Acknowledging the Blessing of Provision

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on May 20, 2025 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

O Allah, for Palestine and its people, gentleness, pardon, good pleasure, victory, support, and aid; O Allah, be for them a helper and an ally; O Allah, help them in what lies before them, be gentle with them, and have mercy on their weakness, O Most Merciful of the merciful; and for every oppressed person on the earth and everyone who asks You, O Possessor of Majesty and Honor.

And now, in the matter of provision we see a very important sentence.

When Allah Gives, He Asks for Acknowledgment

When Allah, Blessed and Exalted, gives, He asks of the one who has received to acknowledge His giving, the Mighty and Majestic; only that you say to Allah: I acknowledge that You are the Bestower of favors. And this acknowledgment has its first form, which is saying: Praise be to Allah.

Qārūn: The Clear Example

And the very clear example given to us in the Qur'an is His saying, the Exalted: ﴿وَابْتَغِ فِيمَا آتَاكَ اللَّهُ الدَّارَ الْآخِرَةَ وَلَا تَنسَ نَصِيبَكَ مِنَ الدُّنْيَا وَأَحْسِن كَمَا أَحْسَنَ اللَّهُ إِلَيْكَ وَلَا تَبْغِ الْفَسَادَ فِي الْأَرْضِ ۖ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ الْمُفْسِدِينَ﴾ ("But seek, through that which Allah has given you, the home of the Hereafter; and do not forget your share of the world; and do good as Allah has done good to you; and do not seek corruption in the land. Indeed, Allah does not like corrupters").^[1] To whom was this speech directed? To Qārūn. How much did Qārūn have? Allah, the Exalted, says: ﴿إِنَّ قَارُونَ كَانَ مِن قَوْمِ مُوسَىٰ﴾ ("Indeed, Qārūn was from the people of Moses"), and the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted, tells us that ﴿وَآتَيْنَاهُ مِنَ الْكُنُوزِ مَا إِنَّ مَفَاتِحَهُ لَتَنُوءُ بِالْعُصْبَةِ أُولِي الْقُوَّةِ﴾ ("We had given him of treasures whose keys would burden a band of strong men")^[2]; that is, a quantity of wealth without limit, with no bounding of its end and no counting, something beyond human expectations.

So what was asked of Qārūn? The obligations required here, on the tongue of the people who had awareness: ﴿وَابْتَغِ فِيمَا آتَاكَ اللَّهُ الدَّارَ الْآخِرَةَ وَلَا تَنسَ نَصِيبَكَ مِنَ الدُّنْيَا﴾ ("But seek, through that which Allah has given you, the home of the Hereafter; and do not forget your share of the world") in your palaces, your cars, and your planes that you want, ﴿وَلَا تَبْغِ الْفَسَادَ فِي الْأَرْضِ﴾ ("and do not seek corruption in the land"). These are the only two obligations present, while ﴿وَأَحْسِن كَمَا أَحْسَنَ اللَّهُ إِلَيْكَ﴾ ("and do good as Allah has done good to you") is included as a matter of course. And had Qārūn only said: Praise be to Allah, would what befell him of being swallowed up have reached him? ﴿فَخَسَفْنَا بِهِ وَبِدَارِهِ الْأَرْضَ فَمَا كَانَ لَهُ مِن فِئَةٍ يَنصُرُونَهُ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ وَمَا كَانَ مِنَ الْمُنتَصِرِينَ﴾ ("So We caused the earth to swallow him and his home. And he had no company to aid him other than Allah, nor was he of those who [could] defend themselves").^[3]

Allah Does Not Care About This World

Many people, and we seek refuge in Allah, think that the wealth they have gathered cannot possibly go, and that Allah will surely preserve for them what they have built. And the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted, does not care about this world or what is in it. And many people imagine that if they built up great financial capacities it is impossible for them to go. And the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, the Exalted, tells us in His saying, the Mighty and Majestic, at the end of al-Furqān: ﴿قُلْ مَا يَعْبَأُ بِكُمْ رَبِّي لَوْلَا دُعَاؤُكُمْ﴾ ("Say, 'What would my Lord care for you were it not for your supplication?'").^[4] Do you see this text? And the speaker derives from it the value of the good word, the word "Praise be to Allah." For had Qārūn said "Praise be to Allah" when they reminded him of Allah, Blessed and Exalted, he would have been safe, he and his wealth and his family and all he owned. But he did not, so what the Lord of the worlds told came to pass, his being swallowed up, together with his home.

False Wealth

Arrogance in speech, and the sense of wealth through what a person owns, is a false feeling that Satan throws into the souls of creation so that they feel a might other than the might of Allah, a defense other than the protection of Allah, and an authority other than the authority of the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted. So he disgraces them psychologically, fills them with a false feeling, and they say: ﴿إِنَّمَا أُوتِيتُهُ عَلَىٰ عِلْمٍ عِندِي﴾ ("I was only given it because of knowledge I have").^[5] This is a slogan; the slogan of Qārūn: he said, I was only given it because of knowledge I have. And the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted, tells: ﴿فَخَرَجَ عَلَىٰ قَوْمِهِ فِي زِينَتِهِ ۖ قَالَ الَّذِينَ يُرِيدُونَ الْحَيَاةَ الدُّنْيَا يَا لَيْتَ لَنَا مِثْلَ مَا أُوتِيَ قَارُونُ إِنَّهُ لَذُو حَظٍّ عَظِيمٍ﴾ ("So he came out before his people in his adornment. Those who desired the life of this world said, 'Oh, would that we had like what was given to Qārūn. Indeed, he is a possessor of great fortune'"). And you will find around you those who tempt with this state. ﴿وَقَالَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ وَيْلَكُمْ ثَوَابُ اللَّهِ خَيْرٌ لِّمَنْ آمَنَ وَعَمِلَ صَالِحًا﴾ ("But those who had been given knowledge said, 'Woe to you! The reward of Allah is better for he who believes and does righteousness'").^[6]

The Second Form: Doing Good

And the form of righteous deed that expresses the servant's gratitude to the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted, is that doing good. Allah, the Exalted, says: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تُلْهِكُمْ أَمْوَالُكُمْ وَلَا أَوْلَادُكُمْ عَن ذِكْرِ اللَّهِ ۚ وَمَن يَفْعَلْ ذَٰلِكَ فَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْخَاسِرُونَ﴾ ("O you who have believed, let not your wealth and your children divert you from remembrance of Allah. And whoever does that, then those are the losers"), then: ﴿وَأَنفِقُوا﴾ ("And spend").^[7] This is the second form of preserving the blessing.

We agreed from the start: is it easy for Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, or difficult, to grant creation? What do you think? It is easy for Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, to give one person of wealth whatever He wills, however great; this is the lightest thing in the universe. So is what is asked difficult for our Lord, glory be to Him, the Exalted? That He give you intelligence through which you are able to invent, innovate, and bring in money? What is asked is something very simple: that you express to Allah your gratitude, My Lord, I am thankful for the blessings I have in hand.

Forms of Gratitude

We said that gratitude has forms. The first form is that you express it and say: Praise be to Allah. And you remember the ḥadīth we have repeated often, on the meaning that Allah forgives the servant who eats a meal and praises Him for it.^[8] And these sins of his include words, deeds, behaviors, states, problems, and disputes. So the word of praise in itself was a very strong qualification for Allah, the Exalted, to forgive him his sins. And the word "Praise be to Allah" over the money you earn is the greatest psychological test, because people before provision are in two states.

The first state: abundance of wealth that makes one transgress. And the other state: scarcity of wealth that makes the servant ask: What is the matter? I have capacities and I have abilities! So he looks inward, and either he is looking at himself as greater than what he was given, or looking at himself as deserving more than what he was given. Let us understand this matter: one says to you, My capacities are higher than this, why is my provision small? And another says, I deserve more than this.

Before Death Comes to One of You

Our Lord, glory be to Him, the Exalted, says: ﴿وَأَنفِقُوا مِن مَّا رَزَقْنَاكُمْ مِّن قَبْلِ أَن يَأْتِيَ أَحَدَكُمُ الْمَوْتُ فَيَقُولَ رَبِّ لَوْلَا أَخَّرْتَنِي إِلَىٰ أَجَلٍ قَرِيبٍ فَأَصَّدَّقَ وَأَكُن مِّنَ الصَّالِحِينَ﴾ ("And spend from what We have provided you before death comes to one of you and he says, 'My Lord, if only You would delay me for a brief term so I would give charity and be among the righteous'").^[9] And the ḥadīth qudsī, which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ relates from the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, the Exalted, in which He says: «أنفقْ أُنفقْ عليك» ("Spend, and I will spend on you").^[10]

People are deluded by what Allah has given them to the point of forgetting the hungry, forgetting the sick, forgetting the needy, and looking at the conditions of women prisoners. And let us stop at this small point: one of our friends wrote a post on Facebook speaking about the proportion of women prisoners; we are speaking of women in prison because of what? Because she married and then her husband left her and went off, Allah, the Exalted, knows best where he went, so she was forced to buy things for the house, or buy things for the children, or pay school expenses. From where did she get that? By debt, and the debt has a receipt, and the receipt was taken to the police, and the police apply the law, so they imprisoned her; she was imprisoned over paltry sums. Imagine a person imprisoned over a trivial sum for a year or two on a charge of squandering! Imagine these big words: squandering, or consuming people's wealth unjustly, or deception, or fraud, or forgery, or swindling and cheating, all because of things of this sort.

