 Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen, wa salallahu wa salam wa barak ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa salam. Rabbil Shahi Sadri wa Asalli, Amri wa halal oqtatim, al-Saniha wa Qawli, wa salallahu wa salam wa barak ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa salam. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh, I hope you all are doing well, alhamdulillahi. So we are continuing this series on the traits of the righteous. We have approached the tenth lesson in this series. Alhamdulillahi, one of the things that, you know, celebrated in this culture in this month, and something that the Muslims should be celebrating all the time, is this day coming up known as Thanksgiving. And the Muslim is a person who is always giving thanks. We should try to be people who are, you know, we don't just sing a lot a day in the year. We don't just sing a lot a specific week to give thanks. We're trying to always be people who give thanks, always be people of gratitude. Because for the Muslim, and what we see in the example of the Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, and in the example of the great Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, that gratitude was really their attitude. They were people who looked at the world from a grateful lens. There are so many ways to look at the world. You know, you always hear that saying, you could look at the glass half empty, or you could look at the glass half full, right? You could look at a situation and say, you know, all these things are going wrong today. Or you could say, you know, alhamdulillahi, so much is going right today. And whatever is quote on quote going wrong, even alhamdulillah for that, because God knows what he's doing, right? But it just depends on the perspective. And that perspective, it takes work. It takes work on the heart. It takes work on the spiritual heart to develop an attitude of gratitude, because it's a character trait. And as we've been discussing, and we discussed this in the first class, that the first thing that you and I have to do is we have to learn knowledge. Knowledge is so important. Knowledge is a light. It's a light that guides the believers. And then from there, we implement the knowledge. And then from there, that knowledge and the implementation that we've had, it helps refine us. And then we refine the way in which we implemented, right? We refine our approach, we try to improve, and we keep going and we keep growing. So similarly with gratitude, we might not start off in a point, and we might sometimes get upset of ourselves. Why do I always notice the bad in things? Or maybe we're somebody who notices the bad in people. Or maybe we notice the bad in a situation. But slowly, if you groom yourself, you can start to notice the good, the good, the positivity. You can start to become a far more positive person. And that's why gratitude is so important in the time that we live in. One of the things that we mentioned with regards to this class, why we're doing these virtues, one of the titles was virtues in a time of vice. And we are living in a time where there's so much negativity, a time where there's so much ingratitude, a time where there's so much impatience and complaining, and just seeing the bad in things. And we as Muslims, we want to try to bring a different world view, a different perspective. And so we want to try to be people who, you know, we see the good in things. We see the good in people. We see the good in the situation. And we're going to be grateful because there's just too much to be grateful for. Allah says in the Qur'an, that if you were to try to enumerate the blessings of Allah, if you and me were to try to enumerate the blessings of Allah, like if we were to sit here and just spend all of our life, literally not just this class period, or this time we're doing the class, not just this life, not just this week that we have, or this month that we have, but all of our life. If we were to try to enumerate the blessings of Allah, Allah says you couldn't do it. You couldn't do it. If you were to try, you couldn't do it. So don't try to enumerate the blessings of Allah in a quote-unquote challenge to Allah. No, we just are grateful. And part of our gratitude is to admit to Allah we can't even be grateful for everything. How are you supposed to be grateful for the amount of gallons of blood that your heart and my heart pumped to our body today in order to keep us functioning? Are we saying Alhamdulillah for every single gallon? Or should we say it for every liter? Or how about every milliliter? What are we supposed to do? Or for every signal, every neuron and signal that was fired off in order to tell, that our brain told my hand to move in this very moment? All of those signals that work today. If just one of those signals was broken, right? If anybody's ever pinched a nerve, you know how much it hurts. If one signal in the body isn't working properly, so much pain, so much damage can happen. Alhamdulillah. How are we supposed to do that? We can't. All the cells in the body that are just working, every single cell has its own mitochondria, its own powerhouse that's allowing the cell to function and then the cell is doing its part and then the rest of the cells are doing their part in order to keep the whole organism of the body moving. Are we supposed to say Alhamdulillah for all of those cells? Or what about for all the veins and all the arteries that we have, right? That are just, everything is moving and everything is just working. Are we supposed to say Alhamdulillah again for all of that? No. That's just literally scratching the surface. One thousandth maybe of the human body and that's one minute of the day. We can't even say thanks for that. Let alone the whole day everything works and let alone our whole life, Alhamdulillah, when everything works. Alhamdulillah. So if you were to try to enumerate the blessings of Allah, we couldn't do it. So we have to have an attitude of gratitude all the time because we try to just be grateful for everything it is that we can. But you know that you can never enumerate the blessings. They're infinite blessings that we have. And so Allah describes his favorite people as people of Shukr. He says that many of my prophets, he mentions Prophet Ibrahim A.S. and he says that he was a grateful person. He was a grateful person and he links this and he ties this, I believe it's in the same Surah that he says Ibrahim A.S. was an ummah on his own. He was an ummah on his own. Imagine being an ummah, an ummah, a community. The Prophet A.S. has an ummah. Ibrahim A.S. on his own. And the ummah of the Prophet A.S. is billions of people. Ibrahim A.S. was an ummah on his own. Imagine that. Right? Because of these amazing traits that he had, he was