What are the paths and landmarks leading to happiness, given the current differences in methodologies and schools of thought?

The questioner : People strive to reach happiness, and their schools of thought have multiplied in this regard. If our Shaykh would clarify for people the landmarks on their path to reaching happiness, what would he say?

The Shaykh : I do not think there is any difference in this except among philosophers; as for Muslims who believe in Allah and His Messenger and believe that there is no path to happiness in this world and the Hereafter except by holding fast to Islam, there are not multiple answers, but rather it is holding fast to Islam. And the opposite is the opposite: whoever seeks misery turns away from Islam. This is very clear in many verses, such as His saying, the Exalted, in the well-known verse: But what we must be alert to is a very great and painful reality, painful from another angle because many Muslims have lost it, both in knowledge and in practice by some of them, which is that Islam, by the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and the understanding of the righteous Salaf of both, is the cure for all ailments and psychological diseases that, if they afflict a nation or a people, prevent that nation or that people from tasting happiness. Islam, derived from the Book and the Sunnah and the methodology of the righteous Salaf, is the cure. But the thing I want to dwell on now is that this cure has been infiltrated by many foreign substances that, if we do not say they have corrupted it entirely, have at least prevented it from being a decisive cure. This is due to what has entered into this Islam that is not part of it, whether this intrusion is in creed, or in worship, or in behavior and morals. Therefore, this Islam may be turned on its head because of these foreign matters that have afflicted it, such that its effect does not appear in that society that professes it, so that the fault is not in Islam, but rather in what has entered into this Islam. Therefore, we insist and always dwell on the fact that if we seek this happiness, and there is no path to it, as we said, except Islam, but not Islam in its elastic concept, if that expression is correct, but rather in its specific concept based on the Book and the Sunnah and the methodology of the righteous Salaf. In that case, it is the source of happiness and nothing else. In any case, I see that a question like this might be better posed in some universities that do not specialize in, and may not even care about, the study of Islam, but rather care about the study of general culture, whether it is Islamic, philosophical, secular, or similar. Otherwise, the concept among Muslims is that there is no happiness except holding fast to Islam. But I wanted to add to it holding fast to Islam in its correct concept.

The questioner : My teacher, perhaps I was not able to clarify. My intention was that there are hadiths, and perhaps you have seen an addition that was not permitted for you, or not given to you, to write, for example, the hadith: Do these hadiths indicate material things related to happiness?

The Shaykh : This is part of happiness.

The questioner: Which volume?

The Shaykh : You did not ask about a part.

The questioner : I am asking about happiness in general.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : And these parts are among them.

The Shaykh : Fine, this is from happiness and Islam brought it.