Shukr
Reflections on gratitude
Understanding gratitude
Shukr - which can be loosely translated to mean gratitude, is so much more than just being thankful, appreciative, or grateful.
Gratitude is more than just hamd (praise) on your tongue, that Muslims utter every day - Alhamdullilah: all praise and gratitude belongs to Allah.
For gratitude to really have an impact on our lives, it needs to be manifested in our limbs, taking root in our heart, to the point where we are living a life of gratitude.
Where we show that we are grateful for the blessings that God has bestowed upon us.
Gratitude is a way of life, a state of being, and it is a choice that we make every single day.
With each day that we’re blessed with, we get to choose to adopt a mindset of gratitude, and that no matter what happens throughout the day, we choose to see the blessing in each situation, the silver lining of each circumstance.
Gratitude is a muscle, that needs to be worked on and strengthened.
You can’t just expect that you’ll be grateful all the time. When life hits you with a ton of bricks, your ability to be grateful will be seriously tested. (I’m speaking from experience).
And so gratitude is something that we need to develop, time and time again.
Gratitude must be reflected in how we live our daily lives.
How do we show our gratitude to God, aside from thanking Him?
By doing what He commands
By staying away from what He forbids
By using the gifts He’s given us in the way He has designed them to be - how we think, how we speak, how we move and show up in this world
This excerpt from a Yaqeen paper beautifully summarized everything I mentioned above:
“Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1350) explained that shukr manifests in the heart’s recognition and love for Allah as the ultimate benefactor of all blessings. It is expressed on the tongue as the believer’s remembrance, acknowledgement, praise, and thankfulness to Allah for His countless blessings, including those of guidance, provision, and the capability to obey and worship Him. Additionally, the believer’s physical faculties express shukr through their adherence to the commands of Allah and compliance with His prohibitions.”
Hitting close to home
Like I wrote in my Tawakkul post in November, it’s easy to say you understand a concept, until you’re tested with what you claimed to understand.
How do you maintain gratitude in times of adversity?
When we are tested, we come to terms with our true character and our relationship with God. During trials, do we still remain grateful, do we exercise patience, do we rely on Him alone?
And when the hardship is lifted, what is our relationship with Him like?
Do we express gratitude? Or do we fall back to our old ways and habits? In a way being ungrateful for His blessings and the lessons He’s trying to teach us.
I had to come to terms with these very same questions in 2024.
Last year, I had multiple lessons in gratitude that I was forced to take, that I was reminded about, because it’s so easy to forget, when everything goes dark.
The 2nd half of 2024 was drastically different from the 1st half, but in this life there is joy and there is pain. There is light and there is darkness, and more often than not, there is light in the darkness.
During this period of time, all that I had ever written about gratitude was like a warm hug, in a time I needed it most. It was like Allah was preparing my heart for this moment.
My own words were a source of comfort, but the Writer of all writers, Allah SWT comforted me through His own words.
Everywhere I would turn, in a social media post or video, a friend I would talk to, in a book I would read, in His magnificent book, the Holy Quran, in a podcast I would listen to, His words were always there, His presence always present.
In every instance, every dark turn of this chapter, I was being comforted, often without even realizing it, or truly appreciating it. Allah was there for me always, getting me through every moment, every struggle, every worry, every sleepless night, every distraught phone call.
It was so easy, too easy to allow myself to get lost in the dark, to allow myself to not navigate to the light switch that was there, to seek out the stars up above, to lift my head and look up at the light shining down on me.
It was too easy to let those dark moments overshadow all the good that happened in the 1st half of the year. Even within the 2nd half, there was still good happening, even within the hardship, there were moments of ease.
I had graduated that same year, was awarded with a scholarship that I didn’t even apply for, I started working at a Muslim charity just a few days after my graduation. I sold signed copies of my poetry book in-person, and I was a guest speaker on a podcast, just to name a few successes.
Yet with all of this, it was so hard to see the beauty in the struggle, to have faith and not fear, to see the wisdom in my story.
Now looking back, I realize how important it was to see the ease in the hardship, because it was the only way to see past the pain, to function past the hurt.
If I had constantly practised gratitude, if I didn’t take for granted the blessings in my life, the ease in the hardship would’ve become apparent to me.
Allah has been so Merciful, so Kind. When things seemed so out of control, He SWT was in control the entire time. The way my Rabb poetically wrote every single chapter of last year, for it to play out the way it did, in a way I can never envision, only He SWT is capable of such, Alhamdullilah.
Placing my trust and reliance on Him, and showing gratitude to Him in all circumstances, only brought me peace during that difficult time.
So being grateful in what we perceive to be negative circumstances can carry us through any test and trial that we face.
