Ingratitude for God’s Blessings

MAY 27 Ingratitude for God’s Blessings Right from a glass of water to political power, everything that people possess in this world is from God. Everything is a direct blessing of God. Whatever one finds in this world is there because of the will of God. If God does not will it, no one can have anything, no matter how hard he tries for it. This is an undeniable truth proved by the Qur’an and the Hadith. Another thing that we learn from the Qur’an and the hadith is that there are two forms of divine blessing. One special and the other general. Political power is a special blessing of God. We learn from the Qur’an that political power is not given to everyone. Neither can it be received through political movements or the gun culture. It is directly related with the way of God. One of the sunnah of God is that if a group proves, in the real sense of the word, to have true faith and to be virtuous in action, then God grants that group political power: Allah has promised those of you who believe and do good works to make them masters in the land (24:55). That is, even when power is desirable, the movement will begin from the point of character building and individual reform instead of political action. Then God’s general gift is what is shared, more or less by everyone. In principle, it consists of two kinds of things—peaceful circumstances and the easy availability of the necessities of life. This we learn from the following verse of the Qur’an: God has made an example of the city which was once safe and peaceful. Its provisions used to come in abundance from every quarter: but its people denied the favours of Allah. Therefore, He afflicted them with famine and fear as a punishment for what they did. (16:112) Two things in this verse are called the blessings of God: peace and provision. It shows that from the worldly point of view these two things are essential for human beings. If a group comes to possess these two things, then it should not wage war for anything else, such as political power. Rather considering those blessings to be sufficient, believers should engage themselves in thanksgiving to God, until God himself paves the way for whatever else is to come.