The Importance of Showing Gratitude

The Importance of Showing Gratitude

Dear brothers and sisters in Islam, السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

All praise is due to Allah that in this country, in this time that we are living in, we are truly surrounded by many of Allah's blessings. We are truly surrounded by the blessings of Allah.

Allah's blessings are something guaranteed. But these external actions are fard — mandatory and necessary for us to fulfill. Just like five times namaz is necessary for us, similarly, having shukr — gratitude to Allah for His blessings — having sabr — patience — for the hardships and difficulties, is fard, is necessary. Being pleased with Allah's decree — this is fard, it is necessary. And these are generally neglected and they are forgotten.

So today, brothers and sisters, I wanted to speak about something which is very much relevant to us. Because every human being, no matter where you are, on what part of the earth that you live, you are not free from one of two conditions. Every single human being is in one of two conditions.

You are either in difficult conditions — sickness, poverty, hardship, musibat, bala. If you are in that condition, then you are required to make sabr in those situations. Or you have the second category: that you are in ni'mat, you are in blessings, you are in bounties, you are in richness, you are in health, you are in afiat, you are in contentment, you are at ease. In that condition, we are required to make shukr.

Two Conveyances to Allah

Sayyiduna Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, he mentions that there are two conveyances going to Allah. Whichever one you ride, you will reach your destination towards Allah. There are only two vehicles — like if we were to say, going to New York or going to California, there are only two buses, or only two airlines that are going to take you there. You take one or the other, it's going to get you to your destination. One is sabr airlines, one is shukr airlines. There is no number three, there is only two.

Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, says: I don't care which conveyance, which markab, I ride upon. Any one of these you ride upon, you will reach your destination. But if you don't have one of these two, you will never get to Allah. You will never get to your destination. You either have to have sabr, or you have to have shukr.

You look within your life, you look at your condition, you look at your situation, and then you will gauge to yourself: what is required of me? If Allah has put you in sickness, if Allah has put you in musibat, if Allah has put you in a calamity, if Allah has put you in poverty, then it is required of you at that moment in time — it is required, it is fard, it is not a choice — it is required of you to make sabr in that condition. And through sabr, you will reach Allah. And if Allah has given you richness, Allah has given you health, Allah has given you blessings, Allah has given you ni'mat, in that situation, you are required to make shukr. And it is through shukr that you will reach Allah. One of the two.

The Hadith of the Believer's Amazing Situation

And it is a beautiful hadith in which the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, mentions both of these things:

The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, mentions: How beautiful, how amazing is the situation of a believer. Every situation for him is khayr. Every situation for him is benefit. Everything that Allah puts him through, it's nothing but a means of reaching Him. Meaning, whatever Allah puts you in — whatever a believer goes through — if a believer is going through richness and aafiyat and good conditions, and he makes shukr, this is khayr for him.

If he goes through good conditions, the believer is always making shukr. That shukr becomes a means of the ma'rifat of Allah. That shukr, that gratitude, becomes a means of him attaining the pleasure of Allah. SubhanAllah. And this is khayr for him. The believer does not become unmindful. The believer does not become heedless. The believer does not become neglectful. The believer does not become forgetful. No — he becomes grateful.

The Example of Dawud and His Family

It is a long ayah. Allah talks about:

And indeed, We gave Dawud, peace be upon him, great virtue. And then Allah counts all of the blessings. Allah gave him mulk. Allah gave him ma'nawi, zahiri, and batini blessings — external and internal blessings. When he would make dhikr, the mountains and the trees and the birds and the animals would make dhikr with him. This is mentioned in Surah Saba.

And Allah had given Sulaiman, peace be upon him, the wind that would carry his throne wherever he wanted. Sulaiman Airlines — it was a long time ago. Before these airlines, Sulaiman, peace be upon him, had his airlines.

He would travel in the air. Allah had blessed him by making the wind subservient to him, by making the dunya subservient to him. Allah had given him all of the blessings of dunya and akhirah. And Allah speaks about all of these things and then — what does He say at the end?

After mentioning all of these blessings, what does Allah say? O family of Dawud, O progeny of Dawud, We have blessed you so much — so what should you do? Out of gratitude to Allah, you should be busy in the gratefulness of Allah through doing righteous deeds. You should be busy in the gratitude of Allah by doing righteous deeds.

So Allah has put us in various situations. If Allah has given us blessings, we should make shukr. But if Allah puts us through hardship and difficulty — poverty, sickness — then that can also become a means of reaching Allah. That is our vehicle. That is not something that puts us back. That is not something that puts us behind. That is actually something that brings us forward. When we make sabr — and it is not something that we have a choice in, brothers and sisters — just like performing salat is fard, fasting in the month of Ramadan is fard, giving zakat if you are capable is fard, similarly having sabr and having shukr is fard, it's not a choice.

We Are Drowned in Allah's Blessings

Just recently — why am I speaking about this issue? It's because brothers and sisters, in this situation in America, we are drowned in Allah's blessings. I was speaking to a young man; he called me: "Shaykh, I really need to speak to you, it's very serious." I said, "I'm wondering what it is." He says, "You know, I'm doubting my faith in Islam." So I made a time with him and I started speaking with him. He's telling me, "Shaykh, you know, it just doesn't make sense to me." I said, "What doesn't make sense to you?" "Islam is just not making sense to me." I said, "Okay, why?" He said, "Well, you know, I was studying really hard for a test, and I failed my test. And I really like this girl, and she dumped me. And I was driving the other day, and this cop gave me a ticket. You know, it just doesn't make sense to me, Shaykh. Nothing makes sense to me. Islam doesn't even make sense to me anymore."

I'm like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait up. Hold on." Look at how he's jumping to the conclusion. I said, "Before I answer your question" — I had received an email earlier that morning from Islamic Relief Foundation. So I was looking through my phone, and I said, before I continue to answer your question, look at this. So I showed him — Islamic Relief was doing a clothes drive. They wanted to collect socks for children in Syria who didn't have socks for the winter. Think about this. I showed him that. I said, just look at this, and then I'll talk to you about that later.

I said, you think you got problems? You failed your test — probably because you didn't study all night, because you're thinking about that girl you're dating, right? And you got dumped — that's good you got dumped, you know? You can get on with your life and focus, right? And thirdly, you got a ticket, probably because you're breaking the rules. Why are you blaming your problems on Allah? And look at this — you want to know what problems are?

First of all, we're drowned in Allah's blessings, brothers and sisters. We're drowned. People are complaining about Islamophobia, and the reality of the matter is this whole Islamophobia has turned out to be a benefit for the Muslims, a recognition for the Muslims — people standing up for the rights of Muslims, people standing up against those who are discriminating against Muslims. Throughout this whole time of discrimination and all these things that people are saying, I've traveled from one side of California all the way to New York and Chicago and Michigan and back. And I have not seen anything but respect from people. People have been trying to go out of their way to even respect you.

A person the other day was asking me, "Oh Shaykh, have you been a victim of Islamophobia?" I said, victim of Islamophobia? Alhamdulillah, I haven't been a victim of that. He said, "But don't people look at you weird?" I said, people look at me weird in Afghanistan. I went to visit my country Afghanistan after many years — people are looking at me weird more than here. I was in Pakistan for four years. People would look at me weird every day. People looking at you weird — you don't even want people to look at you?

Brothers and sisters, I want to be very, very honest. I'm saying this very honestly. We are drowned in Allah's blessings.

If you try to enumerate the blessings of Allah, you will not be able to do so. Indeed Allah is forgiving and merciful — even of all of our ingratitude.

How much has Allah blessed us? In this cold — imagine how cold it is today. It is cold like this in Syria right now. Children don't have socks. We enter the masjid — warm house, warm masjid. Somebody tells me, "Oh, you're going to Chicago, watch out, it's really cold there." I said, what cold? We enter into the house, it's warm. We're not walking around outside, we're not homeless, we're not refugees. There are brothers and sisters in this world that are truly suffering, that are truly going through great difficulty. We are required, my respected brothers and sisters, to be grateful for our bounties. We are very ungrateful. We are drowned in Allah's blessings. And this is the thing that we need to remind ourselves.

The Three Blessings That Equal the Entire World

The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, mentions: what are the blessings of Allah? The Prophet said three things — if you have them, then it is as if you have gathered the entire wealth of the entire world. It's like the wealth of the entire world is at your doorstep. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, mentions that anyone who has these three things, then it is as if Allah has gathered all of the blessings for him:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2346)

Number one: مَنْ أَصْبَحَ مِنْكُمْ آمِنًا فِي سِرْبِهِ — The one who wakes up in the morning and finds himself safe and sound in his surroundings.

We were speaking to some family members in Afghanistan the other day. I said, "How is everything?" He said, "Everything is good, but we're just a little bit careful because when we leave the house, we don't know if we're gonna come back home safely. When we leave the house, we don't know if we're gonna reach home again. So we say goodbye to our family. When we go to work, we say goodbye to our family because we don't know if we're gonna be coming back again." Think about this.

How many of us, in the places where we are — if I forget to lock my door where I live, if I forget to lock my door, I don't get so scared. I'll just go and lock it. It's not something where, oh my God, I almost died, I didn't lock my door. But there are certain places, brothers and sisters, they don't have that. This is a great blessing of Allah that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, mentioned — مَنْ أَصْبَحَ مِنْكُمْ آمِنًا فِي سِرْبِهِ — any one of you who wakes up in the morning and you're safe in your surroundings, where you don't have fear that somebody is gonna break your door down and kill you and your entire family. There are places in the world where Muslims are going through this. This is a great blessing. This is blessing number one.

Number two: مُعَافًى فِي جَسَدِهِ — That you wake up in the morning and you're safe and sound, and you have sound health. You don't have any limbs that have been blown off. You don't have any problems in regards to your health. And that's the majority of people. Some people are in sickness and they are required to make sabr, which Allah will be rewarding them for. But that's number two — to be safe and sound in your body, that you can walk to Jumu'ah Salah, or you can come to a safe place to pray your Jumu'ah Salah. مُعَافًى فِي جَسَدِهِ.

Number three: لَهُ قُوتُ يَوْمِهِ — He has his daily bread. He has his sustenance for that day.

You're safe in your surroundings. You're sound in your health. And you have your daily bread. Then what? What did the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, say?

فَكَأَنَّمَا حِيزَتْ لَهُ الدُّنْيَا بِحَذَافِيرِهَا — It is as if the entire world — يَعْنِي جُمِعَتْ لَهُ الدُّنْيَا بِمَجْمُوعِهَا — as if the entire world has gathered at his doorstep. You have all the blessings of the world right there.

How many of us are blessed with this, brothers and sisters? How many of us have this? Now what are our problems? Some of our issues — should we have chicken tikka masala for dinner, or should we have biryani for dinner? I don't know which one. This is a great dilemma I'm having. Allahu Akbar. SubhanAllah.

These blessings that Allah has given us — we are drowned. And I'm reminded of the ayat in Surah Saba.

The Lesson of the People of Saba

In Surah Saba, Allah mentions about this qawm:

Indeed, in Saba, Allah has given in their dwellings an example, a sign. Allah had given the people of Saba gardens on their right and gardens on their left. Some of the mufassireen mentioned that when they would go to the garden with the basket on their head, they would come to the other side with the basket filled with fruits. If we don't have that, we have Lucky's and Safeway and all these other grocery stores — when we go out, we come out with fruits from everywhere. Even in winter here, we can get fruits out of season.

Allah says — through the prophets, Allah told them — eat from the blessings of Allah and be grateful to Him. Allah has given you a blessed land, Allah has given you a fertile land, and He is always there, forgiving and merciful for you.

What did they do? They turned away — they forgot to be grateful for Allah's blessings. And We sent upon them the flood of Arim. And in place — بَدَّلْنَا — that is what Allah says. When you're not grateful for the blessings, Allah says, We will exchange. In place of that blessing, We will exchange something which is the opposite of that. If it was afiat, We will change it to musibat. If it was richness, Allah will change it to poverty. If it was good health, Allah will change it to sickness.

Brothers and sisters, any bounty that we want to be increased in, we should make shukr for it.

The Promise of Allah: Gratitude Brings Increase

All of us in this country, in this time, in this situation — despite the craziness of the times — we are in general comfort and ease. We still have politicians supporting us. We have people coming and visiting our masajid for solidarity. Can you imagine that? If this is not the blessing of Allah, I don't know what is. Despite the fact that we have so much Islamophobia, there are people from the top, from the government officials, who are ready to meet Muslims and imams and come to masajid to show their solidarity.

And people are leaving their faith. People are leaving their iman. What is there to leave? This is the blessing of Allah. And if we don't thank Him for these blessings, Allah will replace them with something which is worse.

So we should remind ourselves — I'm reminding myself and everyone else — brothers and sisters, this shukr is something very powerful. We focus on the a'mal al-zahir, our external actions. But just like these external actions are fard upon us — fasting in the month of Ramadan is fard, praying five times a day is fard — similarly, having shukr from the heart for Allah's blessings is fard. It is an obligation. If we don't have that, Allah will take away these blessings.

Allah says:

If you are grateful for My bounties, I will most definitely increase you in them. SubhanAllah. He has promised that if you're grateful, He will increase your bounties. And if you are ungrateful, then know that My punishment is very severe.

He doesn't say: if you are grateful, I will increase you; and if you are ungrateful, I will decrease you. He didn't say, I will decrease you. He said, indeed My punishment is severe. Meaning Allah will take that bounty away in such a manner that you will remember it. It will not just be that Allah will decrease you in something. Allah will snatch it away in such a way, you'll be like, oh my God, what happened? Ya Allah, what happened?

The Three Levels of Shukr

So brothers and sisters, how can we be grateful? There are three levels of shukr, three levels of gratitude:

Number one is the shukr with the tongue, which is adna — the lowest. Number two is shukr with the heart, which is the second level. Number three is the shukr with the limbs — to be grateful with your body. As Allah mentioned in this ayah: اعْمَلُوا آلَ دَاوُودَ شُكْرًا — O family of Dawud, be grateful through your actions.

These three levels are like the example of somebody giving you a gift. Somebody comes and gives me a shawl and says, "Shaykh, here's a gift. This is from Yemen. I'd like to give you this as an Eid gift." So I take it and I say verbally — الشُّكْرُ بِاللِّسَانِ — thank you! In every language: Gracias, Shukriya, تشكر, Merci. I say it in every language. So he's very happy, this guy who gave me the gift. But it's actually lip service.

Now the person — obviously what's the whole purpose of this gift? That a person should use it. So he's thinking, okay, maybe he's gonna wear it for Jumu'ah. Jumu'ah comes, I'm not wearing it. Okay, maybe he's gonna wear it for some other occasion. The occasion comes, I'm not wearing it. Then a brother comes to the house for Eid to visit me, and I'm wiping my windows with his shawl that he brought from Yemen — Windex in one hand, and shawl in the other hand, wiping the windows with it. The person will be pretty shocked: "I gave you this gift and you're using it to wipe the windows?!" I said, "But I said Jazakallah!"

The misuse of that bounty negates all of the verbal lip service. It negates it — it makes it zero. So brothers and sisters, we understand that the highest level of gratitude is that the gift should be used for what it's meant for. That bounty that Allah has given us...

Allah has given us these eyes — use these eyes for what Allah gave them for. Don't use these eyes to look at pornography. Don't use these eyes to look at someone else's wife. Allah has given you the tongue — what is the shukr of the tongue? To use the tongue for the remembrance of Allah. Not to use the tongue for gheebat. Allah has given you your money — use your money in the worship of Allah, in the obedience of Allah. Don't use it in the disobedience of Allah. Allah has given you this body — use that body for the obedience of Allah.

Shukr Through Righteous Deeds — The Lesson of Badr

And my Shaykh, rahmatullah alayhi, he made a remarkable istidlal from the ayat:

Allah reminds of His bounty in the Battle of Badr. He says, O Sahaba, remember in the Battle of Badr when We gave you victory — We gave you victory, O Sahaba, when you were completely incapable. You were ill-equipped. So O Sahaba, what should you do? What am I expecting of you? فَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ — Fear Allah, if you truly want to be grateful.

In other words, the highest level of gratitude is not just lip service. The highest level of gratitude is to be grateful to Allah by your deeds. If Allah has given you wealth, use that wealth for the sake of Allah. If Allah has given you this body, use this body for the obedience of Allah, not for His disobedience. And be grateful from the heart — don't complain.

A Practical Way to Cultivate Gratitude

And one of the greatest ways of being grateful — Sayyiduna Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, gave us this very beautiful advice. He said: look at those people who are below you in dunya — in worldly status. When you look at those people who are below you in worldly status, you will always be grateful for what Allah has given you in your worldly things. And look at people who are above you in the deen.

So when you look at your worldly things, look at the people who are poorer than you. Look at the people who are more needy than you. Look at the people who are more destitute than you. Then you will look at your condition and you'll be truly grateful from the heart — that Allah, You have given me everything.

And when you look at people in deen, look at people who are above you. Don't say, "Alhamdulillah, I pray five times a day." Don't be satisfied with that. You pray five times a day, but there's somebody who's praying tahajjud. You pray five times a day, but there's somebody who's praying ishraq, chaasht, awwabeen. Look at the people who are above you in the deen, and it'll make you aspire for higher levels of the deen. And look at people who are lower than you in worldly status, in dunya, and it'll make you become grateful for what Allah has given you in the matters of dunya.

Closing Du'a

May Allah give us tawfiq to understand what has been said. May Allah give us gratitude. May Allah give us the reality of shukr.

Because brothers and sisters, the way that we can preserve ourselves in this country, in America — the way Muslims in America will preserve themselves — is not through any other means but by being grateful. The true shukr, when we find the haqiqat al-shukr of all of these bounties that Allah has given us, this is the key to our preservation in this country. One of the keys. May Allah give us the understanding of that.