Gratitude (shukr)

In Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy's lessons, gratitude is owed for blessings people overlook: general ones such as air, water, security and health, and private ones such as wealth and a home. ² He holds that patience and gratitude are the two halves of faith (his statement, needs_source). ¹

The Sheikh says many people thank God for private blessings, such as wealth, children, a house and a car, and forget general ones such as air and the seas. ³ He notes that people praise God for rain only when it is withheld, and pray for rain in drought, but do not thank Him in plenty. ^{4 2} He gives an example about fish and their breathing that could not be checked (needs_source). ⁵

He lists the blessings of the body, such as teeth, tongue and stomach, and says a person should ask God for each organ to do its work and thank Him for it. ^{6 7 8} He traces the chain of provision from the farmer to the miller, the baker and the carrier, and thanks God for all of it. ⁹ He calls for thanks to God for provision and for work. ¹⁰

He reflects on a verse about feeding the hungry and securing the fearful, and holds that security is a blessing that only the one who has lost it fully values. ¹¹ He says whoever follows the news without praising God for what he has has overlooked the blessing. ¹² He says that affordable medicine is a blessing, and compares it with a poor patient who cannot pay for it. ¹³ He says that had we prostrated on burning coals in thanks for security, we would not have given it its due. ¹⁴

The Sheikh urges visits to hospitals and recitation of the opening chapter for the sick, and holds that visits lighten the trial, since many people are afflicted. ^{15 16}

He says that reading the Qur'an beautifully in front of someone who does not understand Arabic is a blessing, and that understanding is another. ¹⁷ He thanks God for the ability to lift a leg for ablution, while relatives suffer from arthritis. ¹⁸ He warns against letting blessings become a habit that a person no longer notices. ¹⁹

He contrasts the believer who attributes a blessing to God's favour, as he says Solomon did, with one who attributes it to himself, and with the owner of the garden who wronged himself and thought his garden would never perish (needs_source). ^{20 21}

He says that gratitude for blessings means spending them in pursuit of God's pleasure and not using them in disobedience to Him, and he calls for avoiding smoking, narcotics and intoxicants ²².

He distinguishes praiseworthy reminding of favours, in which God mentions His blessings upon the Prophet ﷺ Qur'an 93:6 ²³, from blameworthy reminding, in which the giver looks down on others ²³. He sets Pharaoh's reminder to Moses of his upbringing beside a person who reminds his nephew of what he spent on him, and calls for gentleness towards orphans Qur'an 93:9 ²⁴. He wishes for a family a righteous son and a committed, veiled daughter, and sees the blessing of Islam appearing in the children ²⁵.

He relates that the earth, the mountains, the seas and the sky complain of human ingratitude for God's blessings, and ask leave to punish him ²⁶. He advises that one who is first afflicted should begin by recalling the health and limbs that remain, so as to be patient ²⁷. He counts God's blessings from the time of the foetus, such as the umbilical cord and mother's milk, likening them to doors that open as one door closes, and recalls the scholars' saying not to forget the past favours of blessing ²⁸.

He gives the example of a man with chickens who thanks God for what remains to him, and says that gratitude preserves a blessing and increases it, citing a saying attributed to the Prophet on the goodness of God's blessing when it is kept well (needs_source: anecdote-unnamed) ²⁹.

He holds that God has bestowed on people blessings both apparent and hidden, general and private ³⁰; that the believer knows the value of a blessing while it exists, while others know it only after it is gone, and that the grateful among God's servants are few Qur'an 34:13 ³¹. He draws attention to the blessing of being able to sit and move, which people thank for only when their backs hurt, and he sets out doctors' advice such as limiting weight (needs_source: medical-weight-limit-figure) ³².

He distinguishes general blessings, such as the sun, the night and sleep, which only the believer thanks for, from private blessings, such as wealth, children and a home, which others also thank for ³³. He says that one who is afflicted recalls what remains to him of eye, hand, leg, mind, ear and tongue, and so his despair lessens; he gives the example of lands where the sun is not seen for months (needs_source: polar-night-claim) ³⁴.

