Why Should I Be Thankful

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By the grace and mercy of Allah subhanho wa Taala. Allah has given us another opportunity, another blessing opportunity to not just live, but to be able to worship a lot to be able to present something humble, something meager, before Allah subhanho wa Taala as a sign of our gratitude, as a sign of our appreciation for all the blessings of Allah upon us.

To stay relevant to the occasion to the topic to the time that we're in right now, we obviously understand everyone around us, the majority of the people around us are celebrating are enjoying a long weekend, a holiday weekend, which is honest.

And everyone around us is talking about what they're grateful for everybody's posting on Facebook, what they're grateful for, everyone is mentioning what they're grateful for. And I felt it was an appropriate occasion for us to talk a little bit about the concept of gratitude and appreciation within Islam. But to not just simply stop there, to not make it just as a very superficial, obvious discussion about sugar and gratitude. But to take the discussion further, to take a deeper look, to really understand the concept of gratitude. And the bigger issue with gratitude is what it demands of us what it requires of us. What is the consequence of gratitude, because you see for us, and like

you're seeing around you today, all right, there's a lot of younger folks here today as well for the hook. But because of obviously there not being any school, the same person yesterday, who posts I'm grateful for this, and this and this on their Facebook or on social media or wherever it may be. Today, that person person will turn around and talk about how horrible their life is, how much their life is not according to their wishes or their demands, or what the way they would like for it to be. And they'll be complaining about everything from their parents, to their friends, to their situation to how their phone is in the latest, greatest thing that's out today. So what we realized

from that is as human beings, we have the tendency to separate sugar, we have a tendency to separate gratitude or gratefulness and showing appreciation into simply a verbal exercise where we say I'm grateful, whereas in the verbal exercises a part of the package of gratitude and gratefulness and appreciation and things, but it is not the end. In fact, what so what I wanted to talk about is the consequence of gratitude. What does gratitude result in what is the consequence of showing gratitude being thankful to Allah subhana wa Tada.

And in terms of that, I wanted to present a few basic items, the Quran, I wanted to present a few reflections from some of the verses of the book of Allah subhanho wa Taala and also some of the wisdom of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasallam. The very first I wanted to share with you which I just read is from students look man, we're lost in it number 20. of so look man says lm Tarot. Have you all not seen? All right, and when the last one that's the literal translation, but what are lost power in classical Arabic. The word of even seeing something is used in the context of pondering and reflecting upon something

So let's get Intel is asking us have you have all of you not thought have all of you not reflected have all of you not realized up until now. And the wasa Kanaka, Murphy semiaquatic woman out there most definitely Allah has completely subjugated. Now that's kind of a complex, fancy word. What it basically means is that Ally's put all that which is in the heavens, in the skies, and all that which is on the earth, which is on this ground. Everything that is in the sky, and everything that is in the earth, Allah has put it to your service. Allah has put it to your service, a lost power and Zara has crafted it has made it to facilitate your life for you, to make your life easier to

make your life better for you. That is the sole purpose that is the primary function of all the other creation of Allah subhanaw taala that exists in this world, aside from the human being the human beings for Allah, like there's a there's a little saying of wisdom that the scholars would say, they would say that holy catatonia Allah Kumar

right that all of this dunya this world that you live in was created for you. But you were created for the aka, you are created to serve God to serve alone. And so it lysing everything in the heavens and the earth is serving you. Haven't you ever stopped to think and realize and ponder upon that. I mean, so how old are just yesterday, as you know, we're visiting here. So yesterday, they took us up into the mountains. And they took us up into the Smoky Mountains here. And we were all the way on the top of a mountain. And I couldn't help but think of the ayah from sort of two moons where the last panel actually tells us whether the Dalai Lama was the lunar. He's the one that made the earth

humble beneath you, meaning he made it lower to you, he made it humble for you, Fung Shui man akeeba. So go around, go around, walk around and tread on this earth. And then Allah says so much so that Fung Shui manaakitanga even go and walk amongst its shoulders.

All right, it's protruding bones, which, according to many of them have assumed reverse to the mountains, that even these great magnificent mountains that hold the earth into place, unless you go and walk around on the mountain. Forget about walking around the mountain, we drove on a road that was paved on a mountain.

And when we got up there, there were hundreds of vehicles sitting on top of that mountain. As great and as powerful and as magnificent as that mountain is. The human being is superior to it. The human being is walking on and driving on and building on it.

I just came back from hydro couple of weeks ago. And over there they were constructing, they're building a new tunnel.

Because right now as it stands, I don't remember the exact name of the location, but you have to drive all the way around this huge mountain.

And so to create a better flow of traffic, they're making a tunnel. Now how do you end up making a tunnel through a mountain?

They're taking explosives and they're blowing them up and

literally ripping a hole inside of this mountain. So how do I think about that? So Allah is saying that, haven't you ever stopped to think and realize everything in existence serves you? And who's done that Allah has done that for you. Allah has made it this way. Well, s Bella Aleykum Yama who logging in and this is the crux. Allah says what is Bella, which literally means this is the more emphatic the hyperbolized, the mobile version of the same verb. And what it literally means is that he has showered down upon you, he has drenched you in. He has poured down on top of you niihama who his blessings. And there's so much eloquent so much Bulava built into just these two words. Well as

just these three words, then he has showered down upon you. And then Allah says specifically upon you because there's abnormal sentence structure here. And then Allah says neon. Now people very even vaguely familiar with the Arabic language will know that that is the plural the singular word is Namah. Namah means blessing. It's the singular noun is the plural. But however, when you look within the forum, and like I said, even if you know basic Arabic, there are two plurals mentioned in the Quran for Namah. Neon, and the other one is unknown. There's this second plural. There are two different plurals for blessings mentioned in the Quran. Shakira only under ami unknown is also the

plural of neoma. Now what's the difference between these two plurals? And if there are two plurals is it as easy as Potato, potato, tomato, tomato, they're interchangeable. You can switch one after the other, obviously, not this double column of Allah. So when the last pick the specific plural for this pay plays, he picked it for a reason. So when you see it when you take a look into it, you realize the difference between the two plurals is that unknown is what the Arabs would call

General cleaner. It's a smaller plural.

Typically, if you're counting something literally, it would be used for something between three and 10. A dozen of something. A manageable number, something you can count on your fingers, smaller plural. When you want to have a bigger plural,

a bigger plural. The word is Neon is general. It's a big clue. It means hundreds and 1000s and millions of something. It's the big plural. Allah subhanaw taala mentioned the big plural here that he has showered down upon you. millions upon billions upon trillions of his blessings. So many blessings you don't even realize like Allah says another place and up on

that will attack amin Cooney Masato, Allah has granted to you, Allah has given you he has granted you each and every single thing that you asked him. He's giving you everything that you asked him. So much so that even beyond that a law says we're in touch.

And if you were to attempt to count, if you were to die, dude literally needs to sit there 1234 if you sat there and tried to count wings or do any Armenta lucky, the blessing of Allah laptop suhar, you'd never fully be able to take them all into account.

If you tried to count the blessings of Allah, you'd never fully be able to take them into account. Something else interesting about there in terms of the power of the language of the Quran, is that Allah subhanaw taala uses a singular natla tala

blessing of Allah. There's two explanations. One is that this is Mogens the singular represents the entire category, the entire entity. But there's a second there's some Bulava. There's some deep eloquence here. Allah uses one blessing because Allah is saying, even if you dedicated your entire life, to appreciating just for one blessing that Allah has given you

forget about all the blessings, you decided to dedicate your life to fully appreciating, understanding and valuing one blessing take any one blessing that you have, I will thank Allah, I will appreciate a lot I will understand the magnitude of one blessing you wouldn't be able to do so. I was talking when I got back from Hodge, one of my friends and one of my students. You know, I went to go meet some of the students and talk and visit with some of the brothers. After I got back. I went to go visit him and he you know, he had a patch over design. And as I was looking like he couldn't open his eye.

