Gratitude to the Lord
Addressed to: Mirzā Dārāb, son of Khān-i-Khānān (may Allah have mercy on them both)
نَحْمَدُهُ وَنُصَلِّي عَلَىٰ رَسُولِهِ الْكَرِيمِ
May Allah Almighty grant you His support and bestow upon you victory and assistance.
Expressing gratitude to the Benefactor is, both rationally and legally, obligatory upon the one who has been granted a blessing. It is well known that gratitude is proportional to the degree of the blessing received. Therefore, the greater the blessing, the greater the obligation to show thanks.
Hence, those who are wealthy and powerful in this world are required to show many times more gratitude than the poor, according to the disparity between their levels.
It is for this reason that the poor of the Ummah of Muḥammad ﷺ will enter Paradise five hundred years before the wealthy. As stated in the ḥadīth:
“The poor shall enter Paradise five hundred years before the rich.”
(Reported in Tirmidhī)
This refers to those poor individuals who remained patient and grateful in their poverty, and were also righteous and God-fearing. Mere poverty or lack of wealth is not enough.
True gratitude to the Real Bestower, Allah Almighty, involves the following:
- Correcting one’s beliefs according to the creed of the saved group — Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jamāʿah.
- Acting upon the legal rulings of Islam as derived from the qualified jurists (mujtahidīn) of the same group.
- Engaging in spiritual purification (taṣfiyah and tazkiyah) according to the spiritual path (ṭarīqah) of the Ṣūfīs of Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jamāʿah.
Among these three pillars:
- The first two — correct beliefs and legal action — are obligatory in the legal sense.
- The third — following the spiritual path of the Ṣūfīs — is recommended (wājib istiḥsānī) for the perfection of one’s faith.
The foundation of Islam lies in the first two, while its perfection rests upon the third.
Any action that contradicts these three, no matter how intense the effort or rigorous the discipline, falls under sin and disobedience, and is considered ingratitude toward the Real Benefactor, Allah Almighty.
The Brahmins of India and the philosophers of Greece made immense efforts in spiritual disciplines, but because their practices did not conform to the teachings of the Prophets in general, and especially to the Sharīʿah of the Best of Prophets ﷺ, all their efforts are rejected and worthless, and they are deprived of salvation in the Hereafter.
Therefore, you must follow our Master, our Patron, the Intercessor for our sins, the Healer of our hearts and the Remedy for our souls — Muḥammad, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ — and follow his rightly guided and divinely guided successors (the Khulafāʾ Rāshidīn), may Allah be pleased with them all.