Abu'l-Husayn al-Nuri, a great sufi said:
Lord, I will thank Thee: not that I
Can ever requite Thy love thereby,
But that it may be said of me,
"He took God's bounties gratefully"
Each glorious hour I spent with Thee
Has now become my memory :
For this is gratitude's last treasure,
The joy of recollected pleasure.
Since small we are told to say thank you - to mom and dad, to everyone who kindly treat us, and even to stand up to say aloud 'thank you teacher' just soon as the class ends. We are told to repay the kindness of people towards us, at the very least by simply saying 'thank you'. Seems a simple phrase, easy to pronounce yet full of meaning. It shows appreciation. It shows acknowledgement. It shows gratitude to someone whom we feel indebted to.
If that is how we be grateful to man,how then we are expected to express our gratitude to Allah to Whom we are indebted of every single thing including our very own existence? As a matter of fact, all things find in Him their origin, their impulse, the centre of their being. How magnificent His strength! How inscrutable His wisdom! How beneficient His bounties! Do we think we have been grateful enough to Allah Who created the universe for men to benefit?
Allah is He Who has never left us behind. He Who always stays close to us and always ready to bestow upon us His grace and bounties .'Ask and I will answer'.By merely asking, He answers to our needs, listens to our wailings. He supports, He fills and He protects all things. He creates us, nourishes us and brings us to perfection.
We have nothing that does not come from Him, yet He offers more and more.. He gives abundantly,asks us to be grateful so that we may deserve His reward. Not that He is in need of our gratitude..He are the richest of the richests.
No wonder,a man as great as our Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. replied to A'ishah's complaints: Is it wrong if I become a grateful servant? Look at ourselves and quietly ponder: Even those who are most gifted with speech cannot find appropriate words to express gratitude to Allah yet He Himself guides us, teaches us a word easily pronounced yet highly in rewards -ALHAMDULILLAH. Say it in silence and in bright, manifest it in action and let us ask ourselves: If gratitude means ackowledging the Benefactor and confessing His Lordship, are we then being grateful enough to Allah? And if every benefaction from Allah necessitates gratitude that is without end,how then we can stop even for a second from being grateful to HIM..
