Gratitude, The Essence of Our Faith

Gratitude, The Essence of Our Faith

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

We begin by praising Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, and by declaring that there is no one worthy of worship other than He Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to send His peace and blessings upon Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, and upon his companions and upon those that follow him in his way. And we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to be among them. Allahumma ameen.

The Lessons of Musa in Surah Ibrahim

There is a beautiful passage in Surah Ibrahim where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala mentions the story of Musa Alayhi Salam. And in these verses — it's only three verses — Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, through the story of Musa Alayhi Salam, teaches us three qawa'id. He teaches us a couple of principles. These principles are as tested and true as the Newtonian laws that you learn in elementary school.

What are these passages about and what are these lessons that we learn in Surah Ibrahim, in the story of Musa Alayhi Salam? We look in the second page of Surah Ibrahim, when Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says:

Musa Alayhi Salam is telling his people: اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ — Remember how Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has blessed you. And what was the blessing that he was talking about? إِذْ أَنجَاكُم مِّنْ آلِ فِرْعَوْنَ يَسُومُونَكُمْ سُوءَ الْعَذَابِ — Remember, Musa Alayhi Salam is talking to his people: remember how Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala saved you when Pharaoh was يَسُومُونَكُمْ سُوءَ الْعَذَابِ — afflicting a great deal of punishment and terror to you as a people.

وَيُذَبِّحُونَ أَبْنَاءَكُمْ وَيَسْتَحْيُونَ نِسَاءَكُمْ — Just imagine if you were the people of Musa and you had to go through these trials. I mean, we think about hard times in our life, but imagine the suffering that these people had. The people of Musa Alayhi Salam — وَيُذَبِّحُونَ أَبْنَاءَكُمْ — they were killing أَبْنَاءَكُمْ, their children, the sons particularly, وَيَسْتَحْيُونَ نِسَاءَكُمْ — and leaving the women alone.

وَفِي ذَٰلِكُم بَلَاءٌ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ عَظِيمٌ — Remember, in that hard time Allah saved you. إِذْ أَنجَاكُمْ — from all these kinds of hard times and tough times, from Fir'aun who was afflicting upon you all. Musa taught them this true lesson that we have to implement into our lives every single day.

Lesson One: Every Trial Is a Test from Allah

Musa said: وَفِي ذَٰلِكُم بَلَاءٌ — this was a trial. All this suffering that you had was only but a test from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. مِن رَّبِّكُمْ عَظِيمٌ. Now it is very, very, very important for us to understand that the same Rabb that saved them from this trial, from this hard time, was the same Allah that put them in that position in the first place.

Sometimes when we're going through a hard time we say, "Ya Allah! What did I do to deserve this?" And if our iman is weak and we don't have gratitude, sometimes that leads to us going away from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And we don't understand, and we forget to realize, that everything — the good and the bad:

We thank Allah the same way, whether good or bad happens in our life, because everything from Allah is khair. Musa is teaching his people this: you went through hard times, we acknowledge that — but remember, Allah saved you.

Lesson Two: Everything — Good and Bad — Is from Allah

مِن رَّبِّكُمْ عَظِيمٌ — everything is from Allah. The good and the bad — we have to remember that. Don't just attribute goodness to Allah, but when something bad comes say, "Ya Allah, why?" Everything is from Allah, and we have to understand that. And Musa was trying to teach his people that.

Lesson Three: The Declaration of Gratitude

But how? How do I supplement my iman when I'm going through tough times? How do I make sense of the challenges I go through if you are telling me to believe that it is from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala? Musa Alayhi Salam then teaches his people the qa'ida — the principle that we all know:

Remember, here the grammar — Allah did not say وَإِذْ قَالَ رَبُّكُمْ. Allah said وَإِذْ تَأَذَّنَ رَبُّكُمْ. أَذَّنَ — to declare. Like somebody making adhan — we declare that Allah is one, that the Prophet is His messenger Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam. The way that we are declaring, Allah has declared: وَإِذْ تَأَذَّنَ رَبُّكُمْ لَئِن شَكَرْتُمْ لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ — it is right there. Allah has declared that if you are grateful, then He will give you more things to be grateful about. وَلَئِن كَفَرْتُمْ إِنَّ عَذَابِي لَشَدِيدٌ.

This is not my saying — Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala said this. If you are grateful, then Allah will give you more things to be grateful for. But if you show ingratitude — and amazingly, the Arabic word Allah used here is كَفَرْتُمْ. Kafara means to disbelieve. So that means if we are ungrateful, it leads towards kufr. وَلَئِن كَفَرْتُمْ إِنَّ عَذَابِي لَشَدِيدٌ — if you complain, I will give you more to complain about. This is the sunnah of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And this is the lesson that Musa Alayhi Salam was trying to teach his people.

The Modern Problem of Ingratitude

This is a very, very modern problem that we have — that we find ourselves guilty of — that it is easy for us to count the things that we don't have, rather than the things that we do have. I mean, just remember your eyelashes, or that you are in a masjid on Jumu'ah, or the ability to make sujood — these kinds of things that we don't say alhamdulillah for, or show gratitude towards Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. That has an effect on our iman, that has an effect on our perspective of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.

And when we don't count the blessings, and we don't remember Allah, and we don't show gratitude towards Him, our iman diminishes and lowers and lowers — until we ask Allah: "Ya Allah, you've given so-and-so this and given so-and-so that, but how about me?" — forgetting the millions of things that Allah has given you already. If you were to count Allah's blessings, you wouldn't be able to.

The Example of the Ungrateful Town — Surah An-Nahl

Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gives us an example of the people that Allah had given many blessings, but they were not happy. They did not attribute the goodness and the blessings in their life back to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And what happened to them? We find in Surah An-Nahl, Allah says:

Allah says: there used to be a town of people — كَانَتْ آمِنَةً مُّطْمَئِنَّةً — these people used to be safe, they used to be happy. Allah had given them many blessings. How do I know that? يَأْتِيهَا رِزْقُهَا رَغَدًا مِّن كُلِّ مَكَانٍ — Allah said that He had given these people many, many, many blessings from everywhere. But what did these people do? فَكَفَرَتْ بِأَنْعُمِ اللَّهِ — they did not attribute these blessings, that they had so many of in their life, back to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. They disbelieved in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.

فَكَفَرَتْ بِأَنْعُمِ اللَّهِ — meaning that they denied that these blessings go back to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. You can acknowledge that you have blessings, but when you tie it back to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala — that is shukr. But when you tie things back not to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, Allah is describing that as kufr.

And what was the consequence of that? فَأَذَاقَهَا اللَّهُ لِبَاسَ الْجُوعِ وَالْخَوْفِ بِمَا كَانُوا يَصْنَعُونَ — Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala encapsulated them, He covered them, He surrounded them with لِبَاسَ الْجُوعِ وَالْخَوْفِ — with hunger and fear. بِمَا كَانُوا يَصْنَعُونَ — because of what they did. And what did they do? They were known as a people that never thanked Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.

So we have to understand: when we want to go through trials in this world, when we want to acknowledge good things in this world, when we want to have a greater relationship with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala — no matter how good things are going, no matter how bad things are going — we have to show Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala our gratitude. Because gratefulness is the essence of our iman. A true testimony of how somebody believes in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala: put them in hard times, and if they say alhamdulillah عَلَى كُلِّ حَال — alhamdulillah for everything that is happening to me — that is someone who has true faith.

The Greatest Example: Prophet Muhammad ﷺ

The greatest example is of Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam. He taught us how to be grateful so beautifully, Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam. There was a narration of Aisha — she noticed the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam one time. He was crying in his salah, his feet were cracked and his beard was wet with tears, asking Allah. And Aisha asked the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam:

"Ya Rasulullah, you know Allah has forgiven you for your past and your future — why do you continue to cry and try so hard in salah?" And the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam said:

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

"Should I not be somebody who is grateful to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala?" The Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam taught us that no matter how good or bad things are in life — أَوَلَا أَكُونُ عَبْدًا شَكُورًا — should I not be somebody who is grateful to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala?