A duaa I often come back to during difficult moments:
Alhamdullilah ala kulli haal - all praise is due to Allah in all circumstances.
In the good and the ‘bad’, He is worthy of our praise and worship.
This duaa also reminds me of the following Hadith:
“Abu Yahya Suhaib bin Sinan (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, ‘How wonderful is the case of a believer; there is good for him in everything and this applies only to a believer. If prosperity attends him, he expresses gratitude to Allah and that is good for him; and if adversity befalls him, he endures it patiently and that is better for him’”. (Riyad as-Salihin)
Benefits of gratitude
God isn’t in need of our gratitude, we are the only ones who serve to benefit and gain from being grateful, for He is Al-Ghani, The Self-Sufficient.
“Indeed, We blessed Luqman with wisdom, saying ‘Be grateful to God, for whoever is grateful, it is only for their own good. And whoever is ungrateful, then surely God is Self-Sufficient, Praiseworthy’”. (31:12)
Undoubtedly, being grateful has many benefits, I’ll list a few down below:
Being grateful leads to contentment and peace of mind
When you’re grateful, you focus on what you have, and you’re more at peace, knowing that you’ve been blessed with so much, and this leads to you feeling more content with what you have.
Gratitude has numerous psychological and physical benefits1
Gratitude can improve our moods, fostering positivity and optimism.
It can boost our immune system. (I was surprised by this one but it makes sense, everything in our body is connected, our psychologial state can have a signficant impact on our physical bodies).
It can help us to manage stress and lower our blood pressure - when you’re more grateful, you’re often not as stressed out by things that could increase your blood pressure.
Gratitude gives you perspective
Gratitude inspires a certain perspective and outlook on life. We come to realize that our circustmances aren’t as bad as we make it out to be - because it could be worse and there’s always someone going through worse. And we honestly don’t need to look too far to see this, even within our own families, and communities, someone has been dealt with more difficult cards than you. And when you’re grateful, you’re able to have this perspective.
Gratitude is a shield for trials
Practising gratitude builds your capability to better handle stress and trials.
Being grateful will make the test more easier to bear - and I learnt this in 2024; gratitude is an anchor I’ll be holding onto for any future trials.
Practising gratitude unlocks the door to so many other positive traits and characteristics.
Tawakkul
When you’re grateful, you’re more trusting of God, your tawakkul is strengthened because when you call upon Him, you’ve recognized that He’s given you before, and so you know that He will give you again. (Read more on Tawakkul here).
Reviewing all of the duaas that have been answered will encourage you to make more duaas, with certainty that they’ll be answered once again.
Rizq
Gratitude opens the door to rizq (provision)
Allah tells us in the Quran: “if you are grateful, I will surely increase you in favor. But if you deny, indeed, My punishment is severe.” (14:7)
We have so much more to gain when we’re grateful vs when we’re not.
The more you’re grateful, the more blessings you see in your life, which leads to you expressing gratitude, and then you’re given more for doing so, which you express gratitude for, and then you’re given more. It’s literally a never ending cyle.
Nurturing gratitude
Okay so we know gratitude is important, we understand the necessity of incorporating into our routine, but how do we actually nurture and cultivate gratitude? What can this look like in our daily lives?
Tafakkur (deep reflection)
Constantly reflecting on the creation of God, to the sky up above to the sea down below, to the beating of your heart, to the blood flowing through our body, to the intricacies of our vision, down to the very fingers we have and the unique fingerprints, and how every single detail was intentional by Allah - we shouldn’t take any of His blessings for granted, nor become comfortable with witnessing these blessings every day and not understanding the gravity of what we have.
I don’t even have to step outside of my house before I can find things to be grateful for. The very aspect of having a home, not to talk of everything within it, is a huge blessing. In these cold winter months, having a warm home to seek refuge in is an incredible gift from God that we must be grateful for.
Like the gravity and blessing of being able to see, being able to hear, being able to breathe, being able to walk. We often perceive these to be small blessings, but they aren’t actually so small when we think about it. Every single blessing that we have is monumental.
Try counting your blessings and keeping stock of them
You’d run out of numbers before you could even enumerate how much you’ve been given. Our blessings are literally immeasurable, numbers are not sufficient to quantify their importance.
Don’t look above, look below
Reflect on those who are less fortunate than you, and be grateful for what you have been given and how much Allah has favoured you. This doesn’t mean you need to look down upon others or think you’re better just because you have more, but rather it’s a good exercise to practise gratitude, when you see how much you’ve been given, in comparison to others.
