Negativity is part of life. It is part of society. Wherever you live in the world, you will definitely face negative experiences. How will you then preserve the sentiment of shukr or gratitude? This will remain preserved if you convert negativity into positivity. You should have the capacity to convert negativity into positivity. There is no other option. If you think that you will be grateful only when everything is positive, then you will never be thankful and you will die in this state. You will never be able to have everything positive for yourself. When prophets didn’t have all positive experiences, how can you have? To live with the spirit of shukr, you need the capacity to convert negativity into positivity, just as the cow converts grass into milk. You should not allow erosion of shukr in any situation. You should not tolerate erosion of the spirit of gratitude. I can't afford the erosion of my shukr spirit.
I once began to think about the gist of the Quran. I thought for several days, read a lot and in the end realized that the first sentence of the Quran is its gist. الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ (1:2) Thanks be to God who is the Lord of all the worlds. This is shukr, or thanksgiving. You should live with the spirit of shukr or thanksgiving. This is the gist of religion, Islam and the Quran. How will you live with the spirit of shukr when every moment you get negative thought in this world? In this world even a prophet cannot save himself from negative experiences.
Negativity is part of life. It is part of society. Wherever you live in the world, you will definitely face negative experiences. How will you then preserve the sentiment of shukr or gratitude? This will remain preserved if you convert negativity into positivity. You should have the capacity to convert negativity into positivity. There is no other option. If you think that you will be grateful only when everything is positive, then you will never be thankful and you will die in this state. You will never be able to have everything positive for yourself. When prophets didn’t have all positive experiences, how can you have? To live with the spirit of shukr, you need the capacity to convert negativity into positivity, just as the cow converts grass into milk. You should not allow erosion of shukr in any situation. You should not tolerate erosion of the spirit of gratitude. I can't afford the erosion of my shukr spirit.
When you do this, you will give a new direction to your thinking. You will give a positive direction to your thinking. Extract positivity from everything. Extract positivity from negativity just as the cow extracts milk from grass. You need to develop this spirit. From any situation, however negative it be, you can extract positivity.