Gratitude

If a person does a favour to you, will you dare to do something or act with him in a way that will displease him? It is perfectly normal and natural for a person to have gratitude for a person who has treated him well. By nature, a person has affection for a person who has alleviated him in his difficult moment and was benevolent to him. So, a person, who is still sane, can never lack gratitude towards someone who has helped him. To act otherwise is abnormal, inhumane and unnatural. It is a feeling that even an animal like the dog also feels towards a person who has given him a piece of bone to eat. This means that this quality must be found even more in humans.

We must be more grateful to Allah Ta’ala. It is He who has created us and granted us all our necessities in order to survive. All the favours that we have are through His kindness and favour.

Health, employment, favourable environment, harmony and well-being in general are the favours of Allah Ta’ala. Allah Ta’ala said in the Qur’an-e-Kareem:

"Every bounty that you possess is from Allah ..." (S 16: V 53)

There is no favour that emanates from anywhere else nor is there the possibility that it comes from anywhere other than Allah Ta’ala as it lies only in His hand. If whatever we possess is the favour of Allah Ta’ala and this favour continues to remain with us 24 / 7, then how much gratitude should we have towards Allah Ta’ala? This cannot be estimated nor can a person have such gratitude. However, Allah Ta’ala, through His grace and kindness, told us to be grateful to Him according to our ability.

We show our gratitude to Allah Ta’ala by leading our lives according to what He wants and by remaining in His obedience. The most grateful person is the one who is most obedient. So, the more disobedient you are, the more ungrateful you become. Finally, the most ungrateful is the one who refuses to accept the existence of Allah Ta’ala. It is only the ungrateful who do not acknowledge the favour of Allah Ta’ala and refuse to accept His existence and Allah Ta’ala has labelled them as more deviated than animals.

[English version of "La reconnaissance" – Al Jamiat – Vol.2 No.15]