The Importance of Gratitude
The very first verse of the Quran reads: “All praise is due to God, the Lord of the Universe.” (1:2)
This verse shows the importance of gratitude. The truth is that of all the acts of Islam, gratitude is the only act which a person can perform in its highest ideal form. But for various reasons in other spheres such as worship, ethics, social dealings, and so on, man’s performance falls short of the ideal. The performance of the ‘worship’ of gratitude relates, however, to the heart and mind, and as such, it is possible for a person to perform it in its ideal form. In gratitude, he can offer all his best feelings, all his best thoughts to God. Such perfection can be expressed solely as a matter of gratitude.
What is gratitude? Gratitude is, in fact, another name for acknowledgement. What is called acknowledgement in human matters is called gratefulness in the matter of God. It is essential for every person to awaken his or her consciousness to such a high level that everything he or she possesses should be seen as God’s gift in the full sense. One may then in total gratitude utter the words: “Praise be to God.” With full consciousness of God’s blessings and mercy, one may utter the words: “Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds.”
This is true thanksgiving and there is no doubt about it that thanksgiving is the noblest form of worship.
In the present world, what is called life support system exists on a large scale. Here everything is created in such a way that in the total sense, it is favourable to a human being. The whole world is a custom-made world. Given this situation, when a person is free to live in this world, and utilize its resources, he should be filled with feelings of gratefulness and acknowledgement: a person, it should be borne in mind, has received all the precious things of this world free of cost.
True thankfulness is the price we have to pay for all these things. Those who do not pay this price are like usurpers in this world. Living in this world without this feeling of gratefulness is an unpardonable sin, for both men and women.
