A Call for Optimism

Optimism has a strong relation with positive thinking, confidence, hope, happiness and success. It is a quality that hastens people to see the bright side in life as well as making them realize that there is always a silver lining in every dreadful situation. There is a saying that goes “There’s always a rainbow after the rain.” This is an example of what an optimistic person will say when they are going through hard times. They will reconstruct their views to see the positive bits of every situation.

The father of Positive Psychology, Martin Seligman, has proposed the concept of explanatory style in which refers to how a person interprets the events going on in their life. In his theory, people with optimistic explanatory style tend to expect good things to happen in their life than people with pessimistic explanatory style.

Based on his research, he has found that people who are on the optimistic side are more happy and healthy. For instance, he discovered that they have stronger immune systems, are less likely to get sick, recover faster after an illness, cope better with stress, live longer, are more confident and perform better in life (Schultz & Schultz, 2017).

From the Islamic Psychology perspective, optimism is encouraged to be practiced in daily life especially during this pandemic situation, vanishing whatever hatred, blaming, egocentrism, and ignorance. As Allah said in the Quran, Surah al-Zumar verse 53:

“Say: “O my servants who have transgressed against themselves [by sinning], do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful” (The Quran, 2014, 39:53).

The ayah above is calling for the encouragement to keep being optimistic even if we think that it is the dead end in our life. However, Allah revealed the ayah just to say no matter how many sins we have committed, no matter how dark we feel, believe that there is still a light as long as we are not giving up. The simple combination of four words, H-O-P-E is the meaning of the “light” from the ayah.

During this difficult time, all of us should have a hope, hope for a way out in every dispute that we had. Try our best to help each other, even if it is only a simple encouragement of words, because at the end of the day, it does matter and is valuable to those who are in need. As the Malay saying goes, lihatlah dengan menggunakan mata lebah dan jangan lihat dengan menggunakan mata lalat.

Written by:

Siti Nuraisyah Binti Mohamed Asri & Nur Aina Fathihah Binti Ibrahim Law