"And if you should count the favors of ALLAH , you could not enumerate them. Indeed, ALLAH is Forgiving and Merciful”.
(An Nahl : 18)
SUMMARY OF CHAPTER :
1.Being grateful is to render one’s thanks to someone who has shown favor, to express gratitude and to appreciate. The concept of being grateful to ALLAH, on the other hand, is to grasp and express that every kind of grace and favor is granted exclusively by ALLAH. In the Quran, the opposite of being grateful is defined by the term “disbelief”, which is synonymous to being ungrateful. Only this definition indicates the importance attached to being grateful as a worship and the detrimental consequences it may have for a believer.
2.Gratefulness to ALLAH is one of the concepts mostly emphasized in the Qur'an. In almost 70 verses, the importance of rendering thanks to ALLAH is stated, the examples of those who are grateful and ungrateful are also given. The reason why so much importance is given to this concept is simply because it is a mere indication of one’s faith and affirmation of the unity of ALLAH. In one of the verses “being grateful” is described as “worshipping ALLAH only”.
3.In expectation of some grand favor, some people wait for special occasions to render their thanks to ALLAH. Settlement of a major problem, or recovering from a serious sickness are the proper times to express one’s inner gratefulness to ALLAH, they assume. However, if one reflects on only for a moment, he would instantly comprehend that he is always surrounded with infinite favors. At every moment, every minute, there is an uninterrupted flow of favors reaching him; his life, good health, intelligence, consciousness, his five senses, the air that he breaths, in brief, everything that makes life possible is given to man as a favor. In return for all these, a person is expected to serve Allah in gratitude. Those who are heedless of these favors and accordingly neglect to turn to Allah for expressing their gratefulness, only acknowledge the importance of these favors when they are deprived of them. This is indeed a punishment for their ingratitude. WALLAHU’ALAM
