Arsalan Majeed

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu. I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah. Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.

Whoever Allah guides to the straight path, there is no one that can lead him astray. And whoever Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala misguides from the straight path, there is no one that can guide him back to the straight path.

I bear witness, I testify and I proclaim that there is no deity, there is no object worthy of any act of worship except Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala alone who has no partner. And I bear witness and I testify and I proclaim that Muhammad ibn Abdullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, is his most perfect worshipper and final prophet and messenger to all of mankind.

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in his honorable book, O believers, be mindful of Allah as is his due and make sure that you do not die except in a state of submission to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

O people, be mindful of your Lord who created you all from one soul and from this soul he created its mate and from the pair of them he spread countless men and women far and wide. Be mindful of Allah, the one in whose name you demand your rights and make requests from one another. Beware of severing and cutting off the ties of kinship. Truly Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is always watching you.

O believers, be mindful of Allah, speak truthfully, justly and with good purpose. He will rectify and bless your works and forgive your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and his messenger has achieved the highest of all achievements.

The most truthful of speech is the book of Allah and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad ibn Abdullah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. The worst of affairs attributed to the religion are those that have no basis in their religion and are introduced into it. Every such affair is an innovation, every innovation is misguidance and every misguidance leads to the hellfire which we seek refuge in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala from.

The Two Halves of Faith: Patience and Gratitude

Dear brothers and sisters, Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawzi, he authored a book called Uddat al-Sabirin wa Dhakhirat al-Shakirin. This is a book that talks about two qualities of a believer and those two qualities are patience and gratefulness to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

In this book, Ibn al-Qayyim has stated that iman, a person's belief in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala can be divided into two halves. One half is patience and the second half is thankfulness or gratitude to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It is shukr.

Ibn al-Qayyim says that iman, belief, is a term which covers words, deeds and intentions, all of which are based on two things: action, doing something and abstinence, staying away from something. Action refers to performing a deed which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has instructed the person to do and abstinence refers to staying away from something that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has commanded us to stay away from and has forbidden for us and thus this requires patience. Hence, he says the entire religion of a Muslim revolves around these two aspects. Either he is patient and staying away from something that Allah has told him to stay away from or he is thankful and he is doing something that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has commanded him to do.

The Nature of Gratitude

Dear brothers and sisters, the world around us, the society around us is a society of instant gratification, is a society that teaches us me and now. I want it now and it's about me. It's a society that inculcates in us a sense of individuality, egocentricity and I want to take this khutbah to talk about the second concept that Ibn al-Qayyim has talked about in this book of his which is gratitude and thankfulness to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

What is gratitude? In simple terms, dear brothers and sisters, gratitude is simply to recognize and acknowledge the favors of Allah upon you and to consistently praise him for these favors. Gratitude is simply to acknowledge the favors of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala upon you and to consistently and constantly praise him for these favors throughout your entire life until you meet Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

And as I mentioned, gratitude is half of iman, it is half of your faith. And I want to share with you some ayat from the Qur'an and some guidance from the Prophet ﷺ as to why it is half of faith. In fact, it is so heavily stressed in the Qur'an.

Gratitude in the Qur'an

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions gratitude, i.e. shukr, thankfulness in many many ayat in the Qur'an. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Qur'an:

O Believers, eat from the good things that we have provided for you. And be thankful to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. A direct command from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, be thankful to him. Be thankful for the favors that he has given you and the blessings he has bestowed upon you. But the ayah doesn't end here. Allah did not simply tell us to be thankful to him. In fact, Allah laid down a condition in the end of the ayah. He says إِن كُنتُمْ إِيَّاهُ تَعْبُدُونَ - If you truly worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, you are truly a worshiper of Allah, then be someone who is thankful to him, who recognizes the blessings that have been given to him, meaning given to the person, and shows gratitude to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for these blessings.

