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بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم. Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds. And peace and blessings upon the noblest of prophets and messengers. Muhammad, Messenger of God ﷺ. Many greetings. Peace upon you. My brothers and sisters. Allahﷻ said in Surah Ibrahim. وَاسْتَأْثَنَ رَبُّكُمْ لَوۡ شَكَرۡتُمۡ لَزِدَنَّٰكُمۡ ۖ وَلَوۡ كَفَرۡتُمۡ إِنَّ عَذَابِي لَشَدِيدٌ (wa ista’athana rabbukum la’in shakartum la’azidan lakum. wa la’in kafartum inna azabi la shadeed). Allahﷻ said that if you try to count the blessings He has given you, you will not be able to count them. Right. You will not be able to count them. Despite that, for us to count and be thankful is from the tawfiq of Allah. That Allahﷻ enables us to thank Him for what He has given us.
Now thanking has an immediate effect which is how the blessing is enhanced. And that immediate effect is that when you thank Allah for something, it draws your attention to that thing. Right. Now it’s human nature. There are a lot of studies regarding customer satisfaction which show that it’s human nature to focus on the negative more than the positive. For example, in a given day many people may have told you many positive things. We take it for granted. We even forget it. But one person says one negative thing. That will stick in your mind. It will keep on poking you. You know. You will repeat it again and again to yourself. Why did this guy say this? He insulted me. This goes on. Right. There’s one study I remember reading many years ago which said that if a customer has a happy experience he comes to you for whatever service you are providing or product you are selling. He buys it. He is happy. He will tell between two to three people about this experience only if he is asked. The man had a happy experience. Whatever you are selling or whatever you are providing. He took that. He paid for it. He is very happy. But he will tell others maybe two people maybe three people only if he is asked. But the same customer comes to you has an unhappy experience. Something goes wrong. Service failure. He will tell up to sixteen people without being asked. Ajeeb. This is a human nature. We have to ask make istighfar and tawah to Allahﷻ. This is our nature. So if you have a happy experience you will tell maybe two maybe three people only if you are asked. But if you have an unhappy experience something where service failure dissatisfaction you will tell up to sixteen people without being asked. You will volunteer that information.
So this is a tendency. Now Allahﷻ is saying that obviously this tendency does not give you satisfaction. The person complaining about the lack of service at the end of the complaining he is still not happy because he is still thinking about the negative thing. Right. He is not happy. He is just telling people. It is a useless point to tell people what are the people going to do anyway. But still we do this. Right. So we ask Allahﷻ to save us from that. But the point is Allahﷻ is saying to thank Allahﷻ. Allahﷻ will increase the satisfaction. The first and foremost thing when you are conscious when you thank Allah is you become conscious of what you have. Say SubhanAllah. I am enjoying this. You take a deep breath. And say SubhanAllah. Look at this air. How pure it is. And how sweet it is. You are going through some this summer. Hyderabad summer is always famous because it is very hot. This year seems to be hotter than others. Yet if you go out now at the time of Fajr or even if you go out in the night Isha time the heat is much much less. It is not cool but it is very nice. Especially you get a nice breeze. It is beautiful. I walk up and down here. You get a breeze. It is so nice. Say Alhamdulillah. That does not mean the day is not hot. We are not saying it is not hot. But Alhamdulillah. Allahﷻ has also given us a night where it is cool. I was talking to my sister she lives in Karim Nagar. She was saying the night time temperature is 47 degrees. Can you imagine. Night time temperature is 47 degrees. Allah may Allah protect us from this. So Alhamdulillah we are in a place where we do not have this. Thank Allahﷻ. Be conscious.
So when you are thanking Allahﷻ, Lain shakartum. Lain zidannakum. The way in which Allahﷻ increases the blessing is by making us conscious of it. So that we feel Alhamdulillah. Now we are sitting in this masjid. It is a small little masjid. But we are sitting in absolute comfort. It is air conditioning. There are carpets. And this and that. Alhamdulillah. We have we are because we are regulars Mashallah. We have everyone is a good friend of each other. One day one person doesn’t come somebody will ask. I had this wonderful friend of mine May Allahﷻ fill his life with light. Salim Sharif who was my senior in planting in tea planting. He taught me a lot. Also he was also my teacher in many ways. So Salim Bhai retired. He was from Chennai. So he retired. And he went back to Chennai. So after that one day I was in Chennai. So I went to see him. So I asked him. Salim Bhai everything is okay. I say Alhamdulillah. Everything is fine. And you know Mashallah. And then he tells me. He says you know the masjid is very close to my house in Chennai. So he said when I came here I started going to the masjid. And I started going now to offer all this the salah for all five prayers. He said the strange thing is one day if I don’t go for one prayer the next prayer I go everybody asks me Ah you didn’t come for Zohar. Is everything okay? You know I mean we didn we missed you. He says I spent 40 years in planting in the tea gardens. You know we had huge big houses and whatnot. But masjids were miles and miles away.
