In Sunan Al-Tirmidhi, there is a hadith in these words (مَنْ لَمْ يَشْكُرِ النَّاسَ، لَمْ يَشْكُرِ اللهَ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ): "He who does not thank people, does not thank God" (Sunan al-Tirmidhi 1955) I have been contemplating what this means for a long time.It means that a person who lives in ingratitude towards people, constantly complaining, harboring hatred, anger, and ingratitude, will develop a negative personality. Apparently, you will make your personality negative in relation to people, but it will extend to God. So what will happen is that ingratitude will become your obsession. Complaints, ingratitude, and negative thinking will become your obsession. This obsession blinds you to the blessings that God has bestowed upon you. For example, yesterday, I received a Muslim magazine, a thick issue filled with complaints: complaints about the government, political parties, and the majority community. Nowhere in this bulky issue is there any mention of gratitude to God. Why? You see, it is human psychology that whatever becomes your obsession blinds you to other things, thereby preventing you from understanding them. You live in an obsession with ingratitude and hatred, believing that conspiracies are being plotted against you. This obsession will make you unaware of other things and blind you to them. So this hadith مَنْ لَمْ يَشْكُرِ النَّاسَ، لَمْ يَشْكُرِ اللهَ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ ((Sunan al-Tirmidhi 1955) means that a person who falls into ingratitude towards people will inevitably lose gratitude towards God. He cannot be grateful to God. This is why we are taught to exercise patience with people. Be patient with their actions, words, conspiracies, plans, and discrimination. Place all these issues into the realm of patience. Why? So that you may remain grateful to God. If you do not practice patience in the face of human atrocities, apparent conspiracies, and oppression, you will have to pay a heavy price. That is you will no longer be capable of being grateful to God. You will lose the ability to be grateful to Him.