He recounts the hadith of three people whom God tested with leprosy, baldness and blindness: whoever gave thanks kept his blessing, whoever denied it lost it, and he notes that pride in a blessing removes it ³⁵.

The Sheikh complains, in his own words, about speed bumps and poor roads in some countries, and gives thanks to God for the blessing of good roads in this country ³⁶. He says that the poor man who may not own his day's food, the sick person and the detained prisoner, when each is asked how he is, answers with praise of God and finds a blessing in his state, for instance that the prisoner is free to read the Qur'an ³⁷. He asks whether any of us prostrated in thanks to God when the weather in the Levant, northern Jordan and northern Lebanon turned mild, at 22 to 25 degrees, easing the lot of the refugees there (needs_source) ³⁸. He says he dislikes the word 'stranger' because the earth belongs to God, and he holds that poverty, insecurity and fear make a person a stranger even in his own homeland ³⁹.

The Sheikh calls on his listeners to remember the afflicted, saying that those present sit safe, hearing the lesson by God's grace, while there are people better than they, more honourable and closer to God, who are displaced in tents or camps ⁴⁰. He speaks of the blessing of security and safety, and then begins an account of a veterinary experiment in which two sheep were brought, one healthy and one sick (needs_source) ⁴¹. In the account he says the researcher set food before them and then placed a wolf in a cage at some distance, and the sick sheep saw it and was afraid (needs_source) ⁴². The Sheikh thinks, and God knows best, that a man seeing his children go off to pray is a blessing worth noticing ⁴³.

He asks: if you see your neighbour's children or your brother's daughters without hijab or prayer, while your own children pray and your daughter wears hijab at fifteen, where is your prostration of thanks to God? ⁴⁴. He says that a person whom God keeps healthy, so that incense smoke does not harm him or choke him into coughing and sneezing, and a person who reads the Qur'an in a beautiful voice and knows the senses of the Arabic language, owe a prostration of gratitude ⁴⁵. He says it is God who guides the servant to obedience and makes the doing of good dear to him, and yet the servant then attributes the good to himself although all good is from God ⁴⁶.

The Sheikh says that God's blessings cannot be counted, and that people usually thank God for the blessings that are their own, such as health, wealth, a spouse or a child. ⁴⁷ He lists general blessings such as the proportion of oxygen in the air, the distance of the Moon and the tides, and says few people thank God for them, and that only the believer notices them (needs_source: the figures and the astronomical descriptions are not sourced in the recording). ⁴⁸ He says that blessings cannot be counted, and that gratitude is what keeps them. ⁴⁹ He lists everyday blessings: air, health, faith, a righteous spouse and children, mosques, and the call to prayer. ⁵⁰ He cites a Qur'anic passage on rejoicing in God's favour and on counting His blessings, which cannot be counted (the verse is not named in the notes). ⁵¹ He says that few of God's servants are grateful, and takes the family of David as an example of thankfulness. ⁵² He says that David asked how he could thank God, that the question itself is a blessing, and that most people do not give real thanks. ⁵³ He tells the listener to look at people who have no relatives, no spouse and no helper, to see how many blessings he has. ⁵⁴ He says that when trial comes, a person should first count the blessings God gave him, such as his mind and his life. ⁵⁵ He tells of Moses asking how he could thank God; the answer was that Moses had thanked Him, since admitting that he could not thank Him enough is itself thanks. ⁵⁶