always grateful. Always grateful. Always looking at things positively. There are many elements to gratitude. We're going to cover those. Gratitude is not just saying Alhamdulillah. That's actually a very important part of gratitude. But gratitude is what is it? Let's talk about the true nature of gratitude. Actually he has a book called Kitaba Sabar wa Shukr, the book on patience and gratitude. And he says that gratitude is this internal state where you recognize Allah's blessing. You feel a state of joy in the soul. And that moves you to have a state that then gives you, that you move towards saying thanks as a result. You're saying Alhamdulillah as a result. Right? Or feeling. The feeling is even more important. I could say, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, you know for this and that. But I'm just not feeling it, right? That's fine. It's still good. It's better to do. You know, I believe it was one of the great spiritual masters who mentioned that, you know, one part of your body moving in bicar is better than no parts, right? So even if we're doing bicar, sometimes we might not feel it. It's all good. Because at least one part is doing bicar versus every part would, you know, every part was just in a state of heedlessness. That would be bad. But one part being in bicar is better than nothing. But ideally we're in that state where we recognize deep down inside that we want to be grateful people. So it's to feel this joy in the soul and then give thanks as a result. That's step one. And then from there, it's to activate the limbs in the service of Allah and to give gratitude for each limb. Look, gratitude is not just some concept that we talk about. You know, I want to be grateful. I want to say thanks. Alhamdulillah, those are all good things. But gratitude is the proof is in the pudding. The proof is in the pudding. When you and I actually go out and live our lives, that's a sign of are we being grateful. How does that work? Because you can't be grateful to Allah if you use the blessings he's given you to disobey him. What kind of gratitude would that be? You say Alhamdulillah, Ya Allah, thank you for my eyes. And then you go out and like check out all these people. Look at all this haram. Look down on all these people. Thank you, right? Alhamdulillah, Ya Allah, thank you for my tongue and go out and curse and backbite and yell at people. I mean, you could say thanks and that's so good thing. But the gratitude, the state of gratitude, this idea of having an attitude of gratitude is realized when the limbs are not only just existing, but you are using them to obey Allah. So let's talk about each limb. We've already spoken about this before. So we'll just mention this briefly, right? For the eyes. The eyes being grateful. Practicing gratitude of the eyes is to not look at the haram. It's to not look at things that are impermissible. It's also to not look down on others. That's actually a higher level. It's to not look down on others. Sometimes the eyes are what we use when we look at some of you like, oh, this guy, this person. It's to not look down on others. And then it's to veil people's faults. You see a Muslim? You see them slip up? You veil them. You veil their faults. We are not supposed to be a community that exposes everybody. Oh, this person, did you see that one time that he made a very specific slip in the khutbah or in this and that that he or she gave? And let's just expose the heck out of them. The Muslim is not supposed to do that. And all the social media culture that we live in that just wants to expose everybody is a problem with that. Now, somebody does something like very, very critically problematic, like abuse or something. We need to make sure that through the right channels we communicate that to the community so nobody engages with that person. But I'm talking about like a brother at the masjid or somebody slips up and does something wrong. We don't expose them to the whole world and to the whole community or put them on blast. No, no, no. We veil their faults. We're people who veil others. Okay, you made a mistake. Okay, you know, I saw that this person was doing something they shouldn't have been doing. I'm going to try to veil them. Right? I saw that this person, we've all been caught in the act by God and he veils us. If God unveiled all of us, we'd be in big trouble. If God unveiled all of us for all of our sins, we'd be in huge trouble. Nobody would want to talk to him. Certainly nobody would want to speak with me, let alone with most of us, right? Because we know all the stuff we've done. We have to veil other people. That's what the eyes are for. So look down. Okay, I'm going to try not to focus on their faults and try to focus on their good. So one of my siblings, maybe, or one of my relatives or something, maybe they speak out of turn. Maybe they yell at me or maybe they're angry. Rather than me focusing on that thing, I'm going to try to veil that trait. Say, you know what? It's okay. Not a big deal. I'm going to focus on all these other good traits that they have. That's what I mean by veiling. Again, we're not talking about here when they do communal wrongs. Communal wrongs have a different rule in our jurisprudence. We're talking about here when personal wrongs and personal interactions happen or between one person and their Lord, that ideally you veil. You don't go off and say like, you know, I saw this guy and he was just like watching all this stuff on his phone. We'll go and work with him privately and try to help him out so that it doesn't become a negative trait that's spread about somebody. But that's an example though with the eye. That's being gratitude. That's having gratitude with the eye. To not look at haram. To not look down on people. Just some examples. And with the ears, right? To not hear the haram. We've spoken about this, right? But to guard the ears against haram. You and I cannot be people of gratitude if we are not regularly trying to guard our ears from listening to all of the inputs that mess us up. Listening to this rapper and to this radio station and to this video and to this, you know, music video which has an ear and auditory and a visual component, both of which are damaging to us when it's haram that we're viewing it. That's not what the ears are for. The ears were created to worship Allah. The ears were created to hear the eventual speech of Allah, to hear the Qur'an. The ears were created to hear your Prophet s.a.w. speak and to hear his beloved, his blessed hadith. That's what the ears were created for. And of course to listen to positive speech and to, you know, talk with our families and listen to each other and to help people out and listen to their problems and come up with ways and use the brain then that God has given us to come up with