PHP中的搜索指令不起作用

I'm trying to search a value in a specific mysql database column via PHP. However, it's not working. I tried many different ways and I had no success so far.

I'm trying the following code:

<?php

        require('connect.php');

    $search= 'search';
    $query = "SELECT * FROM `user1` WHERE `description` LIKE '%'a'%'";
    if($result){
         $smsg = $query;
    }else{
         $fmsg ="Sorry, nothing was found. Try using our menu on top left.";
    }

    ?>

Change it:

"SELECT * FROM `user1` WHERE `description` LIKE '%'a'%'";

to

"SELECT * FROM `user1` WHERE `description` LIKE '%a%'";

and try again. It will return you all the rows in which description column contains character a.