SPIRITUALITY & GRATITUDE

reply. The officer said, “Then you must be a General”. “No, I am even greater than a general”, said the king. Then the officer who was by now in total shock said, “Then you must be the Emperor”. He said, “Yes, I am the king”. The officer handed his gun to the king and said, “You may shoot me for my crime, I have failed to recognize my king”. The king said, “No, you are a good military officer but I have an advice for you. Whenever you interact with any common man think of him as your king and of yourself as an ordinary soldier then you will treat every individual in the best manner and will consider the common man’s affairs as the affairs of the king”. To understand the above more clearly the following Hadith is very important. On Doomsday, God says to a person, “I was ill, but you did not come to nurse Me.” The man will reply, “God, You being the Lord of the universe, how can You be ill”? God will answer, “Such and such servant of Mine was ill. Had you gone there, you would have found Me there with him.” Then God says to another person, “I was hungry but you did not feed Me.” The person will reply, “God, You are the Lord of the worlds, how could You go hungry?” God says, “Such and such of My servants came to you, but you did not feed him. Had you done so, you would have found Me with him.” Then God says to yet another man, “I was thirsty, and you did not give Me water to drink.” That person will also say, “God, You are the Lord of the worlds, how could You be thirsty?” God says, “Such and such servant of Mine came to you, but you did not give him water to drink. Had you offered him water, you would have found Me there with him.” In this Hadith the teaching is that you consider every interaction with others as an interaction with God. The words used in the Hadith are symbolic and this Hadith guides us towards the character of a believer. A person who treats every human interaction as an interaction with God will not commit any excesses in his behaviour. The Islamic principle highlighted here is that if a person wants to find God, he shall first have to make himself deserving of this by serving others. This paves the way to spiritual progress. Only those who have elevated themselves spiritually will find God. Now what is the connection between spirituality and gratitude? If we realize the Unseen God in the above sense then it is impossible that we will be ungrateful to our fellow beings as we are all interdependent to live our life on earth. With this understanding we will move on to the aspect of gratitude which highlights this point with more clarity.