Show your gratitude

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

Dear Friends

I pray that you are well.

Ingratitude is a state that grips all men except a few who Allah protects and guides to the reality of gratitude. Ingratitude is of varying degrees--associating partners with Allah, acts of disobedience and not using one's blessings for what they are meant to be used is deep ingratitude. We cannot hide this ingratitude from Allah and indeed from our own conscience. Allah knows our intense love for wealth and things of this life and it being the reason for our disobedience.


إِنَّ ٱلۡإِنسَـٰنَ لِرَبِّهِۦ لَكَنُودٌ۬ (٦) وَإِنَّهُ ۥ عَلَىٰ ذَٲلِكَ لَشَہِيدٌ۬ (٧) وَإِنَّهُ ۥ لِحُبِّ ٱلۡخَيۡرِ لَشَدِيدٌ (٨) ۞ أَفَلَا يَعۡلَمُ إِذَا بُعۡثِرَ مَا فِى ٱلۡقُبُورِ (٩) وَحُصِّلَ مَا فِى ٱلصُّدُورِ (١٠) إِنَّ رَبَّہُم بِہِمۡ يَوۡمَٮِٕذٍ۬ لَّخَبِيرُۢ (١١)

"Surely, man is ungrateful to his Lord and surely he is a witness against that! Surely he is passionate in his love for good things. Knows he not that when that which is in the tombs is over-thrown, and that which is in the breasts is brought out -- surely on that day their Lord shall be aware of them!" Qur'an Al-Adiyat 100:6-11

If you find it difficult to fulfill an act of worship, or obey Allah's command, remember the deep gratitude that you owe to your Lord.

A powerful cure to break out of ingratitude is to remember death and the judgment that follows it. In the end we will be alone in our graves--nothing else matters except our own good deeds. So till your land, sow good seeds and nurture them so you can reap a good harvest later inshaAllah.


ٱلَّذِينَ تَتَوَفَّٮٰهُمُ ٱلۡمَلَـٰٓٮِٕكَةُ ظَالِمِىٓ أَنفُسِہِمۡ‌ۖ فَأَلۡقَوُاْ ٱلسَّلَمَ مَا ڪُنَّا نَعۡمَلُ مِن سُوٓءِۭ‌ۚ بَلَىٰٓ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَلِيمُۢ بِمَا كُنتُمۡ تَعۡمَلُونَ (٢٨) فَٱدۡخُلُوٓاْ أَبۡوَٲبَ جَهَنَّمَ خَـٰلِدِينَ فِيہَا‌ۖ فَلَبِئۡسَ مَثۡوَى ٱلۡمُتَكَبِّرِينَ (٢٩

...Those whose lives the angels take while they are doing wrong to themselves" Then, they will make (false) submission (saying): "We used not to do any evil." (The angels will reply): "Yes! Truly, Allah is All-Knower of what you used to do. So enter the gates of Hell, to abide therein, and indeed, what an evil abode will be for the arrogant." Qur'an An-Nahl 16:28-29

ٱلَّذِينَ تَتَوَفَّٮٰهُمُ ٱلۡمَلَـٰٓٮِٕكَةُ طَيِّبِينَ‌ۙ يَقُولُونَ سَلَـٰمٌ عَلَيۡكُمُ ٱدۡخُلُواْ ٱلۡجَنَّةَ بِمَا كُنتُمۡ تَعۡمَلُونَ (٣٢

"...Those whose lives the angels take while they are in a pious state, saying, 'Peace be on you! Enter Paradise for that you were doing.'" Qur'an An-Nahl 16:32

It is hard to be arrogant and proud if religious duties are performed out of true sense of neediness and gratitude.

May Allah protect us from the torment of the grave and the punishment of the Hellfire and enter us into Firdaus. Ameen. Please don't forget us in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.

And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam

Humble before Allah, Al Aziz Al Mutakabbir

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

Dear Friends

I pray that you are well.

Imagine you are standing on the beach and the waves are gently hugging your legs and it recedes and you run after it and it comes back and you run away from it and it goes back to the ocean and you run after it and it comes back to you and you run away from it towards the white sandy beach and you do this many times, as though a play between you and the waves, until the sun started to set, and you sit down watching the sun setting with the sound of the gentle waves. How serene! How beautiful! How great! SubhanAllah "And to Him belongs greatness in the heavens and the earth, and He is the Mighty, the Wise." Qur'an al-Jathiyah 45:37

But people become proud when they can do something, when they have something, forgetting how small they are in front of the Creator, Al-Aziz Al-Mutakabbir, forgetting they were created from a drop of sperm, and they were a thing unremembered.

"Has there come on man a while of time when he was a thing unremembered? We created man of a sperm-drop, a mingling, and We made him hearing, seeing." Qur'an Al-Insan 76:1-2

"And when We bestow favor on man, he turns aside and behaves proudly, and when evil afflicts him, he is despairing. Qur'an Al-Isra' 17:83

Try stopping the waves from flowing to the roads when you were playing with it, running away from it. Try bringing the sun from west. You can't. If Allah commanded the ocean to flood, it would flood (remember the Tsunami!). The waves are waiting for Allah's command to flood the earth (remember Tsunami alerts!). There is nothing we can do to stop it when this happens. The sun is waiting for Allah's command to rise from the west and the sun will obey His command, the same way it is obeying Allah's command now--and this is when the door of repentance is closed and we will be on our way to the most difficult day of our being.

So, shrink yourself before Allah and be grateful with what you have. When you love something, you cannot force Allah to give it to you. When you hate something you cannot force Allah to take it away from you. You cannot make Him do anything. When He decides something, He refuses to decide something else. Who are we to tell Him what to do? We are His slaves and slaves submit to His Lord. His Lord does not submit to him. When you are humble, naturally it will lead you to gratitude, for when you are humble before Allah, the All Mighty, only then you will see the vast mercy that Allah bestows upon you and His creation. And Allah will give you more.

"And when your Lord proclaimed, "If you are thankful, surely I will increase you, but if you are thankless My chastisement is surely terrible."' Qur'an Ibrahim 14:7

"Allah is the guardian of those who believe. He brings them out of the darkness into the light; and (as to) those who disbelieve, their guardians are Shaitans who take them out of the light into the darkness; they are the inmates of the fire, in it they shall abide. Have you not considered him (Namrud) who disputed with Ibrahim about his Lord, because Allah had given him the kingdom? When Ibrahim said: My Lord is He who gives life and causes to die, he said: I give life and cause death. Ibrahim said: So surely Allah causes the sun to rise from the east, then make it rise from the west; thus he who disbelieved was confounded; and Allah does not guide aright the unjust people." Qur'an Al-Baqarah 2:257-258

May Allah make us among the thankful and the grateful. Ameen. Please don't forget me in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.

And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam