Gratitude and Ash-Shakūr
﷽
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
Assalamu alaykum (Peace be upon you) my beloved. I pray you are well and in the best state of mind, body and heart.
I’ve been thinking of gratitude a lot lately. I keep coming across situations, conversations and ayats in the Qur’an that remind me to be grateful; grateful to Allah. That remind me of my own shortcomings in not recognizing the many favors of Allah upon me.
I was reflecting with one of my Qur’an sisters and gratitude came up; she talked about how as humans we tend to lose sight of some of the favors of Allah upon us that we consider minor. Things like our health, the ability to see, to hear, to talk, to walk, to wake up, to have a roof over our heads and food to eat. These things seemingly come naturally to us, we rarely pause to thank Allah for them. In her words, she said “sometimes we’re just going through the motions without truly being present in the moment. How many times when we eat, do we slowly chew on the food, enjoy the taste, let alone give gratitude to Allah for the food? We quickly devour the food and move onto the next thing.”
SubhanAllah! What a slap to the face as I listened to her speak. As she spoke, I was reminded of something I heard Sh. Dr. Rania Awaad (may Allah preserve her) say, in a halaqa lesson covering the name of Allah Ash-Shakur, she said, in her time studying in Syria, there was a phrase they would say: “Health is a crown on the head of the healthy that only the sick can see.” And it had me thinking of how this could be applied to anything in life. When we have it, we cherish it less perhaps because of our familiarity with it but when we lose it or it’s taken from us, we realize the value it held.
Allah reminds us of His many favors upon us in surah Al-Muminun, ayats 17-22 and again in ayats 78-80, where He says:
He is the One Who created for you hearing, sight, and intellect. ˹Yet˺ you hardly give any thanks [78]. And He is the One Who has dispersed you ˹all˺ over the earth, and to Him you will ˹all˺ be gathered [79]. And He is the One Who gives life and causes death, and to Him belongs the alternation of the day and night. Will you not then understand? [80].
In ayah 17, Allah reminds us that He created us above the seven heavens but what is more striking to me is when Allah says, “We are never unmindful of ˹Our˺ creation.” Allah, the Transcendent, Exalted and All-Encompassing is saying to me that He is never unmindful of me. In other words, at every moment He is all-aware of me. Allah doesn’t need me, I need Allah. However, how may times have I been unmindful of Him - may Allah forgive me for the times I’ve been heedless.
The ayats continue as Allah lists all the ways in which He has been mindful of us by providing for us and showering His favors upon us, “yet we hardly give any thanks.” I bow my head in shame thinking of all the times I have lost sight of the blessings in my life and thus failed to give thanks to the One who is Ash-Shakur (The Most Appreciative) - The One who gives abundantly in return for what was so little.
In her book, Reflecting on The Names of Allah, Dr. Jinan Yousef, explains that:
The word used for ‘thanks’ in Arabic is shukran. Lingusistically, the Arabic root of this word - shin-kaf-ra - is used to describe something that increases and grows what is given to it.
In essence Allah named Himself, As-Shakur, to let us know that He is The Lord who gives us everything, increases us although we do so little and hardly thank Him. He is The Most Appreciative and in return blesses us even more for the litle we put forth. The Qur’an reminds us of this “And remember when your Lord proclaimed, ‘If you are grateful, I will certainly give you more…” [14:7].
I am grateful for the moments He pulls me back to Him when I stray. I am grateful for the people in my life who remind me of Him and of His Mercy and Favors upon me. I am grateful for the reminders He sends my way through the Qur’an, through hardship and ease, and through the lessons from the life of His beloved prophet ﷺ - he who was sent as a mercy to the world.
Imam Abdullah ibn ‘Alawi Al-Haddad writes in his book The Lives Of Man, that Allah enjoined the messenger ﷺ to remind humanity and “has made reminding one of the hallmarks of the believers, the people of repentance, apprehension, hearts, and attentiveness.” And Allah mentions this in the Qur’an: Continue to remind, for certainly reminders benefit the believers [51:55] and in so many other places in the Qur’an - [52:29], [87:9-10], [88:21-22], [40:13], [50:37]. May Allah make us among those who benefit from reminders and among those who are mindful of Him.
If you’ve made it to the end of this Soulful Smile, I pray may Allah make it of benefit. I ask Allah for the good of it, and for its baraka and a good ending, and ask His protection against its evils, temptations and a bad ending; He is the Best to be asked and The Most Generous in whom is our hope.
I pray may Allah make us those with mindful hearts, and are attentive to the reminders He has made acessible to us. May Ash-Shakur increase us in gratitude to Him. I leave you with this beautiful du’a by Imam Al-Haddad:
We ask and implore Allah to let us live life as long as it is better for us, and die when death is better for us. Ya Allah, Do not hasten with us to punishment, nor delay us until we be tempted! Ya Rabb, we ask of You the good of life, the good of death, and the good that lies in between! And we seek Your protection against the evil in life, the evil in death, and the evil that lies in between! O Allah, Give us the life of the blessed, those of whom You wish to make endure, and give us the death of the martyrs, those whom You love to meet! Make our ending and that of those whom we loved and are loved by, our friends in You, and all Muslims, be in goodness and excellence, in gentleness and wellbeing, O Most Merciful of The Merciful! Allahumma Amin.
With A Smile,
Ibtisam
Beautiful prophetic du’a of Sulaiman (AS) that Allah ﷻ shares with us.
