Being Grateful
If anyone says in the morning: "O Allah! Whatever favor has come to me, it comes from You alone Who has no partner; to You all praise is due and thanksgiving", he will have expressed full thankfulness for the day; and if anyone says the same in the evening, he will have expressed full thankfulness for the night.
Abu Dawud, General Behavior 110, 5073
Man is forgetful, and thus he is deficient...yes, we human beings forget...but perhaps, one needs to forget, in order to remember again.
The very first thing that one needs to remember is to be thankful to Allah. All the bounties that Allah has bestowed upon us require gratitude. Even for each breath that we take, we should be grateful to Him. For our consciousness, for our senses, we should be grateful to Him.
One of the phrases that I love the most is: Alhamdu lillaahi 'alaa kulli haal (All praise is to Allah in all circumstances).
Sometimes we deeply suffer from feelings of deprivation. We really like some things so much, but yet we just cannot reach them. But then again, how about this very feeling of liking and love? That we are able to have these feelings...is this, per se, not sufficient for being grateful? What if we were not aware of those beautiful things? What if we couldn't even have a wish for them? There is a story told in Gulistan (The Rose Garden), one of the best known works of Saadi Shirazi. The story is about a man who got very sick and was lying in his sickbed. He was asked: "What do you wish for the most at this moment?" His answer was quite meaningful: "The thing that I wish the most is the ability to wish something!"
Actually, everything depends on our standpoint. Things which seem to be a matter of patience from a point of view, may seem to be a matter of gratitude from another point of view. While one thing may be the most devastating separation for somebody, somebody else may consider the very same thing as the most beautiful reunion...reunion with The Beloved One.
The important thing is...to correct our viewpoints, our way of thinking.
Abu Dawud, General Behavior 110, 5073
Man is forgetful, and thus he is deficient...yes, we human beings forget...but perhaps, one needs to forget, in order to remember again.
The very first thing that one needs to remember is to be thankful to Allah. All the bounties that Allah has bestowed upon us require gratitude. Even for each breath that we take, we should be grateful to Him. For our consciousness, for our senses, we should be grateful to Him.
One of the phrases that I love the most is: Alhamdu lillaahi 'alaa kulli haal (All praise is to Allah in all circumstances).
Sometimes we deeply suffer from feelings of deprivation. We really like some things so much, but yet we just cannot reach them. But then again, how about this very feeling of liking and love? That we are able to have these feelings...is this, per se, not sufficient for being grateful? What if we were not aware of those beautiful things? What if we couldn't even have a wish for them? There is a story told in Gulistan (The Rose Garden), one of the best known works of Saadi Shirazi. The story is about a man who got very sick and was lying in his sickbed. He was asked: "What do you wish for the most at this moment?" His answer was quite meaningful: "The thing that I wish the most is the ability to wish something!"
Actually, everything depends on our standpoint. Things which seem to be a matter of patience from a point of view, may seem to be a matter of gratitude from another point of view. While one thing may be the most devastating separation for somebody, somebody else may consider the very same thing as the most beautiful reunion...reunion with The Beloved One.
The important thing is...to correct our viewpoints, our way of thinking.
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