Khutba on Gratitude and Thanks
الحَمْدُ للهِ، الحَمْدُ للهِ دائِمِ الفَضْلِ والإِحسان، الذي يستحِقُّ أن يُشكَرَ في القلبِ والجوارحِ وعلى اللِّسان، وأن يُحْمَدَ في وَقتِ الفَرَحِ وفي وقتِ الِامتِحان، نَحْمَدُهُ تعالى ونستعينه، ونشكره تعالى ونستغفره ونستغيثه، نعوذ بالله من شرور أنفسنا ومن سيئات أعمالنا، مَنْ يَهْدِ اللهُ فلا مضل له، ومَنْ يُضلِلْ فَلاَ هَادِيَ لَهُ، ونَشْهَدُ أَنْ لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللهُ وَحْدَهُ لاَ شَرِيكَ لَهُ، له الملك وله الحمد، يحيي ويميت، بيده الخير، وهو على كل شيء قدير، ونشْهَدُ أَنَّ سَيِّدَنَا ومولانا مُحَمَّداً عَبْدُه وَرَسُولُهُ، وحبيبه وصفيه، بلغ الرسالة وأدّى الأمانة ونصح الأمّة، النبي الأمي الذي أرسله الله بالهدى والدين الحقّ، بشيرا ونذيرا بين يدي الساعة، صلى الله عليه وسلم وعَلَى آلِهِ وأَصْحابِهِ ومَنْ تَبِعَهم بإِحْسانٍ إِلَى يَوْمِ الدِّيْنِ. أَمَّا بَعْدُ، فَيَا عِبَادَ اللهِ اتقوا الله حق تقاته ولا تموتن إلا وأنتم مسلمون، يا أيها الذين آمنوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَقُولُوا قَوْلًا سَدِيدًا، يُصْلِحْ لَكُم أَعْمَالَكُمْ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ وَمَنْ يُطِعِ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ فَقَدْ فَازَ فَوْزًا عَظِيمًا، يا أيها المسلمون اتقوا الله فيما أوصى وأمر، وانتهوا عما نها عنه وزجر.
Open your eyes and look around you. Reflect on where you are and reflect on what you have. And the truth will dawn on you. We are extraordinarily privileged and blessed. We have been given so much – gift after gift has come our way. And we continue to be showered with gifts in every moment of every day. They come to us in a non-stop flow, never ending and never ceasing. There is food to eat, clothes to cover our nakedness and protect us from the elements, roofs over our heads, friends and companions to assuage our loneliness, light to see, darkness to help us rest and sleep, air to breathe and children to fill our hearts with delight. Each gift more wonderful than the next. And they all come from a single source, from the One who created us. Everything that we have, whether it be within our selves or in the world about us comes from Him. The blessings are too many to count. Allah says,
وَإِنْ تَعُدُّوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ لَا تُحْصُوهَا
the translation of which is, “If you tried to number Allah’s blessings, you could never count them.” They come from all sides, from where we expect and where we do not, asked for and unasked for, blessings of which we are aware and blessings of which we are not. Allah says,
وَاللَّهُ أَخْرَجَكُمْ مِنْ بُطُونِ أُمَّهَاتِكُمْ لا تَعْلَمُونَ شَيْئًا وَجَعَلَ لَكُمُ السَّمْعَ وَالأَبْصَارَ وَالأَفْئِدَةَ
the translation of which is, “Allah brought you out of your mothers’ wombs knowing nothing at all, and gave you hearing, sight and hearts” And He says,
وَمِن رَّحْمَتِهِ جَعَلَ لَكُمُ اللَّيْلَ وَالنَّهَارَ لِتَسْكُنُوا فِيهِ وَلِتَبْتَغُوا مِن فَضْلِهِ
the translation of which is, “Part of His mercy is that He has made both night and day for you so that you can have your rest and seek His bounty,” And He says,
وَهُوَ الَّذِي سَخَّرَ الْبَحْرَ لِتَأْكُلُواْ مِنْهُ لَحْمًا طَرِيًّا وَتَسْتَخْرِجُواْ مِنْهُ حِلْيَةً تَلْبَسُونَهَا وَتَرَى الْفُلْكَ مَوَاخِرَ فِيهِ وَلِتَبْتَغُواْ مِن فَضْلِهِ
the translation of which is, “It is He who made the sea subservient to you so that you can eat fresh flesh from it and bring out from it ornaments to wear. And you see the ships cleaving through it so that you can seek His bounty, ” What does Allah want in return for all these wonders? Nothing except for our shukr, as is indicated in the words with which all of the above ayas conclude,
لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ
the translation of which is, “So that perhaps you might show thanks.” Each and every one of these blessings merits our thankfulness in their own right, let alone the fact that most of us are given them all. Take sight, the capacity to witness the incredible beauty of Allah’s creation – what an extraordinary gift, or feet, without which we would find it very difficult to get around, or hands, without which we would find it difficult to get any menial task done. And yet these are not even close to the most extraordinary gifts that you, you who sit here today in this mosque, have been given. There is a story that is narrated by the men of Allah of a blind man who had lost both his hands and his feet. One day, a man came to see him and found him sitting there, thanking Allah out loud for all his tremendous blessings, saying,
الحمد الله الذي عافاني مما ابتلى به غيري، وفضَّلني على كثير ممن خلق تفضيلا
“Praise be to Allah who cured me of that with which many are tried, and preferred me so much over so many of His creation.” The man, seeing his circumstances, was astonished by these words, and so felt compelled to ask him, “What exactly are you praising and thanking your Lord for?” The man replied, “I thank Allah for giving me a tongue that remembers Him, a heart that is humble before Him and a body that is able to bear its trials with patience and fortitude.”
