I am Grateful and You are not!

Is it not amazing how we always occupy ourselves with trying to figure out the aim and purpose of people’s actions and intentions and never care to understand the aim of our greatest enemy whose happiness is our misery? If you were for instance asked what the aim of the Shaytan is, what would be your answer? The average honest person would probably reply “I honestly do not know”. Why is this the case? Why are we so busy insuring our wealth, lives and properties but rarely bother to take precautions against the one who inspires the thieves and murderers in the first place? I think it is simply because we do not know what his real aim is.


A couple of weeks ago I discovered something in the Quran. Reading the Chapter entitled Al-A’raf (The Heights). I discovered the sole aim of the devil, which he revealed in a dialogue he had with God shortly after he refused to bow down to Prophet Adam. God said to him
“(Oh Iblis) get down from this (Paradise), it is not for you to be arrogant here. Get out, for you are of those humiliated and disgraced. (Iblis) said: Allow me respite till the Day they are raised up, (i.e. the Day of Resurrection). (God) said: You are of those respited. (Iblis) said; because you have sent me astray, surely, I will sit in wait against them (human being) on your straight path. Then will I come to them from before them and behind them, from their right and from their left, and You will not find most of them as thankful one” (Al-A’raf:16-17).


Now, a few lessons can be learned from these verses. The first lesson is the vastness of God’s mercy. Shortly after he had disobeyed God, the Shaytan makes a prayer, i.e. to live until the end of times. Despite the fact that He was highly displeased with him, God granted Shaytan his wish. How many of you have had the urge to ask God of something yet you hear a voice in your head saying “how dare you ask God for anything knowing that you are disobedient to him most of your time?” This my, dear sisters and brothers, is the voice of the Shaytan, the same one who prayed for God despite being the first and only creation who stood in front of God and bluntly said I will not obey you. My dear sisters and brothers, when you hear this voice you should reply to it. Say “Oh Shaytan, I know I’m a bad person but I’m not as bad as you. My Lord is the Most Merciful and accepts the sincere prayers of His creation. Had you known this, then you would’ve asked for forgiveness for your arrogance. Sadly it is too late for you, but for me, there is still hope.”


The second lesson to be learned from the above verses is the fact that the Shaytan said he will be waiting for us on God’s straight path. In other words, he is only interested in those who are or try to upright, especially the youth. Why the youth? Because they are the backbone of this nation, if your back is straight, wouldn’t your body be too? This great Ummah of ours is bound to the wheelchair because our back, our youth, are broken.


Shaytan vows to wait for the believers on God’s path and promises to assault them from their front, back, left and right. Notice how he never said he will not attack us from above? This is because he realises the mercies of God descend unto us from above and he does not possess the ability of diverting God’s blessing, nobody does. However, he does have the ability of making us ungrateful for those blessings. And this is where the Shaytan reveals his core aim. He promises God he will attack us only for the purpose of making us ungrateful to God. Have you ever reflected upon the meaning of gratefulness in Islam? As a matter fact, everything in Islam links back to gratitude. Shaytan’s sin of arrogance can be classified as ungratefulness.


Despite the fact that God gave him the best home (i.e. Paradise), he refused to obey God’s only command to him, to bow down to Prophet Adam in a manner of respect. When someone is grateful to God, they say “Alhamdullillah”, which means “All Praise is due to God”. Tell me, what are the most common names of the most beloved prophet of God? Mohammed and Ahmad, two names which come from the root word “hamd”, which is Arabic for “praise”. Why was the Prophet (SAW) called these names? Because he (SAW) praised God a lot and was at the same praised by the whole creation, and will continue to be praised until the Day of Judgement. I ask you; with what words does the first chapter in Qur’an start with? Is it not “All praise is due to the Lord
of all the Worlds”? Again I ask you; do you know what the last words of the people of Paradise are when they are entering it? They will be saying “Verily all praise is due to the Lord of the all the World”. Oh, Muslim, do you now understand the importance of gratitude in Islam?


What does it, then, mean to be a grateful person? The Prophet (SAW) said that the one who is not grateful to the creation is not grateful to the Creator. My dear brother and sister, are you a grateful person? Are you grateful to your mother for everything she has done for you? Are you grateful to your teachers for passing on their knowledge to you? Are you grateful to your employer for giving you a chance to earn your bread? Oh, youth, are you grateful to society for looking after you in every possible way? Are you grateful to nature for enabling you to live in this world comfortably? You see, if you are not grateful to all of these, you cannot be grateful to God. So how do you show your gratitude? Is it enough to say thank you? Actually, I believe that gratitude is so much more than a few words uttered mostly done so without a sincere intention. I believe gratefulness is shown in your actions. It is easy to say thank you to your
mum, teacher, employer and so on, and this we tend to do only when they have allowed us to do what we wanted or given us what we needed.


Being grateful to your mother is showing her kindness and easing her burden, especially during time when you are not in good terms. Being grateful to your teachers is to gain the best grades and utilise the knowledge to the benefit of others, just like they utilised theirs to benefit you. Being grateful to your employer is helping their company or department achieve perfection in their services, even if it means going that extra mile.


Being grateful to the society is contributing back into it and changing it for the better. Being grateful to nature is to look after it by not over-using its resources irresponsibly and preserving it for the coming generations.
Now you know what it means to be grateful, I ask, my fellow Muslim, are you a grateful person? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to make you feel awful about yourself. All I want to do is make you realise how to protect yourself from your worst enemy. All I want to do is to enable you to be amongst God’s beloved and grateful servants. All I want to do is to make you overcome your worst enemy and say to him “Oh, Shaytan, I am grateful and you are not”.