ways to help people with their problems. That's what it's created for. It's not created for listening to everything it is that we are exposed to in our society. So that's one level. The other level of graduates are not hear negativity. So you hear somebody talking bad about somebody, your ears should not, you don't want your ears to engage in that because they're not being grateful then for your ears. So you try to say, you know, let's not do that because you don't want your ears to get polluted with all that negativity, with all the bad about somebody, all the backbiting. That's an example for the ears, the tongue. The tongue are, the tongue is to, you don't talk smack as we just mentioned. You don't lie. We don't cheat. Don't slander people. We don't curse at people, right? We don't cuss somebody out. Examples of being gracious and being grateful with the tongue. And to stand on the other end say Alhamdulillah for everything. The tongue is our means of saying Alhamdulillah, it's the means of us voicing our appreciation to Allah. Of course. We can do it in the heart but it's one of the means. It's the means of us engaging in our prayer with Allah. We recite our Fatiha in the prayer out loud, right? We recite Quran out loud. The tongue is what Allah has facilitated that Alhamdulillah for this beautiful tongue Allah has given us this amazing, amazing, amazing organ, or limb rather. So say Alhamdulillah. And the tongue, what's not supposed to be meant for us, I just mentioned all those haram things, but can then complain to complain about this, to complain about the weather, complain about COVID, complain about okay, we're going into the purple alert or something like that in our county where, you know, gatherings are once again limited and Thanksgiving is going to be limited and all these gatherings are going to be limited. Our tongue is not to be complaining. Like, oh, why, no. There's so many blessings to be grateful for. Why complain about the three or four things? For all of our life, everything has been great. We haven't been in quarantine. We haven't been in negative in a difficult situation. It's okay. There's been some difficult times. Alhamdulillah, though, that we're still in a state of security. Alhamdulillah, we're not living in a state of anarchy or where there's no safety or there's no food or where there's no water or where there's no electricity. I mean, there's so many things. Why focus on the few limitations that COVID is giving us? Oh, I can't travel. I can't take a vacation. Okay, big deal. No need to focus on that. Don't let that come from the tongue. If you think it in the mind, you're not held to account. But if it starts to be articulated on the tongue, you and I are held to account for everything that comes out of our tongue. Let's not let anything that Allah would disapprove of come out of our tongue if we can, inshallah. And then this goes with the rest of the body, the whole body. Use it for what it was created for. Every part of the body was created for something. Don't use the body for what it was not created to do. And that can be applied, as we mentioned, to each part of the body. So let's now talk a little bit about the blessing, the state of gratitude that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was in. Now, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he didn't do any haram, as we know he didn't. There was no haram with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He was completely in a protected state. But he was so grateful for everything. One time that our blessed mom, Aisha radiallahu anha, she saw the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam get up and he made a light wudu. And he went and he prayed his tahajjud sallam. Now the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, there's five prayers and a mandatory for you and I. For him, many of the scholars are depending on the tahajjud, the prayer of the sallat, the tahajjud is mandatory for the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So he would have to pray every night. But he did so because he wanted to. You know, you and I sometimes are like, I just throw her a time, I got to pray. And especially for Fajr, I got to get up, got to pray. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was like looking forward to it. You know, like when you're looking forward to praying, it's like you need that boost. Or if you're like, if you're blessed to go to like Umrah or something or Hajj, you're like excited, you're looking forward to it. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam had a positive attitude. He said, the delight of my eye is in the prayer. The delight of my eye, it's like the way of saying, that's like I love that. It's the thing I love the most. So anyways, he got up to pray the tahajjud and he's praying a very, very amazing tahajjud sallah and he's weeping and weeping and weeping and it's described that he wept from a good part of the night. And so our mother, Aisha radi allahu anna, she asks him, she said, Ya Rasulullah, why are you weeping? And you know, when all of your sins have been forgiven, your past sins have been, you know, everything you've done has been forgiven. That could be, the mistakes of the prophets are like, they could be doing something less good than what the most good thing is, right? Like such as, it's outlined in Aba Sawat Sawalla, the Surah of the Qur'an. Allah tells the prophets, they should have been doing this instead of that. But it wasn't, it was a less good thing over a more virtuous thing. And so Allah corrects his prophets in that way. So she said, everything has been forgiven and you've been promised paradise. I mean, all of you, she kind of lays this out. And he says, I believe the Arabic is I think he said, Should I not be a grateful servant? Should I not be a grateful servant? SubhanAllah. When was the last time that we just spent an hour of the night praying to our Lord in Sajdah, raka'ah after raka'ah, just saying, Ya Allah, thank you for everything you've given us. Thank you for all the blessings in this life. Thank you for guiding us to Islam. Thank you for allowing us to be followers of the greatest of creations, sallallahu alayhi sallam. Thank you for the water and the food and the blessings and the security and the electricity. When was the last time that we did that? Thank you for the warmth and the protection from the elements and from the winds and the rains and for not forgiving us homes and not making us homeless and for giving us ways to communicate with each other even though we're in a pandemic. When was the last time that we just deep down internally? Just said Alhamdulillah to our Lord. Let's think about that. I say this to myself first and foremost. Let's really think about that. That we have a responsibility to be