Alhamdulillah Its Monday!

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“Gratitude cannot happen without the acknowledgement of ni’mah.” – Shaykh Ibrahim Osi Efa

And that line pretty much sums up the first part of the talk above given by Shaykh Ibrahim. He starts of by saying that the reality of salawaat is not just by saying “Allahumma solli ala Sayyidina Muhammad” but by the embodiment of the teachings of the Prophet SAW. He tells us that the Prophet SAW was a man who had great khauf (fear of Allah). Despite being someone who was involved in the everyday lives of his community, guiding, giving counsel and spending time with his family, he was always in remembrance and conscious of the Last Day.

Shaykh Ibrahim narrated a story where the Prophet SAW heard a loud explosion and he immediately asked Jibril AS, “Has Judgment Day arrived?”. As for people like us, the minute we hear an explosion, Judgment Day is the last thing on our minds. We would first think of car accidents, or a fallen tree, or whether our belongings are safe etc. Shaykh Ibrahim says that this attitude stems from the belief we have that we are immortal. Although we all know that we will taste death, the majority of us live our lives without thinking about our end, and death or Judgment Day is a distant reality.

He then went on to talk about gratitude and that was when he mentioned the quote above: “Gratitude cannot happen without the acknowledgement of ni’mah.” If we do not see our existence as ni’mah, we won’t show shukr for it. If we do not see our eyesight, hearing, taste, ability to move etc, as ni’mah, we will never say ‘Alhamdulillah’ for them. He then says,

“Know Allah in times of ease, and Allah will know you in times of difficulty.” – hadith of the Prophet Muhammad SAW.

Shaykh Ibrahim says that the act of shukr is not done when we are rendered immobile, deaf, mute or blind. It is not when something has been taken away from us that we start to be grateful for it. Gratitude is a constant act of acknowledging the endless ni’mah and constantly praising and thanking Allah for them.

On that note, we should start a ‘Gratitude List’ of blessings that we are thankful for. Know that if we have difficulty compiling a list, it is not because we do not have anything to be thankful for, but that we are not perceiving things in the manner that is expected of us. The Qu’ran says in 14:34, “And He gives you of all you ask of Him, and if you would count the bounty of Allah, never will you be able to number them. Verily, man is given up to injustice and ingratitude.”

Let us inculcate the characteristic of one who is grateful, and also be grateful to not only Allah, but the means to which blessings come to us, and that includes our family members, friends and the random stranger who performed an act of kindness. Indeed, being grateful can be practiced and embodied over time. May Allah make us of those who are grateful.

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