In another ayah, dear brothers and sisters, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala contrasts gratitude with disbelief, with unthankfulness. And he says to the Prophet, peace be upon him:

He says that it has been revealed to you, O Prophet of Allah, that if you were to commit shirk, which if you were to associate a partner with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, all of your deeds would be fruitless, there would be no spiritual benefit to them, and you would be amongst the people that are the losers in the hereafter. Of course the Prophet, peace be upon him, is the furthest of all people from committing shirk. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is talking to us, the address is to us. And in the next ayah, Allah says بَلِ اللَّهَ فَاعْبُدْ - Rather, worship Allah وَكُن مِّنَ الشَّاكِرِينَ - and be from amongst the people that are thankful to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that show gratitude to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for the blessings that He has bestowed upon them.

Remember me and I will remember you. And be thankful to me. And do not be unthankful or ungrateful to me for the blessings that I have bestowed upon you.

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions dear brothers and sisters in the Qur'an that thankfulness and gratitude to Him is in fact the purpose or one of the two paths that a human being can take in life. A human being can only take two paths. Either it's a path of gratefulness and thankfulness or it's a path of ungratefulness. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that He created man from a certain substance. فَجَعَلْنَاهُ سَمِيعًا بَصِيرًا - He made him someone that has the faculty of hearing and the faculty of seeing. إِنَّا هَدَيْنَاهُ السَّبِيلَ - And then we showed man morality. We gave him the inspiration of morality in life. He can choose a path in life. And what are these paths that he can choose? إِمَّا شَاكِرًا - Either he can choose a path of thankfulness and gratitude to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala or he can reject his inner morality. He can reject this path of thankfulness and gratitude to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and be ungrateful.

So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is basically summing up our life in these ayat. He's saying that man has a choice and his choice is one of these two paths in life. Either a path of gratefulness and thankfulness and gratitude or a path of unthankfulness. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to choose the former and not the latter.

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us in the Qur'an that Allah is the one who brought you into this world from the wombs of your mothers. When you came out from the womb of your mother, when you came into this life, لَا تَعْلَمُونَ شَيْئًا - You did not know anything. Completely ignorant. Someone who's dependent on someone else. A baby, a child. Let us all ponder and reflect over that state of ours. Every one of us came into this world in this state. لَا تَعْلَمُونَ شَيْئًا - وَجَعَلَ لَكُمُ السَّمْعَ وَالْأَبْصَارَ وَالْأَفْئِدَةَ - And Allah, He gave you the faculty and the ability to hear. He gave you the ability to see. And He gave you the ability, the af'ida, the hearts, meaning the intellect. He gave you the ability to ponder, acquire knowledge, have rationale, have rationality. And through these faculties, you acquired knowledge. And through the knowledge, you acquired positions in society, wealth, money, all these things, all these blessings. Why did He give all of this to you? Allah mentioned at the end of the ayah, لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ - So that you are thankful to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and you show gratitude to Him for these blessings.

In fact, if we were to count the blessings of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala that He has given us, all of the blessings, regardless of whether they're blessings that pertain to one's material life or they're blessings related to spirituality and religion, لَا تُحْصُوهَا - وَإِن تَعُدُّوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ - If you were to try to enumerate, encompass all of the blessings of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, لَا تُحْصُوهَا - You could not count all of them. So vast are Allah's blessings on each person in this life. And then Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَغَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ - Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is someone who is very oft-forgiving, very forgiving, and is someone who is very, very merciful.

And finally, dear brothers and sisters, from this Qur'an, the last ayah I want to share with you, and that is, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says that gratitude and thankfulness is a quality that few people have. He says, few of my people, few of my servants, meaning from all of mankind, right? They're thankful. They're not constantly complaining. They thank Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. They recognize their Creator and they're thankful to Him for the blessings that He has bestowed upon them.

The Prophet's Example of Gratitude

Now I want to look at the sunnah of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam regarding gratitude. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, we have all heard this hadith many, many times, said in many khutbas, but I want to take a moment and ponder over this hadith. And that is, Aisha, the wife of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, narrates this hadith in Bukhari and Muslim, recorded in Bukhari and Muslim. She says that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam would stand up in the night and pray to Allah for such a prolonged period, meaning the standing was so long that his feet would swell. Blood would collect at the bottom of his legs. And so Aisha, the wife of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, she asked the Prophet Peace be upon him, that why do you stand for so long? Allah has already forgiven all of your sins. You don't have to worry about anything.