And I was in I was talking to him afterwards. And he ends up telling me that he had surgery while I was gone for had he had surgery on his eye. What happened, brother. Now he's an active brother. He plays sports and stuff. So I figured maybe he's playing some sports. You know, somebody hit him in the eye and poke design or something like that. He's like, no, I had surgery for a detached retina.

Like you just detached. And so I had major surgery to fix that. I asked What happened? Were you playing sports? Did you try to go to try and do something crazy What happened? He's like, No, I was just sitting there. And I noticed I could day by day for a few days, I could see less and less and less out of my eye. To the point where I was nearly blinded in one eye. I couldn't see anymore. I went to go see the doctor. And he's like, yeah, your retinas detached. We have to do surgery, we have to operate them. So Panama.

What a blessing these eyes are somebody just sitting there, comfort of his own retina just detaches goes blind in one eye. What a huge blessing of Allah to talk, let alone anything else. That says it so just to appreciate each and every single blessing of Allah. So let's as well as barleycorn Yama, who he has poured down showered down rain down upon you his abundant blessings specifically upon you, only for you. Your name is written on each and every one those blessings and then Allah says something profound ly human about

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mean those blessings that are obvious. And those blessings that are not so obvious.

And that's something for us to think about the obvious blessings we understand we think a lot with air handler we eat food we say a handler we drink water, we say a handler, but then there are blessings that we don't think about.

They we should be grateful for them but they they escape our mind we forget to be grateful for these things. It's a little things. we overlook them. Let's go back to the eyes the ability to see

do we even think about what a blessing that is? I mean, obviously we understand I can drive myself I can walk I can take care of myself. I'm not blind.

I was in over there in Medina, Medina, Tijuana when I was in the mercy of the prophets, awesome. It was a black man sitting there. And because there was so much traffic, I mean, there were so many people there was the days after Hajj. So this man had come put the shoes and put his little walking stick down. Alright, and he sat down right next to the shoe rack to pray. in. After the prayer and all the Russian on the ground. He got kind of pushed around and turned around

Little bit. And the man was literally crawling around on all fours trying to find his way back to his shoes.

And so holla so aside from being able to take care of yourself, the fact that we can see we can take care of ourselves. Think about what a blessing it is to see.

Think about if you didn't have the ability to see, you never would have known what a tree looks like, what the color of the sky is.

You know, for those of you who have children who have family members, who have families of their own, imagine never having seen the child, the face of your own child.

When the greatest blessings of Allah once your children when the greatest blessings of a lot, this is the face of your child, this is the most beautiful thing in this world. You can go to the mountains, you can go to the ocean, you can go witness anything, you can look at the most amazing piece of art. There's nothing more beautiful in this world than the face of your child. You can have the worst day of your life. But when you walk through the door and your child comes running and smiling at you, that's it, it's over your words are gone.

Imagine never having seen with your own eyes, the face of your own child, what a huge blessing of Allah, what an enormous blessing of Allah. And that's just one law what I'm about.

So this is gratitude. This is gratefulness. And this is what really needs to soak in and sink in. This is what we need to realize. And one of the greatest tests like a lost power Thailand the Quran says that last month, Allah gave us everything that we have label one he asked for, so that Allah will test me whether I'll be grateful or I'll be ungrateful. So one of the greatest tests for the human being is to not be ungrateful, to avoid in gratitude, to always be grateful. But it's very difficult. With the emotional condition that we have today. The lack of patience we have today, the global culture of instant gratification that we live in today is very easy to slip back into

ingratitude. So I always recommend especially to when I speak to us, I talk to younger folks who tend to be a little bit more impatient. What I always like to recommend to them is the second you feel about complaint. The second you feel like complaining about something. The second something doesn't go your way and you're about to lash out, you're about to say some words of gratitude. count three blessings that you enjoy

three simple blessings that you enjoy. And small little things do you have the ability to walk, you have the ability to hear, you have the ability to speak, and then see if you still feel ungrateful for what's going on with you see if you still feel like complaining afterwards. So these are the enormous, unbelievable, uncountable blessings of Allah subhanaw taala in our lives that we enjoy, now to talk about the consequence of gratitude. So we understand that we're supposed to be grateful, and we have plenty to be grateful for, like Doctor answers, we have so much to be grateful for, we don't even realize we can never even fully understand how much it is that we have to be grateful