Shakir vs. Shakur

Remember — the Prophet did not use عَبْدًا شَاكِرًا. He said عَبْدًا شَكُورًا. There is شَاكِر and there is شَكُور. شَاكِر is somebody who is thankful sometimes — here and there. شَكُور is the seeghah of mubalaghah — شَكُور means somebody who is abundantly, always thanking Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Every single time they get something in life, or they don't get something in life, they always say: الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ يَا اللَّه — thank you. شَكُور is somebody who does it over and over and over again.

And Umar ibn al-Khattab, one time he was standing in front of the Ka'bah and he heard a man making du'a:

"Ya Allah, make me among the few." And Umar ibn al-Khattab asked him: "What kind of du'a is this?" And the man responded: "I said, 'Ya Allah, make me among the قَلِيل' — because Allah says in the Quran:

Because in the Quran, Allah says only few are الشَّكُور — somebody who is always thanking Allah.

أَوَلَا أَكُونُ عَبْدًا شَكُورًا — the Prophet ﷺ says: shall I not be somebody who is thankful? So this is what we have to implement into our lives. Musa ﷺ taught his people the same way: Allah brought you through a trial, Allah will take you through it. As one of my teachers taught me: if Allah brought you to it, Allah will bring you through it. But it depends on us.

And the last thing to note before we conclude: when we thank Allah, it is for us — nobody else. It does not diminish from His مُلْك — from His kingdom, from His power, from His vastness — whether we say alhamdulillah or not. It doesn't matter to Allah. Allah says in Surah Ibrahim, right after that: if you and everybody were not to thank Allah for anything, Allah does not need anybody. Allah is غَنِيٌّ — free of need from anybody — and Allah is حَمِيدٌ — there will be people that will thank Allah, just not you.

So if we want to increase our iman in hard times and in good times, and have a better relationship with Allah, our Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and Musa ﷺ have taught us how.

Three Hidden Blessings in Every Trial

To conclude: Ibn Abbas — he narrates and teaches us — that there are three hidden blessings in every trial, every calamity, every hard time. There are three hidden blessings that you have to realize if you are going through a trial, something that has afflicted you.

First Blessing: It Could Have Been Worse

The first one — alhamdulillah, it is the way it was; it could have been worse. Whatever has happened to you has happened, and it could have been worse. That's the first blessing, Ibn Abbas said.

Second Blessing: The Calamity Is in Your Dunya, Not Your Deen

The second blessing that we have to realize when something strikes us — a calamity strikes us — is that the calamity or the test is in our dunya, not our deen. It is in our dunya, not our deen, not our Islam. Our Islam is still intact. Alhamdulillah, we are still saying la ilaha illallah. We are still attributing it back to Allah. That itself is a blessing. Because sometimes hard times can derail people to the point where they are off the track and they don't recognize that Allah was the one taking care of them from the beginning of time to the end of their time. But we have to realize that — alhamdulillah — the fact that you are still attributing everything back to Allah, this itself is a blessing.

Third Blessing: The Calamity Is in the Dunya, Not the Akhira

And the third blessing is that alhamdulillah, the calamity or the test is not in the akhira, but rather in the dunya. There was a slave that Allah talks about on Yawm al-Qiyamah — Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gave him such a hard time in bala'; He gave him very many calamities. But when Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala dipped him into jannah and asked him, "Did you face anything hard in the dunya?" — he says, "No, I don't remember anything hard."

Alhamdulillah, anything that happens to us is in this dunya — and the akhira is what we want to be safe in. And we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to make all of us safe in jannah, in Firdaws al-A'la, with the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam.

Du'a

عِبَادَ اللَّهِ رَحِمَكُمُ اللَّهُ — Allah says in the Quran: