Thanks, Shaykh Ahmed Bermejo

Allah says in His Book: “Truly Allah has granted a grace to the believers by sending them a Messenger from among themselves who recites His signs to them, purifies them and teaches them the Book and the Wisdom; for they were in obvious misguidance before” (3:164).

Allah, subhanahu wa ta’la fills us with gifts, fills us with blessings, even if we do not ask for them, He, in His Immense Generosity gives us continuously. And among those blessings, there is one above the rest.

This grace, this blessing, this gift, this good, is the best of creation, the most beloved of Allah, Muhammad, pbuh. And like every blessing, it requires from us thanksgiving, and for that we should praise Allah and thank him continuously. Thank Him for the gift He has given us with the Prophet Muhammad, pbuh, as well as the rest of the gifts He has blessed us with.

And I consider that these moments we are living, these moments of recollection and intimacy, are moments to reflect and are moments to be thankful, to be grateful servants.

The paths that lead to Allah are many and varied, but the easiest, the shortest, the most direct as the people of the Ihsan say, is the path of gratitude. And precisely because of its importance and because of how close it is to Allah, or how fast it leads us to Allah, is why the Shaytan, may Allah curse him, tries to prevent it, tries to prevent us from being thankful.

That is why Allah mentions in the Qur’an the words of the Shaytan when He says: “I will make difficult for them Your straight path. Then I will approach them from the front and from behind, from the right and from the left, and most of them you will not find grateful” (7:16) .

He did not say prostrating praying, he did not say reciting the Koran, he did not say worshipping, he said thanking, and this is the proof that this way is the shortest and surest way to Allah.

And thankfulness brings increase, for Allah says: “If you are grateful, I will give you even more, but if you are ungrateful… it is certain that My punishment is intense” (14:7) .

But you know what is the best thing about gratitude, apart from being the shortest way to Allah, apart from bringing with it increase, which is a barrier to punishment. Allah says: “ What would Allah gain by punishing you if you are grateful and believe? Allah is Thankful and Knowing.” (4, 147)

All this tells us that the path of gratitude is the best way to reach Allah; in fact, Allah does not ask anything of us, the only thing He asks of us is to be grateful.

Thankfulness has three degrees, thankfulness with the tongue, thankfulness with the limbs and thankfulness with the heart.

The thanksgiving of the tongue is simple, it is easy, it is to increase our alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah wa shukrulillah; and Allah is the one who teaches it to us, Allah is the one who has commanded us in every rakat of our prayer to do so, when we say at the beginning of each of those rakat, alhamdulillah rabbil ‘alamin.

And this is the first word ever uttered by a human being; for when Allah breathed his ruh into Adam, when it reached his nose, he sneezed and said, by Allah’s inspiration: Alhamdulillah.

Musa said to Allah, “You created him with Your hands, breathed Your ruh into him, made the angels prostrate before him, made him live in the Garden and then accepted his repentance. How was he able to be grateful for these five great gifts that You gave him?” Said Allah, “It was enough for Adam that when he sneezed he said, ‘Alhamdulillah.'”

It has been transmitted that on one occasion Amir Al Muninim ‘Umar Ibn al Khattab, met a man on the street and asked him, ‘How are you?’ ‘Fine,’ he replied. ‘How are you?’ Sayiduna ‘Umar asked him again. ‘I am well’ the man replied again. And for the third time ‘Umar says to him: ‘How are you’. And this time the man replies saying: ‘I am well, alhamdulillah’. ‘That is says ‘Umar, that is what I wanted to hear from you!’

The second degree is the thankfulness of the members, and that is to employ them in that which Allah loves and that which pleases Him and not to employ them in that which He hates. Allah says: “O family of Daud, work with gratitude! Few are My grateful servants” (34:13).

Work, act, use the members of your body. And that is why the Messenger of Allah, pbuh, spent the night in prayer.

The third degree is thankfulness of the heart. And what is the gratitude of the heart? It is the knowledge and recognition, total and absolute, without the slightest room for doubt, that the giver, that the one who has given you everything and continues to give it to you and will continue to give it to you until you leave this world and even after you leave this world, is solely and exclusively, Allah, subhanahu wa ta’ala.

“The gifts you have come from Allah” (16:53).

But it is also necessary, that we thank the means that Allah uses to bring those gifts to us. And the greatest gift we have is the gift of Islam and the means Allah used to bring that gift to us was the best in creation, his Prophet and Messenger Muhammad, pbuh. If it were not for the means we would not have reached the goal. For, without him, we would not have known Allah, Our Din, our Islam, Iman, our love, our knowledge, our way….

“For verily the good of the Messenger of Allah has no limit, for anyone to express it in words.”

Allah says in His Book, “Truly Allah has granted a grace to the believers by sending them a Messenger from among themselves who recites His signs to them, purifies them and teaches them the Book and Wisdom; for they were previously in obvious misguidance” (3:164).