AN ISLAMIC THANKSGIVING
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Then do ye remember Me; I will remember you. Be grateful to Me and reject not Faith. (Quran 2:152)
And remember! Your Lord caused to be declared (publicly):
"If ye are grateful, I will add more (favors) unto you; but if ye show
ingratitude, truly My punishment is terrible indeed." (Quran 14:7)
We bestowed Wisdom on Luqman: "Show (thy) gratitude to
Allah." Any who is (so) grateful does so to the profit of his own soul;
but if any is ungrateful, verily Allah is free of all wants, worthy of all
praise. (Quran 31:12)
The National Day of Thanksgiving in America is a beautiful
holiday. It contains a good spirit and noble message. It is not a holiday of
any particular religion. It is not a Christian or Jewish holiday but it has
many deeply religious and spiritual meanings. America at thanksgiving is
America at its best. It is unfortunate that like many other moral and spiritual
things this holiday is also turned nowadays into too much indulgence and commercialism.
It is important that we remember and remind others about the spirit of
thanksgiving.
The Quranic word for thanks is "shukr." It is
mentioned in the Quran many times. It is the quality of human beings and it is
also the quality of Allah. According to scholars Shukr means: "It is the
consideration of the favor and its acknowledgment. Shukr from the human means
the recognition of the favor. Shukr from Allah means the reward and
appreciation."
Shukr is a very important principle in Islam. It is a quality
of the believers and it is a source of all goodness. Shukr is used in the Quran
sometimes as equivalent to faith. The faithful are thankful people and the
unfaithful are ungrateful people. Allah has described His Prophets and
Messengers among those who were thankful people. Prophet Noah was a grateful
servant of Allah (Quran 17:3). Prophet Abraham used to thank Allah for His many
blessings (Quran 16:121). Prophet David and his family were told to be grateful
to Allah (Quran 34:13). Allah told His Prophet Muhammad: Nay, but worship
Allah, and be of those who give thanks. (Quran 39:66)
Allah also promised:
Nor can a soul die except by Allah's leave, the term being fixed as by
writing. If any do desire a reward in this life, We shall give it to him; and if
any do desire a reward in the Hereafter, We shall give it to him. And swiftly
shall We reward those that who are thankful. (Quran 3:145)
In Islam thanksgiving is not only a particular religious act
or service; it is the whole life. The whole life should be lived in obedience
to our Ultimate Benefactor, Allah . God has been good to us and so in our
thankfulness we should worship Him, obey His commands and orders. Our daily
prayers, our fasting during Ramadan, our Zakat and Hajj are all our acts of
thanksgiving. We should do them not only as duties that must be performed but
as our gratitude to our Lord and Creator.
Furthermore we should remind ourselves that we are
constantly under Allah's favors and blessings.
There are many special prayers that the Prophet taught us to
keep us on the path of gratitude and thankfulness.
When we eat, he told us that we should say: When the
Prophet used to eat or drink, he used to
say, "Thanks be to Allah Who gave us food and drink and made us
Muslims." (Al-Tirmidhi 3379)
Whenever the Prophet
put on any new dress, he would say its name 'Amamah or shirt or shawl,
then he would say, "O Allah, Thanks be to You, You gave me this to wear. I
ask You to give me the good of this dress and the good for which it is made and
I ask You to protect me from the evil of this dress and from the evil of that
for which it is made." (Al-Tirmidhi 1689)
When the Prophet used
to mount his camel going on a journey he used to say Allah Akbar (God is the
greatest) three times and then he would say, "Glory to Him Who has
subjected these to our (use), for we could never have accomplished this (by
ourselves). And to our Lord, surely, must we turn back!" (Quran 43:13) O
Allah, we ask you this journey righteousness and piety and the deeds that are
pleasing to you. O Allah, make this journey easy for us and shorten its
distance. O Allah, You are the Companion in journey and You are the Guardian
for the family (left behind). O Allah, We ask you to protect us from the
exhaustion of journey, from bad scenes and from bad return to our property and
family." When he used to return he used to say, "Returning,
repenting, worshiping and praising our Lord." (Muslim 2392)
Islam does not only teach us to thank Allah, but we are also
told to thank our parents, our spouses, our friends, neighbors and all those
who do any good to us. The Prophet said:
"Those who do not thank people, they do not thank Allah."
(Al-Tirmidhi 1878)
Dr. Muzammil H. Siddiqi, vice chair of the Fiqh Council of
North America and member of ISNA Shura Council, is director of The Islamic
Society of Orange County, Garden Grove, California. He is an adjunct professor
of Islamic Studies and Comparative Religion at California State, Fullerton and
Chapman universities.
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