How do I find inner peace?

Inner peace comes when you are at one with God and shape your own character after His attributes. The first and most important step is truthfulness.

The word Islam is related to the Arabic word for peace. This peace has two sides. One is peace with God. It comes when you entrust yourself to His will instead of struggling against it. The other is peace with yourself and with the people around you.

The two belong together. God is truthful, just and merciful. Restlessness often arises where our own life contradicts these attributes. Someone who lies has to remember the lie and fears it will come out. Someone who acts unjustly carries that around with them. The more our own qualities come to resemble the attributes of God, the calmer the heart becomes.

That is why the first step is truthfulness. It sounds simple, but it takes courage in daily life, for example admitting a mistake instead of inventing an excuse. As the hadith above says, truthfulness leads step by step to goodness. A person who lives honestly has nothing to hide, and that alone lifts a great weight from the heart.

Such peace does not stop with the individual. A truthful person brings calm to their family, an honest family strengthens society, and honest societies can also live in peace with one another. Added to this is the remembrance of God mentioned in the verse above. In prayer and in quietly remembering Him, the heart finds its way back to itself again and again.