When I traveled to South Africa for the volunteer abroad trip with Inspire, gratitude was a re-occurring theme throughout the trip, and it was felt in the hearts of all the volunteers. How blessed and privileged we truly were to travel and serve the community, we had done nothing to deserve Allah’s favours upon us, and yet He still gave us so much, and somehow we are still ungrateful.
Limit complaining
I am guilty of this, it’s a bad habit that we often engage in, sometimes unconsciously, without even knowing that we’re doing it.
We complain about minor inconveniences. One of mine that comes to mind is the laundry machine in our house - it’s a coin machine (I was surprised these still existed).
I’d often find myself complaining about the machine and having to visit the bank to take out coins to do my laundry, and then I came across a video of a Palestinian man in Gaza who was struggling with not being able to wash his clothes and his children’s. And so he built a washing machine out of the limited materials he had.
I saw this video and was like I will literally never complain about my ancient coin washing machine anymore, because wow.
Seeing how he made the most of the little that he had, while I was here complaining about a machine that actually works, made me feel so ashamed. I genuinely believe God put that video in my feed for me to limit my complaints over first world problems.
The more we complain, the more we don’t recognize the blessings inherent in our lives. And so the less we complain, the more grateful we will be.
Now this doesn’t mean we need to suppress our emotions, or we can’t desire for better things, but it’s just how we go about expressing those emotions and desires, while remaining grateful for what we already have.
Practise contentment
Being content with the blessings you’ve been given, will help to increase your gratitude.
This doesn’t mean we can’t ask Allah for more, but while we patiently wait for His response, we are content with what we have, and we show gratitude for it.
Looking above you to see what others have makes it hard to be grateful, because you’d never be content with what you have, you’d always want more and more, and it would never end, because you’d never be satisfied.
Having more isn’t always good, it can be a trial for you. How would you respond to having more? How will you use the blessings you’ve been given? In the Holy Quran, we are told of countless stories of wealthy people who amassed wealth, but always to their own detriment, because of how they used it, and how they perceived their status because of their wealth.
In the Quran, there’s the story of the man with 2 gardens, and it’s such an important story on gratitude and recognizing your blessings and the source of those blessings. The man with the 2 gardens attributed the success of his gardens to himself and his efforts, instead of being grateful, and recognizing who had blessed him with the gardens, he became arrogant and self-entitled, and in the end his garden was destroyed. So more ≠ good.
Using your blessings in a good way
Using the blessings God has given you to be a blessing for others, being of service to them - not in a way that makes you feel self-righteous, but rather doing it for the sake of God, seeking His pleasure and reward, will help to foster a mindset of gratitude.
Ingratitude
Gratitude is mentioned so much in the Quran. When writing this post, I tried to find an exact number and the result showed that its even hard to quantify it, because gratitude is interwoven throughout the Quran, and is connected to several themes, that it’s hard to even single it out, proving how important gratitude is.
Without maintaining a constant practice of gratitude, it can lead to dangerous paths, one of them being ingratitude.
Ingratitude is more than just being ungrateful, it is deeply connected to denying God’s favours, and in one of my favourite chapters of the Quran, Surah Rahman, Allah asks this reccuring question: “which of the favours of your Lord can you deny?”
The whole theme of this surah is about God’s mercy, and all the favours He’s bestowed upon mankind from the beginning till the end of time. Anytime I read this surah, I’m reminded of how many blessings we have been given, and why we shouldn’t take any for granted or deny any of God’s favours, as this is the highest form of ingratitude.
Using the blessings Allah has given us in an unbecoming way is also ingratitude. Whether the impact of that disobedience is reflected only in our lives or it extends to others, regardless it is to our own detriment.
Ingratitude can lead to kufr (disbelief) - in fact, the term kufr linguistically refers to both ingratitude and rejection2.
At first glance this connection may seem so extreme, (being ungrateful = disbelief??)
But when you sit down to deep it, it makes a lot of sense.
The more ungrateful you are, the less you see and believe in God’s bounties and favours in your life, and the more you become distant from Him, and the less you believe in Him and the role He plays in your life, eventually leading down the path of disbelief.
Ingratitude is something we should seek protection from. We should pray to never get to a point where we don’t see the blessings in our lives, as that is such a scary state to be in.
…
Whew.
I know, that was a lot.
But I hope it was insightful.
I’ll leave you with one final reminder:
Appreciate what you have and don’t hyper focus on what you don’t have.
We have been given so much, if we reflect and express our gratitude to God for what He’s blessed us with, it will take us so so far, as He has promised to give us more.
…
Until next time, I leave you in the care of God, Fi Amanillah (may God protect you).
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/why_gratitude_is_good
https://yaqeeninstitute.ca/read/paper/the-divine-gift-of-gratitude-the-secret-of-happiness-in-the-modern-world