And imagine that you read this sentence, and before it you find news that from a woman's home was stolen just so much gold and such huge sums of money. What is the meaning of all this contrast? The point of the saying is that when people were given wealth they forgot; the people of need slipped from their minds, especially those who are in distress for trivial reasons. So our Lord, glory be to Him, the Exalted, says: ﴿وَأَنفِقُوا مِن مَّا رَزَقْنَاكُم مِّن قَبْلِ أَن يَأْتِيَ أَحَدَكُمُ الْمَوْتُ﴾ ("And spend from what We have provided you before death comes to one of you").

Who Looks at People Only When Death Comes to Him

When death comes to the son of Adam and he looks at those around him among the dead, then imagine; let me give a very simple example: someone entered prison, and he came from outside in his car and his suit and his brands. He entered prison and found the unemployed, the swindler, and the thief, and found people of thought and people of vice, people of luxury and people of humiliation. All these people, he had not been seeing them. Why? Because he lives in his own area, in his bubble, so he moves in the midst of a group of people whom he does not go beyond, neither upward nor downward.

So imagine that death comes to a person, and he begins to look at all those around him, and sees those who have died, the rich and the poor and the one who was a thief, and all the other people. So he says: ﴿رَبِّ لَوْلَا أَخَّرْتَنِي إِلَىٰ أَجَلٍ قَرِيبٍ فَأَصَّدَّقَ﴾ ("My Lord, if only You would delay me for a brief term so I would give charity"); the reason being that the only salvation for him is to give once more, ﴿وَأَكُن مِّنَ الصَّالِحِينَ * وَلَن يُؤَخِّرَ اللَّهُ نَفْسًا إِذَا جَاءَ أَجَلُهَا ۚ وَاللَّهُ خَبِيرٌ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ﴾ ("and be among the righteous. But never will Allah delay a soul when its time has come. And Allah is Acquainted with what you do").^[11]

Good Things and Gratitude

Our Lord, glory be to Him, the Exalted, commands people to seek lawful means in their livelihoods, saying: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الرُّسُلُ كُلُوا مِنَ الطَّيِّبَاتِ وَاعْمَلُوا صَالِحًا﴾ ("O messengers, eat from the good things and work righteousness"), and the same thing He commands the believers, saying: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُلُوا مِن طَيِّبَاتِ مَا رَزَقْنَاكُمْ وَاشْكُرُوا لِلَّهِ إِن كُنتُمْ إِيَّاهُ تَعْبُدُونَ﴾ ("O you who have believed, eat from the good things which We have provided for you and be grateful to Allah, if it is [indeed] Him that you worship").^[12] How do we give thanks to Allah? A word of thanks to the Lord of the worlds, expressing a psyche shaped by faith, which moved it to earn what is lawful, moved it to thank Allah in word, and moved it to give some of what it received in the cause of the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted.

Do not deprive your hands of giving as Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, has not deprived us of taking, and do not deprive yourselves of helping people as Allah has not deprived you of help from Him. And see that many of creation are ones to whom you are the means of provision, just as Allah has placed in your hands the means of provision. The equations laid down by the Lord of the worlds are settled, so do not delay a giving, do not spare effort, and do not withhold wealth; for what is with Allah, the Exalted, is better and more lasting.

I ask Allah, the Exalted, to set right our hearts, to guide our souls, to make our bodies obedient, and to preserve for us the well-being of our souls, our hearts, and our chests. O Allah, amen.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: al-Qaṣaṣ: 77. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: al-Qaṣaṣ: 76, in which the saying of the Exalted ﴿إِنَّ قَارُونَ كَانَ مِن قَوْمِ مُوسَىٰ﴾ came before the part mentioned. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: al-Qaṣaṣ: 81. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: al-Furqān: 77. And the interpretation of "your supplication" as the word of praise is from the speaker's own derivation in the context of his khatira, and most of the commentators hold that it means supplication and worship; so it should be consulted. ^[5]: Editor's documentation: al-Qaṣaṣ: 78. ^[6]: Editor's documentation: al-Qaṣaṣ: 79-80. The speaker related the last part in the form "they say," and I recorded the text of the verse as it is in the Mushaf. ^[7]: Editor's documentation: al-Munāfiqūn: 9. ^[8]: Editor's documentation: The wording of Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim from the ḥadīth of Anas, may Allah be pleased with him: «إن الله ليرضى عن العبد أن يأكل الأكلة فيحمده عليها»; and the forgiveness of sins for praising Allah after food came in another ḥadīth in Abū Dāwūd and al-Tirmidhī. The speaker did not specify the wording of the ḥadīth or its source, so its meaning was transmitted without quotation marks. ^[9]: Editor's documentation: al-Munāfiqūn: 10. ^[10]: Editor's documentation: Its meaning came in the two Ṣaḥīḥs from the ḥadīth of Abū Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him: «قال الله: أَنفِقْ أُنفِقْ عليك». ^[11]: Editor's documentation: al-Munāfiqūn: 10-11. ^[12]: Editor's documentation: al-Muʾminūn: 51, and al-Baqarah: 172.