for. But now, what's the consequence of this gratitude? Because again, we want to get away from it being just purely a verbal exercise, it begins with stating that verbally to Allah subhanho wa Taala. But it's gonna move on to something else. And I want to explain the consequence, what Allah has asked of us in exchange for this. And that in and of itself will make us even more grateful. The analogy I'd like to use, I'm going to lay out a very thorough analogy for you, and then we'll connect the dots. And that analogy as well. I think it'll be somewhat fitting because today's you know, the day when everybody goes shopping, right? Everybody's been out shopping since midnight last

night, and certainly this morning. So imagine you go to a department store, you go to the mall, you walk into a department store, alright. And as soon as you walk up, walk through the door. at the door, they hand you $100 bill, they hand you $100 bill, this is for you to spend in this store today.

Okay, that's great. Fantastic.

So now what happens is you go around the store collecting and buying things that add up to $100.

You reach the cashier, you reach the counter, you put all of your merchandise on the counter, they ring it up. And it's $100. Right, it's $100 worth of stuff. But the cashier turns to you and says that'll be $10 he said wait a second. I bought $100 worth of think you gave me $100 to spend I bought $100 worth of things. So here it is $100 like no, we're giving you a 90% discount.

All we want from you is $10. So he's saying Okay, then on top of that the cashier tells you by the way, if you're willing to spend this $10 if you're willing to take a 10 out of that 100 that we gave you and put it here on this counter. Right now handed back just 10 out of the 100 then what we will do is we will give you we will hand you an extra $1,000 as a gift.

Like Okay, and then the cashier tells you wait a second, the deals on

Over, after we give you $1,000 right now cash we handed to you, when you get back home Two weeks later in the mail, we're going to send you a check for $100,000.

Now is it as ridiculous and as preposterous as this example, analogy sounds? Is there any one of us that wouldn't take that deal? We all would you get on the phone and start texting and calling all your friends you need to get here now.

Attend they lost their mind here. Right? So everybody needs to be here now.

Well, the reason why I give this analogy is it's the closest thing I could think of, of how Allah subhanaw taala deals with us the second myth in the shade. Nothing compares to Allah's generosity and allows mercy and kindness. But it's the closest analogy I could think of that somewhat symbolizes represents the generosity and the kindness of our last panel with them upon us. See Allah subhanho wa Taala created us, granted us our existence. He gave us everything that we have, from our senses and our abilities, our physical strength, our intelligence, our talents, our families, our parents or spouses, our children, our friendships, our home, our car, our food, or give us

everything that we have in this world and said, Do what? Oh, use it for yourself. Enjoy life. kulula shabu Allah to say fu to don't cross any major lines, but then that go eat and drink

live life.

However, there's only one thing we'd like for you to do. We gave you all of this. Allah says but there's only one thing we will need in return. Just like that cashier only asked for 10 out of the 100 back. Allah subhanaw taala asks what from us five times a day. Take out five minutes of your time. And praise Allah. There are 24 hours in a day 24 hours in a day, out of that a lost power. Donna wants us to give back 30 minutes and Michelle if you're somebody who is a little more punctual, regular about your Salah you're kind of excelling in your deen. So you pray your Sunday you pray you know often you do all those wonderful, beautiful things that you're supposed to along

with your prayer for let's say an hour. But that's it right five times a day, 15 minutes a day each prayer.

Even then it's an hour. Allah says 23 hours or for you.

One hour a day, give it back to stay within the lines within the boundaries button that live life.

12 months in a year, for 11 months, eat and drink.

Eat and drink.

One month out of the year one out of 12 one month out of the year one out of 12 don't eat or drink from this hour to this hour from this time to this time. Give up your physical pleasures, your physical indulgences, eating drinking physical intimacy with the spouse from this time to this time. That's all the money that allows bless us with

that Allah has given us

use it to feed your family feed yourself live life.

