OCTOBER 31
The Blessings of God
It was Allah who made the heavens and the earth, and sends down water from the sky with which He brings forth fruits for your sustenance. He drives the ships which, by His leave, sail the ocean in your service. He has created rivers for your benefit, and the sun and the moon, which steadfastly pursue their courses. And He has subdued for you the night and the day. He grants you all that you ask of Him. If you reckoned up Allah’s favours, you could not count them. Truly, man is wicked and thankless (14:32-34).
To an astonishing degree, the present world bears witness to the presence of God. His will is immanent in the abundant provision to man of earthly resources and in His gift to man of the capacity to harness those resources to the purposes of his daily living. God has given man power over the earth and water, over the rivers, seas and mountains. He has caused him to profit by the changes of the seasons, the alternation of night and day. Nature responds to man’s every need, providing in advance things of which we had no prior conception.
All these manifestations of God’s beneficence are so incredibly wonderful that they should leave man trembling in awe of God and cause him to enter into lifelong servitude of his Creator. Yet this does not happen. What is the reason? Why is it that the concept of the Creator of the Universe does not make every hair on a man’s body stand on end? The reason is that he has been observing the universe from his earliest childhood. Because it appears perpetual and unchanging, it strikes him as being a normal, familiar sight. He finds nothing unique or extraordinary in the universe, not even the motion of the stars and planets in the vast, outer reaches of space.
Moreover, when man finds or receives anything in this world, it comes to him shrouded in the veil of cause and effect. He therefore regards God’s bounty as stemming from his own efforts and capacities. That is why expressions of thankfulness do not come gushing from his lips for the Giver—God. This on the part of man, is the gravest kind of neglect. It is injustice coupled with ingratitude.