grateful. It really is a responsibility for us because we, especially if you live in a western nation, most of us do, we are living the most privileged lives that more than most of humanity has ever lived. Alhamdulillah we have just risk flowing, sustenance flowing, amazing jobs, healthcare, a society that is functioning, roads, a system generally of government, generally speaking, not always but generally speaking that works and is not always erupting in chaos. And now we're seeing just with one person a demagogue who can elicit so much evil because of their, just this couple of tweets, how much bad can come because of that. Generally speaking, a system that is, at basic levels, it's functioning. There is problems but it's functioning. Alhamdulillah. We have all of these blessings. We have access to education and we don't have to go out. Most of us, we've never missed a meal in our life because there was a lack of food, maybe because we weren't hungry. Most of us, we've never missed a meal. At least we've been eating two meals a day. Or at the very least, I mean like a meal a day, some people might not even want to eat more than one meal a day first. But you know, we have access to water. We can just go into our fridge and press a little button and get water or turn on a faucet. When were we grateful? When were we really grateful? And we felt, Alhamdulillah for this. Or are we the type of people who scroll on Instagram and we scroll on Facebook and we see this person doing this vacation and this person looking this, you know, in this way and this person got married and this person had kids and we don't have all those things quote unquote. So then we start feeling why didn't I get this? Why didn't I get this? What kind of person are we? Right? Are we somewhere in the middle where we just complain all the time? This is a time for reflection. It's now or never. Change is not easy. But change, it starts with making an intention. So I want to urge all of us make the intention to become people of gratitude. But you're going to spend a couple minutes a day, one or two minutes just saying Alhamdulillah for the blessings. All the blessings you have. Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah for all the Naama all the blessings Alhamdulillah for all the states that Allah has given me. But let's definitely at the very minimum let's make a commitment to stop seeing the negative and if we do see it to stop articulating it. Let's just say Alhamdulillah it's all good. It's all good for the believer. The Prophet said the affair of the believer is all good if he or she is, you know, restricted if they're given hardship they're in a state of patience and if they're given blessings they're in a state of gratitude and that's for the believer and paraphrasing the hadith. But look at that. That's the process I'm saying it's all good. What are we worried about? What are we stressed about? Why are we always so stressed and so worried? Let's just relax. There's so much to be grateful for. Alhamdulillah look at the end of the day all this world is gonna be done and we're gonna go back and inshallah we're gonna meet Allah and Allah is the most generous the most merciful the most forgiving just the most awesome the most amazing he is Allah la ilaha illa anta the most amazing Lord and we are going to meet him inshallah and hopefully right all that generosity and that rahmah he's going to just take over and all the shortcomings that we have are gonna be overlooked and inshallah we will get to spend eternity with the greatest people the prophets and with our Lord right? Alayma Salam like look what else could we want all this stuff this stuff we stress about our jobs and school and this situation this family members of this and this problem happened none of it's gonna matter we're gonna be with Allah and all these stresses we're not gonna worry about right? so let's just keep just keep the bigger picture in mind you know having this otherworldly worldview your worldview is what governs us what governs you what helps you inform helps inform how you see things in the world but having an otherworldly worldview is so important have a worldview of the hereafter and I'm saying this to myself first and foremost because I know that you know I think I get stressed about such small things and then I really have to zoom out and force myself like why are you worried about that why are you being ungrateful about that just say it's not a big deal something that happens at work it's not a big deal someone difficult it's not a big deal it's all good because so many other things are good so don't focus on the one thing that's bad right? so let's talk about the types of blessings so Imam Ghazali he mentions there's multiple types of blessings he bucks things into categories so he says first you have the blessings that are beneficial in this world and beneficial in the next okay so these are blessings like knowledge and good character these examples and worship so knowledge good knowledge sacred knowledge will benefit you in this world and it'll benefit you in the next world good character as we began the discussion of this series will benefit you in this world right people will like it if you have good character and it'll help you feel better and it'll benefit you in the next world the Prophet Muhammad said the wadiest deed on the day of judgment is good character so those are great blessings those are blessings that are going to help you in this life help you out in the day of judgment and inshallah help you out after that then there's blessings that are going to hurt you in this world or there are things you can do that are going to hurt you in this world and in the next and that's ignorance and bad character so it's not a good thing to be ignorant right ignorance is going to hurt you in this world you see like for example with many most politicians right now so ignorant so no understanding of what's important no understanding of democracy or justice or all of these things right ignorance it's going to hurt them in this world and it very much could hurt them in the next world Allah knows and bad character oh my god it's the vilest thing the vilest thing just to deal with somebody who has just bad character it hurts them in this world nobody wants to be around them everybody just appreciates when they leave right and in the next world bad character is a very very very serious sin stems from bad character most of the time so bad character is going to really damage people in the next world then there are the situations in life that give you comfort in this world and sorrow in the next so for example you might feel comfortable sleeping in in your comfy blanket turning on the heater it's a cold day and you know the 6 a.m. alarm goes off and you snooze and then it's come 7 a.m. and you just miss fudger and then you snooze again and you wake up at like 9 and you miss the fudger a lot you might feel comfortable you slept more you got nice peaceful rest I've heard that before I've heard somebody someone say well I can't wake up a fudger because it messes up my sleep that's the point it's supposed to it's called spiritual struggle it's supposed to we're supposed to struggle it's not supposed to be easy but anyways Allah assist all people who have any sleep issues it's definitely a difficult thing to deal with insomnia and sleep issues but comfortable in this world but it gives you sorrow in the next so you might feel like it's a blessing but it actually it's a blessing that you have all that warmth and everything but it's gonna hurt you in the next world that's one example or like for example you know Haram money right like you could have all the money in the world you could be like making big bucks but you're getting that through Haram means you're getting that through lots of interest or leverage debt or really really really obscure financial instruments that are being traded or through like owning Haram restaurant or owning a restaurant which serves Haram food or owning a place which sells liquor or you know tobacco selling all these types of things right that are generally considered impermissible and you could be living the big life you could have a role you could have a what's it called the Bentley or something right you could have all these great great Lamborghini and these cars and you could have a private jet and again on all spectrums maybe even people in this life maybe even Muslims they envy you and they're like look at this guy look at this girl like she or he has everything it gives you comfort in this world but sorrow in the next because that money wasn't good money and the life distracted you Allah says don't let the glitter of this life that's glitter don't let it distract you is not going to benefit you don't let it distract you and then there are things that give you sorrow in this world but comfort in the next this is right the spiritual struggle like for example sorrow means like difficulty so like fasting like when you're fasting and you can't drink water all day and it's hot and most of us again in western countries we don't have to experience the level that like our parents or those back home had to experience in the Muslim world because it was much hotter in those places but you know we still have some struggle we're hungry we're fasting it gives you difficulty in this world but comfort in the next Allah loves the breath of the fasting person and I believe there's a hadith which says that there are two joys for the fasting person one when he or she breaks their fast and the next when they meet their Lord it's difficult but it gives you comfort in the next this is actually a very under looked blessing people don't think of this as a blessing what is a blessing a blessing is something that's going to benefit you in eternity that's ultimately the way to look at it it benefits you in eternity so you might think and this is where tribulation really it's it can help us get a really good understanding of tribulation let's say that I'm really really struggling with somebody passes away in my family and I'm really struggling let's say well I have to remember that if I'm patient Allah will reward me in the next world versus if I'm impatient I might feel like I released my whatever I was feeling but I will get it will not benefit me in the next world a blessing truly is something that benefits you in eternity that's just something for us to keep in mind another thing to remember as you could see something as a blessing I could see something as a blessing but in reality for us or for that person it's a huge test and a huge negative test or it's a veil example here right like running for very very very high office like the presidency and what not I mean these people people everybody wants to run for president everybody looks at them and they'll look at Trump and Biden and look at them and there is a place for Muslims and politics 150% there is but for example if you see the level of negativity and the level of of lying and the level of cheating and the level of the amount of people that they're going to have to account for for how many people they killed in wars and in drone strikes and then for all the scandals that these kind of people get involved in this goes on and on and on and on and on all the people that struggle because of the work that it is that they do wrong and then of course they get the benefit if they do good things but you could see that as something great but in reality it's a huge test and a veil look at that just the vile characteristics it brings out in people I mean look at this election it's brought out so much negativity and so much vileness you just wonder a lot of people see this as something so amazing that like oh this person has all this power but in reality look at what it brings out in them what's actually good we've said it's what's going to benefit you an attorney just something to keep in mind and all other things just remember here something could be a blessing for one person and a test for something else so don't think that you know this person has like for example somebody could drive a nice car and he or she could it could be a blessing for them because they're giving that's one way that they give shukr to Allah they're saying Alhamdulillah like a thousand times they think about their car and for somebody else they just want the car because they want to brag about it and they never say Alhamdulillah you don't know you and I don't know what's good for us Allah knows and that's why we just kind of try to hope to resign our affair to him so let's let's get into the practicality now and inshallah then we'll end so the first is what is what should our approach to gratitude be it is to look at everything in our life and to actively count it just look at all your blessings so for example there is a study that says you should make a journal of gratitude a gratitude journal which write everything down and it helps you with depression this is true I've done this for sure like when I feel depressed and sad and you know whatever a grief or something I'll write stuff down that like I need to be grateful for and then it starts you start to be positive starts to bring out the positivity in you so write down the positivity thing everything it is that you and I have so start with for example the spiritual blessings the blessings of guidance you and I alhamdulillah at least we can say la ilaha illallah alhamdulillah Allah knows if we're ultimately guided we hope that we can be categorized and the people who are guided ya Allah just alhamdulillah for guidance alhamdulillah for at least having the knowledge to or having the we shouldn't say we have that knowledge but we have at least the framework and Allah has given us the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ that we have access to the knowledge we should say to understand what's good and what's evil how many people do you and I know that don't even have a framework for good and evil they think everything that's good is what they think is good and everything that's bad is what they think is bad we alhamdulillah have an objective view and many Muslims especially young kids they don't like Islam has all these rules I can't do this I can't do that as you grow older you start to realize alhamdulillah that I have things that I can and can't do because if I just created the rules myself I'd mess myself up you want an example of that just look at the spiritual states not the bank accounts but the spiritual states of most people in western society and it's a good way to see what a lack of rules does so guidance is an example the second is to be grateful for the state of security just you and I are in a state of security we couldn't be worshipping Allah if there were literally like airplanes flying and bombs dropping overhead because God forbid there's a war going on or our country is getting bombarded there's so many people a lot of people in the world are in that state so we should be grateful to be in a state of security we're not living in a country that is constant chaos all the time like always, always riots and always protests I'm not talking about the positive ones I'm talking about like the kind of intense anarchy type of things that can happen if there's no structure to a country positive protests are very, very good those definitely have a place of benefit but we're talking about the general security that we can feel, Hamdallah I can go home and feel safe I don't generally feel in most areas that like someone's going to break in every 10 minutes or every day into my house after you be secure you have to practice you know, get a security system and of course make a lot of dua trust in Allah first and foremost but that state of security is something to be grateful for why? because Allah says in the Quran in Surah Quraish He says He says He says to the Quraish he says tell them to worship their lord tell them to worship the lord of this house because he gave them food when they were hungry and he and he gave them security from fear there's a lot of things that one could fear right? But Alhamdulillah, Allah gives you security from fear. So we say those are actually two very primary blessings, primary blessings for us to look at security. And then the next one, we'll get into that is food. So the fact that we have food to function and we have food that we can eat that gives us energy, we should be grateful for it. So these are just, I'm giving categories, we should go off on our own, think about everything and make a list and then just say Alhamdulillah and regularly reflect on these things, right? And then the next time you're driving, instead of, you know, turning on the radio or the music or something else, just think about all of the blessings around you while you're driving. I guarantee you can count to like at least 100, Alhamdulillah, that the air is clean, that the air quality is clean, that there's no major natural disaster, there's no fires going on right now. At least, you know, the locations that most many of us are in, Alhamdulillah, that you're able to see and that the sun is there and that there's no major pollution and that the road is there and that there's not potholes every single way or place in the road and that there are people there who maintain the roads and Alhamdulillah that people follow the driving order and driving law in most places. Alhamdulillah that the car is working and that the oil, the oil is not leaking and that your engine is not having problems and the transmission is not broken and your AC and your heater and your car most of the time are working. And if you have like a GPS system or something like what an amazing thing to have that you can know which direction to go in and that you have seats in your car that are comfortable and that are not broken and that are not, I mean, I'm just like going, I mean, there's so many literally just in your car alone. So many blessings, Alhamdulillah, right? And if you don't have a car, it's all good. Alhamdulillah, so many blessings being able to walk or drive or ride a bike or take public transit. There's so many blessings. We just have to count them. We just have to count them. We just have to wake up and look a little bit. The world is trying to make us go to sleep. There are people in this world who want us to just sleep spiritually and just be awake, just be asleep. Just be asleep spiritually. There are then other people the people who are entrusted with the inheritance of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and it is their job to wake us up. That is what the spiritual masters try to do. They try to wake us up. So we need to wake up, be aware, be mindful people. Be aware in every situation. Your Lord is watching you and your Lord is aware of you and Alhamdulillah, one of the other great blessings you can be in a car and you can be doing dhikr. I mean, amazing. You could be anywhere and be remembering Allah. That's just an example. So these are categories and then you have the blessings. The next category is the blessings associated with the body. So health, strong life, your eyes, the fact that like, just examine the blessings of the eye for a second. I can blink this eye, Alhamdulillah. I can, you know, the eye has eyelids and it has eye brows and it has eyelashes which prevent dirt from falling on my eyes. It's a natural mechanism that Allah has protected my eye and then the eye is moist. Imagine if the eye wasn't moist, you'd have to put eye drops in every two seconds and then that I can see through the eye and that the eye is able to get signals from the rest of my brain in order to command and tell me what to do and then my brain immediately registers what I'm seeing and absorbs it and then a response is created accordingly. I mean, look at all of these things that are just working all together at once. Subhanallah. And just say Subhanallah, Alhamdulillah. That's just, I mean, talk to like an optometrist and they could tell you, you know, all the blessings of the eye. But I'm just getting into like, you know, very, very, just, you know, the high level. These are examples though, right? So just think about this. So those are the things we should do. Let's make, so to summarize categories of blessings, make a journal and write them down, inshaAllah. Now what not to do? Let's talk about what not to do. Allah says in the Quran, Audhu Billahm As-Shaitan al-Rajim, In shakartum la'ziddan nakum that if you are grateful, I will increase you. But he says there is a metaphysical law at play. Here, Allah says, if you are grateful, I will increase you. If you are grateful, I will increase you. And if you complain, the more you are grateful for, the more Allah gives you to be grateful for. And the more you complain, the more Allah gives you to complain about. You and I get to pick. So let's just say, Alhamdulillah, don't let a complaint come out of your mouth because you'll get more things to complain about. It's a metaphysical law that Allah has in the Quran. You have laws and you have metaphysical laws. The metaphysical laws are what's going to happen if something, you do something. It's amazing. So what not to do? First is don't complain. Just let's make a commitment. If we are so many blessings, don't complain. Not complain about the weather or about the traffic or about the jobs or coronavirus or this and that. Let's start to make a commitment to not do that. If you have kids who you don't appreciate certain things, don't complain about them. Notice the positivity. Do not complain about your kids. Don't complain about your kids in front of your kids. Don't complain about how your kids are not good and all the other kids are good. Don't complain. Don't complain about your family. Don't complain about your husband. Don't complain about your wife. Don't complain about your mom or your dad or your mother-in-law or your father-in-law. Just don't complain. It's not that difficult. Just zip. Not, I'm not gonna say it. Something negative comes. There's a lot of things we can see that are negative. Just don't say it because Alhamdulillah, everything else is good. You got a couple traits that you notice in your spouse that are bad. There's a million and one traits that are good. And you and I have a million and one traits that are probably bad and we're lucky that they're not noticing those traits. Alhamdulillah. Let's stop being a people of complaining. Don't complain about gas prices. What is complaining? Complaining is to notice something you don't like and to mention it in a whiny way. Whining is the station of the child. Adults shouldn't whine. They shouldn't whine, right? So let's not mention, oh man, this is so ridiculous. Oh my God, I cannot believe it. Another one month of quarantine, ugh. Like that's complaining, right? Oh my God, I can't believe that, you know, all of the prices for this is going up so much, right? No, that's an example, right? So let's just limit, if we complain a lot, let's limit what we complain about and if we can, let's eliminate completely. The second thing to not do. So first is not complaining. Second thing is don't look at other people's blessings and then focus on what you don't have. That's not gonna work. The best way to do that is get off of social media because it just messes people up. They always see everybody else's life and then they wanna compare and then they feel internally ungrateful. The minute you begin to feel internally ungrateful, you are opening yourself up to being externally ungrateful. So just close the avenues which make you feel internally ungrateful. So don't let those avenues come in if you are struggling with that. Instead, I would recommend, we look at what other people do not have around the world and we feel grateful for what we do have. For an example, 821 million people today around the world did not eat a meal. They didn't have food. Over 800 million people did not get a chance to drink water or did not have access to clean water today. 1.8 billion people don't have access to basic sanitation around the world today. Like, look at these numbers. Talking about almost 20 to, anywhere from 12 to 20% of the global population and yet we're sitting here with food to eat, water to drink, alhamdulillah. Set an ability to clean our hands and take a shower and all of these blessings and we are complaining. We have, I mean, pardon my, this example, but we have the ability, alhamdulillah, most of us to utilize the bathroom and we have clean bathrooms and there's actually a lot of people in the world, believe it or not, do not even have access to bathrooms. They have to find other ways to use the restroom just in the wild, even though they're living in quote unquote civilized places, but they just don't have access to it. There's so many blessings. So let's, instead of focusing on the, next time you're scrolling down Instagram and you're seeing stuff that, what other people are doing, instead go and scroll down like a website that will show you like, let's say Islamic Relief or something and it'll show you all of the different disasters that happen around the world and all the people that are struggling. This country got a flood. This country has an earthquake. This country has a humanitarian crisis. This country has a war going on. This country has this and let that first drive you to say alhamdulillah that Allah has kept us in this state, but also I need to do what I can to help them, right? You shouldn't feel alhamdulillah that they're in that state, of course not. So then, you know, you move you to donate and to help and to do what you can and to make the offer them. But don't focus on all this kind of privilege that we have and let that limit us. You know, like, oh my God, I saw this person. He has a Tesla and I got a, you know, I got a Honda. Like what's up with that? I want a Tesla. Why did he get Tesla? She has this bag. Her bag is a thousand dollars. My bag is only $50. Why does she have a thousand dollar bag? Yo, don't go and throw that much money away on something. You know what I'm saying? Like go and give that money to the people who need it. Let's reflect on these types of things. Then there is, the last thing we'll mention is so don't complain. Look at, don't look at other people's what they have and what you don't have. Instead, look at what the majority of the world doesn't have and feel grateful for what you have. This is based on Hadith of the Prophet's of the Son. Lastly, let's look at the levels of gratitude. So you have levels, you have four or five levels. The first is somebody who's not grateful at all. They always complain in good and bad. They're just complaining. They find the bad and they complain. That's what we don't want to be at that. The second person is the person who's grateful when things go according to the way you want them to go and to complain when they don't. So you wanted to get, let's say you want to like get a house and you're like, okay, you bid on the house and you don't get the house or something like that, right? You're just like, oh man, like I deserve that house. Why did the other person get it, blah, blah, blah, blah, to complain when something doesn't go your way? But if you got it, you'd be like, I got it, I got it. Okay, that's level, that's like, you know, level two is decent level. Level three is when things go well, you are grateful, I'm the loud things are good. And when things don't go according to your plan, again, we shouldn't say things go well because it's not really the right way. When things don't go, when things go according to the plans and don't go, when things don't go according to your plan, right, you're patient because you're like, well, Allah has the best plan. That's, that's like, that's the believer. When you're grateful when things go well and you are patient when things don't go well, that is like a movement, a solid, solid state. We should pray that we can reach that state. That's a really good state. Then there's the next level, which is even more amazing, that you're grateful when things go well and you're grateful when they don't because you're just always grateful. You've gotten to a point where you're so grateful that you only see goodness and you're just like, Alhamdulillah, okay? Well, that didn't work out, Alhamdulillah. You applied to a job, you didn't get it, Alhamdulillah. Allah knows that it wasn't good for you, Alhamdulillah. And then you get the job, Alhamdulillah. And if you didn't get a certain situation, you were trying to, you know, let's say somebody's trying to have kids or something and it's not working, Alhamdulillah, Allah has the best time and you have the kids and Alhamdulillah, Allah had the time, even if you weren't planning on it. Alhamdulillah, that's an amazing, that's the state of the saints, the saints of Allah. They are grateful in all situations when things don't go well and when they go well. The final state is an inward state, which is to never complain even in your heart inwardly about any single thing that Allah has decreed, that you don't necessarily fully accept and not even let to let to, your heart is in a full state of submission such that every single thing happening around you, you are internally and externally grateful for. So you're like, okay, everything. I'm not running anything. Allah is running this world completely. La hawla wa la quwwata illa billah. Allah has complete strength and you and I have no strength, no power saved by Allah. And so that person focuses entirely on all the blessings they've been given and they're completely inwardly and outwardly grateful. That is the state to be in. That is the state that we wanna be in. That's one of the highest states. It's one of the highest states of sainthood to be in a state where your thoughts aren't even negative. You could be in the other state where you think something but you don't articulate it. You don't complain about it. This is somebody who doesn't even think that they're so pure inside that just, right, the state of the Prophet's assumption, should I not be a grateful servant? That is the state that we wanna be in. So let's try in these times that we are in to reflect on gratitude, to practice, to remember that there are these great levels of gratitude to do three things. First is to remember Allah, to be grateful to Allah and realize that blessing, saying Alhamdulillah and feeling grateful and feeling the inward gratitude and letting that manifest in outward service and outward obedience is a way to tie down our blessing and it's a way to increase the blessing. Let's secondly stop the complaining and stop the negativity. And let's third, try to focus on the gratitude of each limb and each part of our body. Let's do the work that we need to do in order to make sure we are being grateful with our eyes and with our ears and with our mouths and with each part of our body. And let's try to put this into practice and to try to remember that gratitude is one of the highest stations you and I can achieve. And it is one of the virtues that you have in this life but it also carries over with you into the next life. That Allah says in the Quran that in heaven people are grateful, they are grateful to Allah, that they feel grateful for all the blessings that they have. So practice that gratitude in this life and then inshaAllah Allah allows that to carry over to the next life. Let's be people who look at the glass not just half full but always full who try to see the positivity in every situation, who try to be optimistic, who try to have a good outlook and who inwardly are in a state of resignation and submission to Allah and in a state of shukr and in a state of gratitude and who outwardly articulate that and they say thank you to Allah and they feel that. And of course they say thank you to anybody who facilitates that into the people that it is that give them certain things and whatnot. Let's try to have that mentality and let's not let this mentality of complaining, of negativity, of looking at things in the wrong way get to us. And that is one of the best traits that our religion can offer of course ourselves as Muslims and to the modern world today. JazakAllah khayr. May Allah bless all of you. May Allah give us the ability to be people of gratitude and to be people of shukr. Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah for all of our blessings. We thank you. We praise you, my Lord. Ya Allah, for everything it is that you have given us. Thank you for the ability to meet today. Thank you for the ability to talk. Forgive us for anything it is that we have said that you do not like. Thank you for giving us the ability to be in our homes, to be in a comfortable state to get for all the food that you've given us, my Lord. Ya Allah, for all of the water that you have given us. Ya Allah, for all of the amazing blessings for our families and for our spouses and for our parents and for every single person that you have given us. And for every single blessing it is that you have given us and you know best what all those blessings are. And let us be people who practice shukr regularly and make us from the people of gratitude always inwardly and outwardly. And be pleased with us, Ya Rabbi, Alameen. Ya Allah, and let us reach the state where you are completely pleased with us and where we are completely pleased with you. Wa sallallahu alayhi wa sallim, mubarak. A'la Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallim. Alhamdulillah, Ya Rabbi, Alameen. And don't forget to always be grateful for the blessing of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that he is an amazing blessing. He is the greatest blessing that we have. The Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallim and then to be grateful for the guidance that Allah gave you through the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallim. Wa sallallahu alayhi wa sallim, mubarak. A'la Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallim. Alhamdulillah, Ya Rabbi, Alameen. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.