Shukr and serenity

Assalaamu Alaikum! 

How are you today? I know that its been a while since my last letter and I hope you’ll forgive me for my absence during the last month. You will find my letters in your inbox more frequently in the future Insha Allah.

During our book club discussion last week, on the book ‘The Barakah Effect’ written by Muhammad Faris, we discussed the chapter on gratitude and we came across profound reminders on how blessed we actually are. The biggest realization for me was that we undervalue and minimize our blessings despite our lives being better than kings and queens of the past. Even though I knew gratitude is important, I benefited from that reminder. So this is a reminder for you to practice shukr for a life of abundance and serenity.

Among the few

Umar ibn Al-Khattab once passed by a man who was supplicating, “O Allah, make us of Your ‘few’ servants! O Allah make us of Your ‘few’ servants!”

Umar said to him, “Where did you get this dua from?” And the man said, “Allah in His Book says ‘And few of My servants are grateful’ (34:13).” So ‘Umar wept and admonished himself, saying: “The people are more knowledgeable than you, O Umar! O Allah make us of Your ‘few’ servants.”

Islam is a way of life and gratitude is a practice that is embedded in our deen, which means it should be a part of our lifestyle. Being thankful to Allah is something that should be as natural as breathing to us. Our existence in this world is filled with the blessings that Allah provides for us. We maybe used to having certain things and may not think much of them in the sense of them being blessings, but the reality is that we are swimming in His blessings all the time. From the womb to the grave, we are given blessings after blessings, yet many of us remain ignorant of this.

"And if you should count the favor of Allah, you could not enumerate them. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful." Surah Al-Nahl (16:18).

Allah has given us so much yet we fail to see it. Our lives have been designed in such a way that makes us think that we need the next purchase or milestone to appreciate our lives. Somewhere along the way, even us Muslims have lost the beautiful practice of living a life of gratitude.

It was narrated from Salamah bin ‘Ubaidullah bin Mihsan Al-Ansari that his father said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: ‘Whoever among you wakes up physically healthy, feeling safe and secure within himself, with food for the day, it is as if he acquired the whole world’ (Sunan Ibn Majah)

Over the past year, we have seen how people’s lives have changed when these things we take for granted were taken away from them. We have gotten accustomed to our blessings so much that we rarely think about how blessed our lives actually are.

Cultivating gratitude

Reflecting on our blessings and incorporating gratitude into our daily lives are the keys to living a life of gratitude. Our default has become the scarcity mindset, therefore its only natural that it’ll take some time to shift to a gratitude mindset.

Start with identifying your blessings. Think about different areas of your life and identify the blessings you have. You would soon realize that you are indeed swimming in His blessings. To make this even more impactful, you can start writing a list of things you are grateful for.

Look around

It wouldn’t be far fetched to say that we no longer look around us. Our eyes remain glued to screens most of our waking hours. Look up from your screen and look around. Notice how beautifully Allah has designed things. From the sky, the sea, the trees and the flowers, there is so much beauty around you. Look at the intricate designs and the beautiful colours around you. Look at your family, your friends or even the stranger who exchanges a smile with you. Aren’t all of these blessings by The Most Generous?

Look within

One of the biggest blessings anyone could have is good health. How many times do we use His blessings throughout the day? How many times do we thank Him for them daily? Reflect on how different your life will be even without something as small as the ability to blink? How many times are we able to swallow food, drinks or even our own saliva? No blessing is too small, for if it was to be taken away, we will surely feel how much of a blessing it was all along!

Live more conscious of your blessings. When you eat, drink and spend time with your loved ones, think of how blessed you are! Look at the duas that we are asked to recite upon waking up, after eating and even the adkhar of morning and evening, and you’ll find that many of them include thanking Allah. Express your gratitude verbally for your blessings throughout the day!

The ability to thank Allah is a blessing itself, and even if we spent our entire lives praising Him and thanking Him, it won’t even come close to being enough for the things He has given and continues to give us.

Jazakallah khair for reading.

If you liked reading this, please do share this with someone else who might find this beneficial.

Until next time,

Samar