The gift of imaan, belief in Allah and His Messenger, is beyond compare. If it was the only blessing we received, we could have no complaints, we could have no cause to feel disappointed or hard done by. It is enough on its own to merit us spending every moment of our lives expressing our thanks to the One who gave it to us.
الحمد لله على نعمة الإسلام وكفى بها نعمة
“Praise be to Allah for the blessing of Islam, it is enough of a blessing.” This gift of Islam has been offered to everybody who has ever lived. Allah sent reminder after reminder, Messenger after Messenger, Prophet after Prophet, culminating in the greatest of all His blessings, the rahmatun lil-‘alamin and the seal of the Prophets. Everyone is granted the opportunity to partake in this blessing and be part of the greatest umma ever set forth on this earth, but not everyone accepts. And it is a lack of shukr that causes them to reject. They feel that what they have is theirs by right, that it is their due and they are owed it. If they do believe in a Creator, they believe in a quid pro quo relationship, where He needs our worship and owes them payment for their services and devotions. They do not know that He has no need of us whatsoever and all that He gives is from His fadl. Allah says,
إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَذُو فَضْلٍ عَلَى النَّاسِ وَلَكِنَّ أَكْثَرَهُمْ لَا يَشْكُرُونَ
the translation of which is, “Allah shows fadl/favour to mankind but most of them are not thankful.” And Allah says:
وَلَئِنْ أَذَقْنَا الْإِنْسَانَ مِنَّا رَحْمَةً ثُمَّ نَزَعْنَاهَا مِنْهُ إِنَّهُ لَيَئُوسٌ كَفُورٌ، وَلَئِنْ أَذَقْنَاهُ نَعْمَاءَ بَعْدَ ضَرَّاءَ مَسَّتْهُ لَيَقُولَنَّ ذَهَبَ السَّيِّئَاتُ عَنِّي إِنَّهُ لَفَرِحٌ فَخُورٌ
the translation of which is, “If We let man taste mercy from Us, and then take it away from him, he is despairing, ungrateful; but if We let him taste blessings after hardship has afflicted him, he says, ‘My troubles have gone away,’ and he is overjoyed, boastful.” When things are going well in his worldly affairs, he thinks it is all down to him and his own efforts: “My skills and my work go me where I am today” you so often hear. And because of that, when any of that is taken away and misfortune falls, they feel great resentment and feel misused and maltreated by existence. How often do you hear someone say when they lose a child or have their house repossessed, “What sort of God would do such a thing. I have devoted my whole life to Him and this is how He treats me.” Such is the response of the ungrateful, those who think they have rights over their Creator. When one gift is taken away, they forget about the myriad other gifts that are constantly and unceasingly coming their way, and when one gift is given to them, they boast that it is due entirely to their own skills and prowess. They fall into the same trap as Qarun and his ilk, for that is exactly what he said about the tremendous wealth he had been granted,
إِنَّمَا أُوتِيتُهُ عَلَى عِلْمٍ عِنْدِي
the translation of which is, “I have only been given it because of knowledge I have.” And we all know what happened to him – the earth swallowed him up. This vaunted knowledge he thought he possessed, and all of that vast wealth, availed him naught. But if he had had even a small modicum of thankfulness in his being he could and would have been saved. Everything that happens to us happens by the Decree of Allah. And whether it is of long term benefit to us or harm is something that only He can see, no matter how it appears on the surface. The hardest trial can be the cause of the greatest good for us, while the most sumptuous blessing can be the very opposite. So we bow down to His knowledge and His wisdom and remain constant in our thanks, knowing that if we always do that, our affair will be one that is constantly in increase and never in decrease, For does our Lord not say,
وَلَإِن شَكَرْتُمْ لَأَزِيدَنَّكُم
the translation of which is, “If you are thankful, I will increase you.”
