Thanks to Allah comprises
pure belief and a sincere affirmation of Allah’s unity. For a person who eats
an apple and utters, “Alhamdulillah - Praise be to Allah!” is proclaiming
through his thanks: “This apple is a souvenir bestowed directly by the hand of
power, a gift directly from the treasury of mercy.” By saying this and
believing it, he is ascribing everything, particular and universal, to the hand
of power. He recognizes the manifestation of mercy in everything. He announces
through thanks, his true belief and sincere affirmation of divine unity.
The heedless man
incurs serious loss through ingratitude for bounties. We shall describe only
one of its many aspects. It is as follows:
If someone eats a delicious bounty and gives thanks, by virtue
of his thanks the bounty becomes a light and a fruit of Paradise in the
hereafter. If, because of the pleasure, he thinks of it as the work of Almighty
God’s favour and mercy, it yields a true, lasting delight and enjoyment. He
sends kernels and essences of its meanings and immaterial substances like these
to the abodes above, while the material husk-like residue, that is, the matter
that has completed its duty and now is unnecessary, becomes excreta and goes to
be transformed into its original substances, that is, into the elements. If he
fails to give thanks, the temporary pleasure leaves a pain and sorrow at its
passing, and itself becomes waste. Bounty, which is as precious as diamonds, is
transformed into coal. Through thanks, ephemeral sustenance produces enduring
pleasures, everlasting fruits. While bounty that is met with ingratitude is
turned from the very best of forms into the most distasteful. For according to
the heedless person, after producing a fleeting pleasure, sustenance ends up as
waste-matter.
Sustenance is indeed in a form worthy of love, and this
form is to be seen through thanks. However, the passion of the misguided and
heedless for sustenance is animality. You can make further comparisons in this
way and see what a loss the heedless and misguided suffer.
Source: Risale-i Nur Collection,
28th Letter, Fifth Matter.
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