loves his country for cheap education, disregard of rules, inhumanity, discrimination and so on. If that's why you love your country, you should think about it once again.
Things don't make anybody, anything. I like how my dad always explains me when I'm whining over things that "Oh! My friend just got this and I don't even have that!" He quietly always listens to the whining and then he goes like "You know Allah SWT has to keep a balance with the distribution of things. He might give you love and not chocolate, whereas the other person gets chocolate and not love. It's always one thing that you've that the other might not and vice versa".
This always gives me hope. And honestly, things have no value. If a person respects you for the car you drive, or the shoes you wear then you should consider your existence twice and think about yourself. You should be love and respected for the way you behave and how you act, not by owning an iPhone 5 and driving a Mercedes.