Small Thankfulness, Big Thankfulness

According to one tradition, the Prophet of Islam observed: “One who is not thankful for getting small things will not be thankful for getting greater things.” (Musnad Ahmad, Hadith No. 18449)

This hadith of the Prophet tells of a law of nature. The law of nature is that by remembering a lesser event, events of greater importance are recalled.

Psychological studies tell us that there are many separate files in the human mind. For instance, the file of love, the file of hate, the file of acknowledgement, the file of oppression, etc. Data about all those things which are part of one’s experience are constantly being filed away separately in the mind. When a person is impacted by some event, his mind is stimulated and the file on that subject is then immediately opened up and all the events of that nature get classified anew in the human mind.

This law of nature is of great importance in the matter of thankfulness and acknowledgement. For instance today you received a mobile, you spoke to someone some distance away, then you thought that earlier I was faced with such difficulty in making contact with someone who was far away, then with deep emotion, you thank God. At that point, your mind will be jogged. Then the file in the mind will be opened up in which all the items warranting thankfulness and acknowledgement that you have received throughout your entire life have been preserved. By this law of nature, it happens that even the small occasions for thankfulness become reminders of greater events when thankfulness was appropriate. In this way, smaller incidents of thankfulness become pointers to a greater degree of thankfulness, to the point where finally a spring of thankfulness overflows in a person’s heart. This feeling of gratitude increases our attachment with God and ultimately causes us to reach the highest levels of realization.