What is your level of gratitude towards Allah? Allah says in the Quran, “Verily, man is ungrateful to his Lord”. Allah uses the word “kanood” in this verse. Kanood means that someone is extremely ungrateful for the blessings they have. Kanood is when you open the fridge and become upset because among the cola and juice, your beverage is not available.It means that you readily complain even though the favours are there, consequently expressing ungratefulness towards Allah.
There was a companion known as Urwa ibn Zubair that had his leg amputated and later found out that his son had died. When people came to visit him, he said, “I had four limbs, and Allah left me three and I have four sons and you left me with three. This level of gratitude is being grateful for the good and for the bad that Allah has bestowed on us.
Prophet Muhammad said “do not look to those above you but look to those below you, as it will more likely remind you of Allah’s favours bestowed on you.” We have a ban tendency to always look where the grass is greener, yet our Prophet said that true gratitude is looking at those that have less, in order to appreciate what we have. We have food, money, a roof above our head, clean water, the ability to blink, taste, see in colour, hands to eat… The list goes on for a while and Allah has said that if we tried to write down every blessing, we would be unable to. But the question is, what is the least of Allah’s blessings?
Prophet Dawud asked Allah, “What is the least of Your blessings?” Allah revealed to him, “O Dawud, take a breath.” Dawud did so, and Allah told him, “This is the least of My blessings on you.” When was the last time we paused the world and just appreciated the fact that our heart beats and pumps blood and that we can breath with ease without even have to ask Allah to do so. The moment we have a sinus problem is the moment we start to appreciate what we lost.
Prophet Muhammad said “Take advantage of five before five: your youth before your old age, your health before your illness, your riches before your poverty, your leisure before your work, and your life before your death.” These blessings we take for granted every single day.
As time goes by, we wish that we can go back to our youth, to change our ways. Go back to our healthy days when we ate well and worked out. Return to when when we had money and spend on what we need, not what we want. Revisit our free time so we can do the thing we wish we could do, and return to life, because once we die, we will regret everything we failed to do as Allah said in the Quran. We will say, “O woe to me, I wish I had put some good in this world”.
Allah says in the Quran “If you are grateful I will add more favours on to you but if you are ungrateful verily my punishment is severe”. Let’s start showing our gratitude to Allah. Let’s thank Allah with our hearts, being grateful for what Allah has given us and has protected us from. Let’s thank Allah with our tongue by saying alhamdillah. Let’s thank Allah with our actions by using the limbs that Allah gave us to help those in need.