أقول قولي هذا وأستغفر الله لي ولكم ولسائر المسلمين من كل ذنب فاستغفروه إنه هو الغفور الرَّحيم
الحمد لله الحمد لله رب العالمين كما ينبغي لجلالِ وجهِهِ وعظيمِ سُلطانِه، أشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له وأشهد أن محمداً عبده ورسوله، صلى الله وسلم وبارك عليه وعلى آله وصحبه، والتابعين وتابعي التابعين ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين.
أما بعد! فيأيها الذين ءامنوا اتقوا الله ما استطعتم واسمعوا وأطيعوا وأنفقوا خيرا لأنفسكم. يا عباد الله أوصيكم وإياي بتقوى الله وطاعته وأحذركم وإياي عن معصيته ومخالفته
Shukr is the quality that every human being must have if he wants to get anything out of his time on this planet. Without it, we have nothing but misery and misguidance. So important is to our success and well-being that the enemy of mankind, Shaytan, makes it one of his primary missions to put a stop to it. In surat al-A’raf, Allah quotes Shaytan as saying,
ثُمَّ لَآتِيَنَّهُمْ مِنْ بَيْنِ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمِنْ خَلْفِهِمْ وَعَنْ أَيْمَانِهِمْ وَعَنْ شَمَائِلِهِمْ وَلَا تَجِدُ أَكْثَرَهُمْ شَاكِرِينَ
“Then I will come at them, from in front of them and behind them, from their right and from their left, and you will not find most of them thankful.” He will use whatever means at his disposal to stop us from having shukr and showing shukr. For those who have shukr are not susceptible to his wiles. They see right through him. They are the select few. Allah says,
وقليل من عبادي الشكور
the translation of which is, “Few of my slaves are truly thankful.” They are the ones whom the entire world serves and who ride the dunya to their goals. They do not carry it, it does not weigh down heavily upon them, worry after worry, stress after stress, but it carries them. They are the elect of Allah, granted the keys to this world and the Next. They are the shakirin, the people of shukr.
But what is this shukr? How does one show thanks? At its essence, shukr is acknowledging the blessings you receive and acknowledging where they come from with complete love and humility. This shukr manifests itself in the heart, on the tongue and upon the limbs.
In the heart, it manifests itself as complete certainty that everything you are and everything you have and everything that you will ever have is from Allah. It is narrated that Musa asked Allah, "How was Adam able to thank You for the incredible blessings You bestowed upon him, for You created him with Your own hands, blew the ruh into him directly, made the angels bow down to him and taught him the names of everything." Allah replied,
علِمَ أنّ ذلك منّي، فكَانت معرفتُهُ بِذلك شُكرا
“He knew that those things were from Me. And the fact that he knew that was his shukr.” This knowledge implies love of Allah, for it is an automatic reflex to feel love for those who do you good, and the greatest love for those who do you the greatest good. Qadi Iyad says in the Shifa, “The self is naturally disposed to love that which is good to it.”
On the tongue, shukr manifests itself as making mention of the blessing and praising and thanking the one who gave it to you.
As for the first of these, Allah says,
وَأَمَّا بِنِعْمَةِ رَبِّكَ فَحَدِّثْ
the translation of which is, “And as for the blessing of your Lord, speak out!” And the Prophet said,
التَحَدُّثُ بِنِعْمَةِ اللهِ شُكر
“Speaking about the blessings of Allah is shukr.” Speaking about Islam, speaking about the life and qualities of the Messenger of Allah, speaking of the awliya, speaking about the good things your Lord has granted you, all that is shukr. And if done correctly, it is not boasting, simply joy and delight.
