Ramaḍān - Day 13

Remember the favours of Allāh upon you and how they surround you from above and below — indeed, from every direction.

Health, safety, nourishment, clothing, air, and water — these all point to the world being yours, yet you do not realise it. You possess all that life has to offer, yet remain ignorant.

أَلَمْ تَرَوْا أَنَّ اللهَ سَخَّرَ لَكُم مَّا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ وَأَسْبَغَ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعَمَهُ ظَاهِرَةً وَ بَاطِنَةً
Do you not see that Allāh has made subject to you whatever is in the heavens and the earth and amply bestowed upon you His favours, [both] apparent and unapparent?
[Qur’ān, Sūrah Luqmān (31), verse 20]

Can you picture yourself walking without feet? Should you take it lightly that you slumber soundly while misery hinders the sleep of many?
Should you forget that you fill yourself with both delicious dishes and cool water while the pleasure of good food and drink is impossible for some, due to sickness and disease?
Consider the faculties of hearing and seeing with which you have been endowed.
Look at your healthy skin and be grateful that you have been saved from diseases that attack it.
Reflect on your powers of reasoning and remember those that suffer from mental ailments.
Would you sell your ability to hear and see for the weight of Mount Uḥud in gold, or your ability to speak for huge castles? You have been given abundant favors, yet you feign ignorance. Notwithstanding warm bread, cool water, easy sleep, and good health, you remain despondent and depressed. You think about what you do not have and are ungrateful for what you have been given. You are troubled by a loss in wealth, yet you have the key to happiness and many blessings.

Contemplate and be thankful.

[Don’t be Sad, Dr. ʿĀ’iḍ al-Qarnī, Page 35-36]