Expressing gratitude to the Almighty is the foremost basis of
our relation with Him. This expression pertains to the heart, the tongue and the
deeds we do. Expression of gratitude by heart means that it should be brimming
with thankfulness to God for His innumerable bounties and favors-much like the
udder of the goat brimming with milk. This parable, it needs to be appreciated,
doesn’t stand only for example. It is very near, in essence, to the linguistics
of the Arabic word ‘shukr‘: The heart, when filled with gratitude, impels
the tongue to pour out words of gratitude for the Almighty whenever he comes
across His favors and blessings or are reminded of them, just as a cup brimming
with water overflows with the slightest of a stir.
A heart teeming with gratitude has a profound affect on the
deeds of a person. He relishes every deed that satisfies his urge to be
thankful. Similarly, he develops an aversion for deeds, which reflect
ingratitude to an evident or a veiled favor of God. If a person truly
acknowledges a blessing, he is never willing to use this blessing against the
liking of its bestower. Suppose, someone gives us a torch to save us from
stumbling in the darkness or gives us a sword to protect ourselves from an enemy
or gives us a vehicle to save us from the bother of walking, then only a very
ungrateful and thankless person can use these very sources to break into the
house of his well wisher and massacre his family. Likewise, a person, who is
mindful in acknowledging favors, can never use the Almighty’s favors for the
cause of Satan. Ayesha (rta), in a letter to Mu’avia (rta), has
referred to this reality in the following words: ‘The least obligation of a
person who has been blessed with favors is that he ought not use these favors in
disobeying the bestower.’
To keep this feeling of gratitude alive in our selves we need
to observe the following.
First, we should always be mindful of all that God has
blessed us with, apparent or hidden. This is a common trait of man that he wails
when faced with the slightest of a problem and blindly ignores the continuous
favors befalling him as if they never existed. A man, who doesn’t have an eye
for blessings and their importance, and isn’t aware of their use, cannot
appreciate the bestower and cherish thankfulness towards him. To eradicate this
unresponsiveness, a man may portion out a section of his daily time to
contemplate all the visible and hidden blessings of God scattered throughout the
universe. He should imagine, while meditating, what if he hadn’t been blessed
with those bounties? What if he had been deprived of sight, born dumb or with
hands benumbed and feet paralyzed? Above all what would he be like without the
gift of reasoning?
Second, we should realize that we are blessed with what we
didn’t deserve, nor did God owe us. Neither did we earn anything nor can we. The
Almighty can withdraw all from us. What can one do if felled from the crown to
the stillest doom? For this very reason we shouldn’t leave an unfortunate man
unnoticed and must mind that God can replace him with us. It is only His grace
that we are spared the plight.
Third, we should not only look towards those privileged
rather we should compare ourselves with the less fortunate. A person who heeds
only to those blessed more than he is, never satisfies in his lot and is always
complaining. He is denied true happiness in life, no matter how large fortunes
he owns? After all he couldn’t be raised above all. So to remain thankful
towards Allah, in a most befitting way, is possible only when we look
towards those who, in spite of being created by the same Allah, lack a
lot what we are blessed with abundantly.
One of Sheikh Saadie’s anecdotes elucidates the matter
cogently. During one of his journeys, he tells, his shoes wore out. He became
aggrieved for he couldn’t buy a new pair. Hobbling along he came to a mosque
where there was an amputee, who had no feet at all. Suddenly, the impulse of
gratitude swelled his heart and he knelt down in order to offer up thanks to God
for the feet gifted him.
Saadie has beautifully made us understand how to view
the world in order to be grateful. People, who see the world Saadie’s
eyes, find every now and then innumerable signs of His graciousness stimulating
thankfulness. On the other hand there are those who in spite of having sound
health, fret on not having the most modern car. These people can never be
grateful in the real sense.
Adapted
from Ameen Ahsan Islahi’s “Tazkiyyah e Nafs”