And as for the second, the best way of doing that is simply to say alhamdulillah at every possible juncture, for that is the best way of expressing your thanks to Allah. The Prophet said,
ما أَنعمَ اللهُ عَلى عَبدٍ مِن نعمةٍ صغُرَتْ أَو كبُرتْ فقال الحمدُ لِلهِ إِلا كَان قد أُعطِيَ أفضلَ مِمَّا أَخَذَ
“There is no slave who says alhamdulillah upon receiving a blessing from Allah, large or small, except that Allah grants that slave another blessing better than the one he received.” This is with regard to thanking Allah, but it is also important to never forget to thank the means by which that blessing reached you. In other words, people, such as doctors when they treat you or parents and friends when they feed you. Just as they are the means for that blessing from Allah reaching you, they are also the means for your thanks reaching Allah. The Prophet said,
ومن لا يشكر الناس لا يشكر الله
“The one who has not thanked people has not thanked Allah.”
Finally, upon the limbs, shukr manifests itself in obedience to Allah and service of Him. For the people of shukr, worship of Allah is not just something they choose to do, it is something they need to do. The best example of this is our own Messenger who was forgiven all past and all future wrong actions, and yet still used to spend a large portion of the night in prayer and istighfaar. When Aisha asked him why he did that, he replied,
أفلا أكون عبدا شكورا
“Should I not be a grateful slave?” We ask Allah to make us all His grateful slaves. We ask Allah to grant us tongues which are always wet with His praise and thanks, hearts which are always filled with gratitude and contentment, and limbs which move only out of obedience to Him. We ask Allah to enable us to see His hand in everything and grant us the shukr of the anbiya and mursalin, and awliya and salihin.
إِنَّ اللهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ، يَا أَيُهَا الذِينَ آمَنُواْ صَلُّواْ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلِّمُواْ تَسْلِيماً.
اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ وَسَلِّمْ وَبَارِكْ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ. وَارْضَ اللَّهُمَّ عَنِ الْخُلَفَاءِ الرَّاشِدِينَ أَبِي بَكْرٍ وَعُمَرَ وَعُثْمَانَ وَعَلِيٍّ، وعن أم المومنين عائشة التي أمرنا الله في سورة النور أن ندافع عنها، وَعَنْ سَائِرِ الصَّحَابَةِ أَجْمَعِينَ، خُصُوصاً اِلأَنْصَارَ مِنْهُمْ وَالمُهَاجِرِينَ، وَعَنِ التَّابِعِينَ وَتَابِعِي التَّابِعِينَ وَمَنْ تَبِعَهُمْ بِإِحْسَانٍ إِلَى يَوْمِ الدِّينِ.
اللَّهُمَّ اهْدِ وُلَاةَ أُمُورِ المُسْلِمِينَ لِمَا يُرْضِيكَ وَلِاتِّبَاعِ سُنَّةِ نَبِيِّكَ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ، وَثَبِّتْ أَقْدَامَهُمْ عَلَى الصِّرَاطِ المُسْتَقِيمِ، وَأَصْلِحْهُمْ يَا رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ.
اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ عَلَى شَيْخِنَا، وَعَلَى أَمِيرِنَا، وَعَلَى جَمِيعِ أُمَرَاءِ وَزُعَمَاءِ المُسْلِمِينَ.
اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ عَلَى المُسْلِمِينَ فِي هَذِهِ المَدِينَةِ، وَوَفِّقْهُمْ لِمَا تُحِبُّهُ وَتَرْضَاهُ يَا أَكْرَمَ الأَكْرَمِينَ.
اللَّهُمَّ أَعِزَّ الإِسْلَامَ وَالمُسِْلمِينَ، وَاخْذُلِ الْكُفْرَ وَالْكَافِرِينَ، وَانْصُرِ المُجَاهِدِينَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللهِ. وَاجْعَلْ كَلِمََتَكَ هِيَ العُلْيَا وَكَلِمَةَ الْكُفْرِ هِيَ السُّفْلَى.
رَبَّنَا ءَاتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الآخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَقَِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ.
إِنَّ اللهَ يَامُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَالإِحْسَانِ وَإِيتَاءِ ذِي الْقُرْبَى، وَيَنْهَى عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالمُنكَرِ وَالْبَغْيِ، يَعِظُكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَّكَّرُونَ، وَلَذِكْرُ اللهِ أَكْبَرُ وَاللهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَصْنَعُونَ. وَقُومُواْ إِلَى صَلاتِكُمْ يَرْحَمُكُمُ اللهُ.