gratitude..

[Sadiq]

Ibn Abi'd-Dunya mentioned that Dawud (as) asked Allah: "What is the least of Your blessings?" Allah revealed to him "O Dawud, take a breath." Dawud did so, and Allah told him "This is the least of My blessings on you".

*what else can be said?

"If you are grateful, I will certainly give you increase." (14:9)

[abdul518ca]

Don't forget to thank Allah [swt] for his greatest blessing; Islam, for making us Muslims, for allowing us to grow up in Muslim households, for having Muslim ancestors. Most of us fail to even recognize this as even a blessing. In fact, a few of us even look upon it as a burden. Why? Because we *inherited* this from our parents. Usually, a person has no value for what he inherited, as he obtained this without any type of work. A man was seen wiping his torn leather shoes with a silk-cloth from China, someone asked him, "O fool, why are you wiping your valueless shoes with silk?" He replied, "These shoes, I obtained them through my own hard work. As for the silk-cloth, I obtained it through inheritence." So for this person, his torn leather shoes were actually greater in value than the silk-cloth. It's a great folly that we thank Allah [swt] every day for his inferior blessings (like food, clothing shelter, etc), but fail to thank Him for this great blessing of Islam.

Maulana Thanawi [ra] has mentioned three degrees of being grateful. 1) Showing gratefulness with the tongue (i.e. saying 'alhamdulillah'), 2) Showing gratefulness with the heart (i.e. saying 'alhamdulillah' with the 'presence' of the mind), 3) Showing gratefulness with the body (i.e. doing good deeds like Nawafil). We must make sure that we fulfill all 3 of these degrees.

As the Ayat states, give thanks and I'll give increase. If we thank Allah [swt] abundantly for Imaan, he will surely increase us in it. If we thank Allah [swt] for making us Muslims, he will surely make us better Muslims. If we thank Him for giving us the Taufeeq for rectifying our Nafs (a vast majority doesn't even care about the Nafs), he will surely grant us easiness in this.

"If you want your death to come on Imaan... then thank Allah [swt] for it" - Imam Abu Hanifa [ra].