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 4837; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2820)

And so what did the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam say? He said, "Should I not be a grateful servant?" Let's ponder over this hadith. Many of us, if we know that we are guaranteed a paycheck every single month in our jobs for the next four or five years, how many of us would show up to our job? We're guaranteed, for example, I'm giving a hypothetical scenario, if we're guaranteed a paycheck and we don't have to show up for our job, how many of us would show up for our job? Meaning we look at the effort and we look at the reward. But the Prophet Peace be upon him is not looking at the effort and reward in this scenario. He's not saying that, well, my sins are forgiven so I don't have to pray anymore. He's saying that his paradigm is completely different. He's saying that, shouldn't I show gratitude? Am I not indebted to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala? Shouldn't I be thankful because he's forgiven my sins? It's a completely different paradigm. It's a paradigm shift. And he Peace be upon him in this scenario is not focusing on the effort, meaning the prayer and the forgiveness of the sins. He's focusing on that special relationship with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala which he's encouraging us to adopt in this hadith.

(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 4811; Sunan at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1954)

Another hadith, dear brother and sisters, is the Prophet Peace be upon him, he said that whoever does not thank people is not thankful to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Meaning if a person has done a favor toward you, he's been nice, he's been kind toward you and you've received something from him. If you are not thankful to that person, then in essence you are not thankful to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Why is that? Because in reality the source is Allah, but the medium through which he gave you that blessing is that person.

And this is why in the Qur'an, dear brother and sisters, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala mentions repeatedly that you should be good to your parents, you should show excellence in your character towards them alongside with worshipping Allah. Immediately Allah says that I have decreed you should worship me alone, then you should be good to your parents. Immediately after worshipping Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Why? Because the blessings we have received, the medium of that, many of the blessings we have received, the medium of that are the parents. And this is why Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is saying that you showing ihsan or excellence or goodness toward your parents is in essence showing thankfulness and gratitude to the source of those blessings, which is Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2999)

Finally the last hadith I would like to share with you dear brothers and sisters is that the Prophet peace be upon him said, "Amazing and wondrous is the affair or the situation or the life of a believer." He says, "His entire life has goodness inside of it." Why does it have goodness? Is it because everything that happens in his life is good? Not necessarily. It's because the paradigm shift or the paradigm the person has when he approaches life. The Prophet peace be upon him explains in this hadith. He says that if some type of adversity comes in his life, some type of difficulty, trial, tribulation, some hardship comes in his life, he's patient and he knows that Allah will bring ease.

And if some type of blessing, some type of achievement, some type of goodness, some type of victory comes in his life, he's thankful to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. He shows gratitude to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And notice in this hadith the Prophet peace be upon him is saying that the believer's life revolves around two states or two situations, thankfulness and patience. And this is why Ibn al-Qayyim, why I mentioned in the beginning of the khutbah, he said that Iman is divided into two things, thankfulness and patience. Because this is how the believer's life is supposed to be. Either he's always thankful for what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given to him or he is patient in times of adversity and difficulty.

The Three Elements of Gratitude

Dear brothers and sisters, what are the elements of gratefulness? What does it mean to be grateful to Allah? When scholars talk about gratefulness, there's three aspects, there's three things or three parts of being grateful and thankful to Allah.

1. Acknowledgment of the Heart

The first part is related to your heart, is something that's inside of you. It is not apparent. No one can see it on your physical appearance. In your heart, the first part is to believe in your heart that the blessings you have are from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Is to acknowledge those blessings inside of your heart from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That Allah has given these things to you, whether it be health, whether it be wealth, whether it be children, whether it be positions of authority, whether it be any other resources in life. These are blessings from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. He is the one who created you.

And this is why when Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, the companion of the Prophet, peace be upon him, asked Allah's messenger, what is the greatest sin a person can do? The worst thing a person can do in life? What did the Prophet, peace be upon him, say? What is the greatest sin?