He says that saying "alhamdulillah" is one degree of gratitude, and gives a lexical account of gratitude as the visible trace of a blessing on the body (needs_source: the lexical account is the speaker's and has not been checked). ⁵⁷ He says that verbal thanks is one form of gratitude; thanks for wealth is spending it, and thanks for knowledge is teaching it. ⁵⁸ He says that gratitude for status is to use it to serve people and meet their needs, and reports scholars' definition that gratitude means keeping present blessings and seeking absent ones (needs_source: the scholars' definition is not sourced in the recording). ⁵⁹ He says that a person may thank a boss or an official, but that provision comes from God. ⁶⁰ He likens gratitude to tying an animal to a stake so that it does not escape, and cites a Qur'anic passage that gratitude brings increase (the verse is not named in the notes). ⁶¹ He cites a Qur'anic passage that gratitude brings increase, and says that the Arabic word for an eye full of water is the root of the word for gratitude. ⁶² He says that gratitude fills the heart and shows in the limbs, as the signs of a blessing show on a well-kept horse, and that the greatest blessing is steadfastness in the tongue and in deeds. ^{63 64} He says that a grateful Muslim does not backbite, gossip, cheat or harm people, and that the blessing of Islam must show in conduct. ⁶⁵ He says that blessings are credited to God's favour and not to the servant's own strength; effort has its place, but the root is God's favour, and a righteous child and an obedient wife are signs of that favour. ^{66 67} He cites a Qur'anic passage on thanking or being ungrateful when blessed (the verse is not named in the notes). ⁶⁶

He names five conditions of gratitude, the first being the submission of the one who thanks to the one who is thanked. ⁶⁸ He says gratitude requires submission to the giver, love of the giver, recognition of his favour and frequent praise of him, and asks families to memorise this. ⁶⁹ He divides gratitude into gratitude for what is loved and gratitude for what is disliked, and says that its highest level is that the servant sees only the giver. ⁷⁰ He compares a driver who boasts of an award from a wealthy boss with the believer, who should take pride in God's favour, and says that gratitude is either servanthood or love. ⁷¹ He says that the first rule of gratitude is submission to the one thanked, and takes as his example a child who asks his father courteously. ⁷² He says that the second rule is love of the one thanked, and that gratitude must come from the heart and the tongue together. ⁷³ He names the fourth and fifth rules: to remember a deed done sincerely for God, and never to use God's blessings to disobey Him, which he calls the most important rule. ⁷⁴

He says that the absence of blessing from wealth comes from earnings mixed with the forbidden, and that such wealth is cleansed by returning it or giving it away. ⁷⁶ He says that wealth that lacks blessing despite the payment of zakat should be examined: whether zakat was due, whether it was paid in full, and whether it was given to those entitled to it. ⁷⁷ He gives the example of a father who gives his son a phone, and the son uses it to reveal the father's secrets, and says that blessings must not be used to anger parents or God. ⁷⁸ He says that a community in which rights are lost has no blessing. ⁷⁹ He says that cutting family ties removes blessing from lifespans, children and wealth. ⁸⁰ He cites a hadith that the best of people is the best to his family, and says that gratitude for children, a wife, wealth and work brings increase. ⁸¹ He says that gratitude is shown by using wealth, status or office to serve people, and that the head of a household or a manager is answerable before God. ⁸² The speaker's view: he criticises a person who thanks God but does not pray or pay zakat, a rich man who hoards, a manager who oppresses those who work for him, and a father who favours some of his children. ⁸³ He blames a husband who denies past kindness and a father who looks down on his wife, and says that children learn these habits. ⁷⁵

He says that a person in trial should feel God's favour, and expect tomorrow to be better than today. ⁸⁴ He distinguishes the one who thanks in ease (shakir) from the one who thanks in trial (shakur), and holds the second to be the higher rank. ⁸⁵ He says that the one who thanks in trial praises God when denied what the soul loves, such as wealth, children or a grand house, and that the denial may be good. ⁸⁶ He says that gratitude ties blessings down: health, good children, a righteous neighbour, Islam and the call to prayer, which people in Muslim lands take for granted. ⁸⁷ He cites a hadith that a people who do not keep God's blessings close will lose them, and that once lost they rarely return. ⁸⁸ He says that God gives nations hunger and fear when they are ungrateful for blessings (the sura is not named in the notes). ⁸⁹ He says that a person who takes God's mercy, children, faith, wealth and status as lost, and despairs, becomes ungrateful. ⁹⁰ He says that the one who truly trusts in God is blessed, and that the sorrowing should not despair, since God is the reliever of distress. ⁹¹