The Power Of Gratitude

In The Name Of Allah The Most Gracious And The Most Merciful. Allah S.W.T speaks about two kinds of people in the Quran, He says that Allah S.W.T has guided you to the way of truth and shown you the way so you can differentiate between good and bad, between haqq (truth) and batil (falsehood), between imaan (faith) and kufr (disbelief), between tawheed and shirk, you can make that distinction.

The specific grateful is for the imaan (faith) and the Tawheed, that Allah S.W.T made you an Ummah of 'La ilaha ila Allah' and that you don't ascribe any partners with Him. And we see it in two ways like Ibn Qayyim R.H says that the general shukoor or grateful for the fact that Allah S.W.T has given you food. Just think, Allah S.W.T has given you food and drink, and that satisfies you and there are people in this world who don't have food. Let alone the big things that we are waiting for in our lives and the big things that we are expecting to happen to us and the big house that we are expect to build or to buy.

Leave all of this, other people don't have food, they don't have rice, they don't have bread, they don't have water, and Allah S.W.T requires from you to acknowledge that, and think about that. And Ibn Qayyim R.H says there are two kinds of thankful people even within the frame of thankfulness, the 'syakir' and the 'syakur'. The Syakir is the one who thanks Allah S.W.T for the things he sees in front of him, and the many blessings that come his way but the Syakur thanks Allah S.W.T for the things that don't come his way and for the things that are taken away from him. There are those you see and the Prophet Muhammad S.A.W spoke about this when he said "Indeed all the affairs of the believer are strange. Everything that Allah S.W.T decrees for him is good for him and if a blessing comes his way he thanks Allah S.W.T and that's good for him and if a hardship comes his way he is patient and that's good for him. But then there is those who transcend even that, because even in the times of difficulty where people's recourse is to moan and complain, and to swear and to abuse and become abusive because they are angry. How could this thing happened to me?".

But the Syakur people is not like that. He would thank Allah S.W.T in hardship as much as he would thank Allah S.W.T in ease. He knows because everything is a blessing from Him. One of the promises of Allah S.W.T in the Quran, when Allah S.W.T declared "And your Lord calls to be declared, if you thank Allah, He will increase you, but if you are ungrateful then the punishment of Allah is severe". If Allah S.W.T give you a blessing at one point, did you remember Him and thank Him for that blessing?

We should remember that my dear brothers and sisters. And one of the ways to try and become more thankful and grateful people is to take this Hadith at heart, when the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him said "Look to those who have less than you, look to those who are lower than you, not to those who are higher than you or not to those who have more than you. Because if you always look to those who have more than you it will make you undermine the favor of Allah S.W.T upon you". MasyaAllah.