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 4477; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 86)

The Prophet, peace be upon him, said, "That you ascribe or associate a partner, you make an equal, a nid, equal with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And He is the one who created you." Meaning, Allah is the one who gave you the blessing of life. Allah is the one who gave you all the blessings in life also. But a person refuses to acknowledge that and he ascribes that to something else. This is what the Prophet, peace be upon him, is saying is the greatest sin. And this is why gratitude, the first part of it, is to believe with your heart that these blessings are from Allah.

2. Verbal Acknowledgment

The second part, dear brothers and sisters, is to acknowledge and proclaim with your tongue and say alhamdulillah that these blessings are from Allah. So what's in the heart manifests on the first limb, which is the tongue. To continuously throughout your life, on your tongue, you acknowledge and admit, right, by entering into Islam, by saying alhamdulillah, all these things, this is to admit with your tongue that these blessings are from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Meaning, simply believing inside of your heart is not sufficient. It has to manifest itself on your tongue. And this is the second aspect of showing gratitude in life to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

3. Acting with Your Limbs

And the third and final aspect of showing gratitude in life to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is that that acknowledgement inside of your heart has to manifest itself on your limbs. Meaning, limbs over here is metaphorical. It doesn't mean literally all of your limbs or only your limbs. Yes, what it means is that a person has to worship Allah and uses the body that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has blessed him in his obedience. And not simply the body, but rather all of the resources, all of the other blessings too. One's wealth, one's other resources, one's position and authority in society to be thankful to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. He uses all of these things. Whether that gratefulness is by doing ritualistic acts or by helping others and showing good character or it's by standing up for people that are oppressed around the world. All of these things, these are a manifestation of gratitude to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

The Fruits of Gratitude

Dear brothers and sisters, the last part of my khutbah, I want to focus on the blessings and the fruits or the benefits of showing gratefulness in life.

Internal Contentment

Number one, it is through showing gratefulness in life that a person achieves internal contentment. Peace in life, tranquility inside of his heart. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam mentioned five pieces of advice to Abu Huraira one day. In one of those pieces of advice, the second piece of advice, he said:

(Sunan at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2305)

He said, be content with what Allah has decreed for you inside of your life. In other words, show thankfulness and gratitude to Allah for what he has given to you inside of life and do not be a person who continuously complains and looks at the negativity in life. Rather, he's a person of optimism. He's a person who looks at the glass as being half full and not half empty. And the Prophet peace be upon him said that if you achieve this attitude, if you achieve, if you have this philosophy in life, if you have this paradigm, you will be amongst the people that are the richest, i.e. the most content in life, even if you have little in terms of material wealth.

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6446; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1051)

And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam echoed the same message in another hadith in which he said, "Richness, being wealthy, having a lot of money doesn't mean having a lot of material possessions. Rather, truly being rich means to have contentment and happiness inside of your soul." You can have little, but you can be happy and you can be content. And someone can have a lot, but he can't sleep at night. This is the message that we are receiving from this hadith.

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2963)

And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said, to achieve this, what should you do? He said that, don't look at people that are above you in terms of material wealth. Look at people that are below you. This will help you appreciate Allah's blessings upon you even more.

A Means of Salvation

Finally, dear brothers and sisters, amongst the blessings and the fruits and benefits of showing gratefulness and gratitude in life is that it is a means of salvation. It is a means of attaining Allah's pleasure and paradise. And in fact, when Shaitaan refused to bow down to Adam and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala expelled him from paradise, what did Shaitaan say at that point? He said that, I'm going to come from their right side, I'm going to come from their left side, front and back in order to mislead your servants.

Why? So that you don't find most of them grateful to you. So that shows that Shaitaan's main purpose is to make us ungrateful. And adopting the opposite of that, showing gratefulness to Allah is something that pleases Allah.

And finally, Allah says that, if you show gratefulness to me, if you are thankful to me, if you show gratefulness to me, I will increase my blessings upon you. I will shower down even more blessings upon you. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to be amongst the servants that are thankful to him in this life.