Day 3
Gratitude: the key to happiness
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Welcome to Day 3 of Be Quranic 2024. Today we are continuing our brief study of Surah al-Fatihah and extracting actionable items that we can implement into our daily lives to help us be more Quranic.
Today’s aya is Alhamdulillahi rabbil ‘aalamin. We are going to break this aya into three parts; alhamdulillah, which we are going to explore today and tomorrow, and rabb al-‘aalamin, which are going to look into the day after, insha Allah.
Alhamdulillah is a very powerful phrase and within it contains the key to our happiness in this world and hereafter. Alhamdulillah means all praise is to Allah. It consists of three words, alhamd, li and Allah. Alhamd is a unique word where it combines the meaning of thanks (Shukr, in Arabic) and praise (Thana’, in Arabic). You thank someone for some actions that they have done for you. You thank a kind person for helping you out with a task at work. Praise, on the other hand, is used to say something nice about something that may or may not have benefitted you. You praise a nice car that you saw overtook you on the freeway. Neither the car nor the driver has done anything for you - but the car is inherently nice - so you praise it. You may say, “wow that’s a nice car.”
In Alhamdulillah you are saying praise and thanks to Allah. Allah is praised even before the universe is created. He is the supreme being that is deserving of praise in all conditions and situations. And Allah is thanked for He has created us, created earth for us, sustains us and provides everything for us.
Alhamdulillah can be summarised into one word - gratitude. Psychologists from Yale University tell us that gratitude is critical for happiness. People who are grateful are found to be happier and in some cases, even healthier. In 2018, UC Berkeley did a study on Gratitude Therapy. People who were going through depression were told to keep a gratitude journal. Everyday they were told to write a few things that they were grateful for. After a month, the people that did the daily journaling became much better than those that didn't.
However, gratitude therapy without God will not work in the long run. The biggest things in our lives are provided to us by God. Oxygen, a good weather, a nice family, being born in a peaceful country, water that we drink - we didn't work for all these things. It was given to us by God. For gratitude to work, we need to have three components; the beneficiary - the one receiving the benefit, the benefactor - the one providing the benefit, and the benefit itself. If we don't believe in God, our list of things to be grateful about will be restricted to material things given to us by other people. Who do you thank for a beautiful summer morning? Who do you thanks for waking up in the morning with good health? Gratitude will not work without God.
And this the beauty of Alhamdulillah. As Muslims we are grateful and we know who to thanks. In fact, the Prophet taught us to start our day with gratitude - his first du'a is Alhamdulillah for giving me back my life after I died last night and to Him I shall return. And we recite al-Fatihah in prayer where we have to say Alhamdulillah in every rakaah. Each rakaah we get to express our gratitude to Allah for every different blessing that we enjoy. And the most important blessing of all, we know who to thank. We know that we have Allah the Rabb of the worlds to thank for everything that we have. And this God of ours is ar-Rahman and ar-Raheem. If we don't know Him, our gratitude practice will fail. And gratitude is the key to happiness. Without knowing Him, we can't find our happiness. This is not just a religious prescription, this is something that modern psychologists have finally discovered.
However, being grateful is not going to be easy as it goes against what our Nafs or lower self wants.Our nafs wants to acquire.Being grateful is not going to be easy as it goes against what our Nafs or lower self wants. It is easy for us to get stuck in what is called the hedonic treadmill. When we receive a blessing that we should be grateful for, we are happy for a while. But after that we adapt and that blessing becomes the norm. We are no longer happy with it. We want more and will never be satisfied. Hedonic treadmill leads to greed. And greed is a source of many of the problems we face today. From the economic imbalance that we see in the world, to climate issues, to the constant wars - these are all fuelled by greed. Unchecked wants that can never satisfied.
So our quest today is to keep a gratitude journal. You can either use the journal that is supplied by Be Quranic, or you can just keep a note in your smartphone. My wife, who is a brilliant clinical psychologist, keeps her gratitude journal in the Notes app in her phone. Every night before she sleeps she will write three things that she is grateful for today and thank Allah for it.
Today, whenever you recite Alhamdulillah, whether in solah or outside, be mindful of the great power this simple phrase carries. This is our key to happiness in this world and the hereafter.
Remember to keep a journal. Keep it to three a day, so you can keep going on for the days to come. Start by being grateful to Allah for our Islam and Iman. The fact that we know Him and we are guided by Him. Then look around us, there are so many things for us to be grateful.
And Allah tells us, if we are grateful, He will add reasons for us to be grateful. The reverse is also true, if we complain, He will add more reasons for us to complain.
Let's start our day with Bismillah. And fill our day with Alhamdulillah.