So he almost never went to the masjid. So he said I never had this feeling of being loved and being cared for and that somebody is concerned. And Allah Ta’ala gave him a beautiful ending. He when he came when he retired and came to Chennai. He said to his wife let’s go for Hajj. And he said to her you come with me if you don’t want to come with me don’t come. I am going. So anyway she wanted to go also. So they went for Hajj. They finished his Hajj. Came back. He used to go for Salah five times a day. And his routine was he would go for Zohar. Come back home. Eat. Sleep for a little while. And he would tell his wife wake me up for Asar. Then he would go for Asar. So one day he came. Went for Zohar. He prayed Zohar. Came. He had his lunch. He told his wife please wake me up for Asar. And he went to sleep. And that’s it. When she went to wake him up Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala had called him. See the point is when the man came to the Masjid even though previous years before that he was not able to go but when he started going regularly Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala honours that. He appreciated that. He appreciated the fact that I am able to go to the masjid. The masjid is close by. I am going. I am going for all the five Salah. I feel so nice. That I go. I am able to go. And people you know care for me. They ask me. And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala took him in that state after he had finished his Hajj and everything. Alhamdulillah. Beautiful beautiful ending.
So I say to myself and you. I remind myself and you. Let us make this a habit. That we consciously thank Allahﷻ every day for a number of things. Say five things a day. Ten things a day. Whatever. But make make this into an absolute habit. Every day. The moment you open your eyes. Thank Allahﷻ. Alhamdulillah. That my body is working. Alhamdulillah. That I am that I have a dwelling. I have a house. That is secure. Alhamdulillah. I have been to countries where people have beautiful houses. And Wallahi I mean without exaggeration. I have not seen one single house like that in Hyderabad. Not even one. The kinds of houses I have seen in some countries. Beautiful. I mean absolutely architectural marvels. They have beautiful houses. Right. Worth God knows what. But going into that house is like going into Fort Knox. You got to go through three barriers of security. There are electric fences. And barbed wires. And guard dogs. And God knows what. People go out they are not sure that they will come back home alive. Every single day. House is there but there is no security. Alhamdulillah. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala gave us peacefully. I mean in this place there are people there are neighbors of mine who their door is open the whole day. I actually want to go and tell them don’t leave it open like that. If nothing mice will get in or something will get in or shut the door. Or why do you want why is it I don’t know. But Alhamdulillah.
That’s the reason why Rasulullah عليه السلام hadith. He said that if you wake up in the morning and your body is functioning right you wake up in the morning and your body is functioning okay maybe you got an ache some ache pain what not this comes with age. And Alhamdulillah not everybody is blessed with old age. Right. So if somebody is complaining oh you know I’ve got this pain and so on well if you had died at 30 years ago at 30 years old brother you wouldn’t have had any pains. Right. If you had died at 40. You would have died without pains. So what you you want to do that. You want you want to die at 30. Alhamdulillah. Allah made you 70. Thank Alhamdulillah. Allah gave me another 40 years worth of whatever you did. You know good. Good. We ask Allah to accept the good and to forgive the bad. So we wake up in the morning. Rasulullah عليه السلام said if you wake up in the morning and your body is functioning you have a roof over your head meaning that you are you know secure place and you have food for that day one day he’s not talking about the next day food for that day. Rasulullah عليه السلام said if this is your state then it is as if the whole world has been collected for you. Whole world is collected for you. The thing is to be conscious of that.
So I remind myself and you let us do that be conscious of Allah’s blessings. And actually count them five or ten every day. Allah has Alhamdulillah my eyesight is okay. Alhamdulillah. My digestion is okay. Right. Alhamdulillah. This this what now. I’ve got a good family. I’ve got children. I’ve got a wife. I’ve got a husband. Make count this. And also make this into a habit before you ask Allah for anything. Right. For example if you say okay my knees are paining I want to ask Allah Subhanallah Ya Allah remove remove this pain. Before you make that request before you ask Allah for anything first thank Allah Subhanallah for three things. Then ask Alhamdulillah. Ya Rabb. You gave me Iman. Alhamdulillah. Ya Rabb. You told you showed me that I have to ask you and nobody else. Imagine there are people who are going to who are worshipping gods which don’t exist their own imagination. And they are asking so you are asking they have they also have problem problems are not restricted to Muslims everybody has got problems. So thank Allah. Alhamdulillah. Ya Allah. You guided me to yourself. You guided me to the right path. You showed me to make dua. You said to me Udu’uni Astajib lakum. Ask me. Astajib lakum I will give you. Ya Allah. Give me this.
So thank Allah. Subhanallah. For at least three things. And then ask whatever you need to ask. I am not saying don’t ask. We have to ask Allah. But make this into a formula for yourself. And say before I ask Allah anything I will first thank Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala for at least three things. And then I will ask Inshallah. If you make this habit of gratitude to Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala has given us more than we can ever imagine if we make this habit of gratitude Inshallah then you will find that we will be very happy. We will be very contented. Very happy. And then of course if Allah wants to give more he gives more. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala to make us among the Grateful Ones. To make us among those who are constantly thankful to Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. Who constantly express their gratitude. Being thankful is in the heart. Expressing gratitude is required. Therefore tell Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala to make us among his Grateful Ones. Among his people who always express gratitude. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala to accept it from us. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala to protect what He has given us. And to increase it in keeping with His majesty and grace. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala to keep us in safety. In Iman. With Izzah. Wherever we are. Wa sallallahu ala nabiyyil kareem. Wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma’in. Bi rahmatika ya rahmatullahi wa rahmeen. Wa alhamdulillah. Rabbil alayhim. Al Fatiha.