Dear brothers & sisters,

As-Salaamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullaahi wa Barakaatuh...

Allah tells us in the Qur'an: “So remember Me; I will remember you. And be grateful to Me, and do not deny Me.” (Quran 2:152)

Thabit Al Banani said, "I know when Allah remembers me." Taken aback, the people around him asked, "How do you know that?" "When I remember Him," he replied, "He remembers me." This refers to Allah's everlasting promise in the Qur'an, "Remember Me, so that I remember you."

The Qur'anic verse combines two commandments: remembrance of Allah on one hand (So remember Me), and thanking and praising Him on the other hand (Be grateful). At the same time, it calls him who does not observe these two orders a disbeliever (Do not deny Me). He who does not remember that there is none worthy of worship but Allah denies the basis of faith; he who is ungrateful to Allah's bounties denies His benediction and therefore his denial of belief and of bounty.

Why should we remember Allah?

With all the blessings that we are given in our lives, it is amazing and unfortunate how often we fail to think of our Creator. If we were to stop and contemplate the blessings of all that we have been given in our lives, surely we would remember Him more in everything we say and all that we do.

Remembering Allah is a manifestation of our love for Him. If we love someone, we want to remember him, repeat his words & are happy to grant all of his requests.

"And He gave you all that you asked for, and if you count the blessings of Allah, never will you be able to count them." (Quran, 14:34)

As intelligent humans we should recognize the smallest & greatest blessings from our Creator.  If someone were to give you 100dhs right now, you would at least say thank you; what about your eyes, your legs, your heart, your brains? Isn't He who created you worthy of your praise & recognition? Think…

Always Being Grateful to Allah

We should always be grateful to Allah; even for every drop of water, as Allah has mentioned in His last revelation:

"Tell me! That water that you drink. Is it you who cause it to come down, or We the Causer of it to come down? If We willed, We verily could make it salt (& undrinkable), why then do you not give thanks (to Allah)?" (Quran, 56:68-70)

Gratefulness is a part of the test by Allah. Man is surely endowed with favor from Him and is informed about how he should benefit from all this favor. In return, he is expected to assume a submissive attitude towards his Creator. However, it is again only man himself who chooses to be grateful or ungrateful to Allah:
"We created Man from a drop of mingled sperm, in order to try him: So We gave him (the gifts), of Hearing and Sight. We showed him the Way: whether he be grateful or ungrateful (rests on his will)." (Quran, 2:3)

As the verses suggest, the choice of a person in this world, namely being grateful or ungrateful, is explicitly a clear sign of his faith or disbelief.

In expectation of some grand favor, some people wait for special occasions to render their thanks to Allah. Settlement of a major problem, or recovering from a serious sickness are the proper times to express one’s inner gratefulness to Allah, they assume. However, if one reflects on only for a moment, he would instantly comprehend that he is always surrounded with infinite favors. At every moment, every minute, there is an uninterrupted flow of favors reaching him; his life, good health, intelligence, consciousness, his five senses, the air that he breaths, in brief, everything that makes life possible is given to man as a favor. In return for all these, a person is expected to serve Allah in gratitude. Those who are heedless of these favors and accordingly neglect to turn to Allah for expressing their gratefulness, only acknowledge the importance of these favors when they are deprived of them.