What do you need to do? out of your savings, not even out of your total net worth not even out of your total income out of your savings, the wealth that you have had for an entire year. Take two and a half percent of your savings and give it back in two seconds. That's what we call zakat. charity. once in your life, spend some money take out a few weeks of your time for us. It's a few weeks for the people that used to do Hajj I remember talking to my grandmother took them three, four months to do Hajj from Pakistan is the board of ship, they would go on a boat.

So for us take up two to three weeks of your time. Take some money out of your savings and do Hydra once in your life. That's it. How minimal is the demand from that Allah has made of us it's only 10 out of 100

he gave us $100 said spend it.

Enjoy yourself. Just take that 10 back out and put it back on the counter.

Just 30 minutes a day, one hour a day pray one month out of the year fast two and a half percent of their savings Givens a Catholic charity that's it.

And if you're willing to do that, what happens? Allah subhanaw taala will abundantly reward us in this world.

Hey, attentively, Eva, give us the most amazing life you can imagine. For the Hierophant Eva, you will be the envy of people. such an amazing wonderful life of peace, tranquility, serenity,

fulfillment satisfaction, that Allah will grant you. He will shower down rain down his blessing then his bucket.

His battle got his blessings upon you.

And then it's still not over. That's what it will give you in this world. Respect. Peace tranquility, abundance, Buttercup.

blessing, happiness, love, affection, he'll give you these things in this world.

And then, just like the cashier tells you to three weeks later in the middle, you'll receive a check for $100,000. In the afternoon, when we left this road, and we've gone down, moved on to the next life, in the grave of the Prophet alayhi salatu salam promises us that the grave of this person will be expanded. As far as the eye can see,

his grave will become a garden from the gardens of Paradise.

That on the Day of Judgment, he will find a place when all of humanity will be standing under the sun. And the Hadith actually mentioned that will be a mile above people's head, and people will be drowning in their own sweat. Nine off their own arms, this person will be granted a place to sit and to rest under the shade of the throne, the audition.

And then Allah subhanaw taala will enter this person with honor with dignity with respect through the gates of Paradise through the gates of Jenna, without any reckoning without any accounting with no questions asked VIP guest of honor.

You know, when you attend an event, just as an attendee, they check your little receipt, right? They check your little little bracelet that they gave you, the VIP folks, they don't get checked for that stuff. They're escorted in there walkthrough before everyone else, they get seated in the front before everybody else.

You'll get the VIP treatment, walking, strolling through the gates of paradise. No questions as you are a VIP guest today, and they're in Paradise, you will enjoy such blessings as the profits along these sentences. Man I know right? Well, I will send it out to you. But you know, I've never seen something this magnificent, no ears I've ever heard of something so mind blowing, and no heart could ever comprehend something so remarkable. That's what you will enjoy in the company of an IBM was dealing with Shahada was on in the company of the most amazing people that ever walked the face of this earth. That is all the consequence of gratitude.

That is a consequence of gratitude. So what I wanted us to wrap our heads around today is something very basic, very simple. Yes, we need to be grateful. But that's obvious. I think any common decent human being understands that any common DS we need to be reminded no doubt, we have bouts we have fits of in gratitude.

Right, we have bounced in fits of in gratitude. But nevertheless, once a human being sits down and takes a deep breath and takes an assessment takes a look around him and takes a look at his life. I think no human being could ever deny the fact that I should be grateful.

So we have to be grateful. But like I said, that's pretty obvious. That's common sense. That's fatal. But what I wanted to really myself what I need to understand what I wanted everyone else here to understand today is the consequence of gratitude, if I can get myself to be grateful, and that gratefulness is personified is it is exemplified it is manifested within the actions that we do. And that is Allah Spano. tala is as something extremely, very minimal of us. And if I'm willing to just offer that very minimal offering to Allah subhanaw taala. Then what is the consequence of that? He will shower he will rain down his blessings upon us in this world. He will give us a life and an

existence that will be the envy of people for generations to come.

And at the same time, Allah subhanaw taala will give us such blessings in the afterlife that we can even imagine. Baraka love Milena, welcome flipper unraveling, in a funny way can be layer two ethical hacking a software ally Lee welcome when he said he didn't see me for Sofitel in the hallway.