All praise belong to Allah, we seek his aid and his assistance, and ask his forgiveness and

we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our actions.Whomever Allah guides, none can mislead him. Whomever he leads astray, nobody can guide him. And we send salaah and salaam upon the habeeb, the rasuul, the abd of Allah- Muhammad (s) and upon all his subservient followers until the end of time. InshaAllah today ill be speaking about being thankfull to the sublime. Allah (s) Says in the Quran: Allah is full of bounty to mankind, yet most of you are ungrateful. Consider that there were two children whom you gave sweets to. The first one just took the sweets and walked away. You would say what a discourteous child and immediately you would begin to dislike him. On the contrary the other child said: Thank you very much! You would be inclined to say what a cultured child. His actions would endear him to you. In addition if you ever have another set of sweets you have to tendency to give it to him. Similarly is the case with Allah, if we thank and praise Him for His myriad bounties and favours upon us, He would have the disposition not only to love us but to confer better graces and bounties upon us. Firstly we must understand that everything is from Allah, irrespective of the medium. If we cannot conceive this concept then we would be similar to the lass in the following story: A young lass was sitting in her house on her birthday, when the doorbell rang. She hastened to the door. When she opened it, the postman gave her a package. She returned inside to open her package. She found out that it was a doll set. She was ecstatic. Later on her grandmother called her and asked her if she like the dolls that she sent her. She replied that: you did not send the dolls. The post did. This shows that she did not discern that the postman was just the medium of transportation. Likewise when something beneficial happened to us, we should thank Allah first irrespective of the medium. As it is Allah who send it to us. Although we should also thank the person as the prophet (s) said: those who do not thank man cannot thank Allah.

We should also thank Allah even though we might be experiencing the worst situation of our life. One author said: there is always, always, always something to be grateful for. Straight roads never make a skilful driver. Smooth seas never make a skilful sailor. Clear skies never make a skilful pilot. And an obstacle free life never makes a successful person. Allah (s) said: Do people think that they will be left alone because they say: 'We believe,' and will not be tested?" He(s) also said: "Or think you that you will enter Paradise without such (trials) as came to those who passed away before you?" So we should never be wary of Allahs mercy as he is only testing us to make us better. Instead we should remain patient and thankful as Allah never breaks His promise. Once someone told me a story. There was this great Muslim parachutist who was doing his stunts one day. During it he made a mistake and consequently broke his foot. To the surprise of the people he exclaimed, Alhamdulillah. One of them said, we understand why youll say it if something good happened to you. But why would you say it when you just broke your foot? He replied: am I not alive? Do I not have hands and eyes? I couldve lost my hands also. Shouldnt I then be thankful to Allah? We should look at what we have- not at what we dont have. We should look at the people that are more unfortunate than us and ponder how lucky we are. Then we should thank Allah for all of boons and favours.

Allah (s) says in the Quran: If you are grateful to Me, I will surely give you more. There is an anecdote that I would like to share with you. Once in the life of Prophet Musa (a) just before he was about to go to speak to Allah, two men came to him. The first was a rich man. He asked prophet Musa (a) to ask Allah to decrease his wealth as he had too much and it was increasing exponentially. The other man was a pauper, he asked prophet Musa (a) to ask Allah what he had to do to increase his wealth. After some time prophet Musa (a) returned

and the two men return to him for the answers. He told the rich one if he wanted to become poor he had to be ungrateful to Allah. He replied: how can I be ungrateful to Allah when He has given me so much. He had a pomegranate and at that moment it was transferred into gold. Then the poor man came to him and asks him what Allah said he had to do to become rich. He replied: Allah says that you should be more grateful. He said: what has Allah given me to be grateful to him? At that moment a fierce wind blew and carried away the pieces of rags that he was wearing. Allah (s) says: And He gives you of all that you ask Him; and if you count Allah's favors, you will not be able to number them; most surely man is very unjust, very ungrateful We rarely thank Allah (SWT) for these things which are indeed great favors. Take a little pause and think for a while about the bounties of Allah Almighty within yourself. May Allah (SWT) grant us the ability to recognize His bounties and thank Him more often. In closing Ill narrate to you an important incident that happened in the life of the prophet(s). Narrated by Muadh ibn jabal: The messenger of Allah (s) took hold of my hand and said: By Allah I love you so never forget to recite after every prayer O Allah! Help me to remember You, To be grateful to You, And to worship in the best of manners. . Subhaana rabbika rabbil'izzati 'ammaa yasifoon. Wasalaamul 'alal mursaleen. Walhamdu lillaahi rabbil 'aalameen. "Glory be to your Lord, the Lord of Might above what they describe. And peace be upon those sent. And praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds." (Surah AsSaffat 37:180-182) Subhanakallahumma wa bihamdika, ash hadu anlaa ilaaha illa anta, astaghfiruka wa atoobu ilaik. "How perfect You are O Allaah, and I praise You. I bear witness that none has the right to be worshipped except You. I seek Your forgiveness and turn to You in repentance"