Grateful For Alhamdulillah

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum

Dear Friends

I pray that you are well.

Our Deen teaches us that even if we already know, a reminder benefits a Muslim.

Allah Almighty says,

وَذَكِّرْ فَإِنَّ ٱلذِّكْرَىٰ تَنفَعُ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ

And remind, for indeed, the reminder benefits the believers. (55)

[Qur'an, Adh-Dhariyat 51:55]

Our Creator, Lord of the Worlds, introduces Himself in the Surah Al-Fatiha, the first chapter of the Qur'an, also known as the Mother of the Qur'an (Umm al-Qur’an).

Our connection with Allah everyday begins with Al-Fatiha. However, if we don't pray or if we pray and don't understand the meanings of the words, then we don't have that connection with Allah, then we won't have the connection with this Surah. So first thing, you should not give yourself any excuse not to pray (or not to pray on time) and if you don't know how to pray, you should learn how to pray.

We can glean from this Surah that Allah has decided that all humanity is to be introduced to Him and get to know Him through this Surah.

Let's just take the words Alhamdulillah from the first part of the second ayah (ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّـهِ رَبِّ ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَ ﴿٢ ) One part of Alhamdulillah is that you thank Allah and the second part is that you appreciate (praise) Allah.

Sometimes in life, we can have praise without thanks -- for example, you may praise a noble prize winner but you won't thank him. And the opposite is true, you may thank someone but you won't praise him -- for example, Allah ordered that children be thankful to their parents even if they don't pray or follow other religion...so while children may thank their parents, they may not praise their conduct or their conviction to other religion. Musa alayhissalaam thanked Fir'aun, by his acknowledgment of the favors that Fir'aun used to give him being raised in his castle, but he never praised him.

When we say Alhamdulillah, then we are saying we praise Allah for whatever He is doing, and at the same time we thank Him that He did it.

We are grateful for Alhamdulillah because other religion don't have Alhamdulillah. Sometimes, we find some Muslims who don't understand Alhamdulillah. So when someone asked them, "How are you?", "How's your family?", they might say "Alhamdulillah" but it is almost a complain or a dissatisfaction rather than truly thanking and praising Allah.

Alhamdulillah should come from the bottom of our hearts, even in the midst of tribulations and all the things that are going wrong in our lives, we are finding many things that are going right. If you are feeling hot or cold because of the temperature outside, at least you are not feeling sick. There could be so many things that can go wrong in your body and you should be grateful to Allah that you have your health. If you are in a poor Muslim country, at least you have food on your table and you can pray at the masjid everyday or hear the adhan 5 times a day. Do you really like to be in a country where you have to work day and night to pay your bills and you can hardly find Muslims around? There are so many other things that are going right in our lives and we should not lose sight of that but thank and praise Allah abundantly.

Muslims are people of Alhamdulillah which means we are constantly grateful and constantly positive. If we understood Alhamdulillah we will never depressed, angry, stressed, nervous, fearful, lose hope or complain.

We find today in the Ummah, that people complain and complain about the state of the Muslims -- they complain about the ignorance of the Muslims, the corruption within the Muslim societies, and all the negatives about Muslims, as if we don't have enough from other people attacking Muslims. We have to remember, Allah is the One who can change our circumstances. So, the first things we should do is turn to Him and say Alhamdulillah. And show a positive attitude towards ourselves and people around us.

May Allah make us among the people of His remembrance and of those who are grateful to Him in every moment of our lives. Ameen.

Please don't forget us in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.

And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam