The Embodiment of Gratitude (Shukr)

When someone asked Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani about thankfulness [shukr], the Shaikh (may ALLAH be well pleased with him) explained :

"The true nature of thankfulness [haqiqat ash-shukr] is the acknowledgment of the benefaction of the Benefactor [ni'mat al-Mun'im], with an attitude of humility, an overt recognition of the blessing, and a reverential confession of one's inability to give adequate thanks. Thankfulness can be subdivided into several categories, namely:

1. Thankfulness expressed by the tongue [shukr al-lisan]. This constitutes the acknowledgment of the benefaction [ni'ma] with an attitude of humble acceptance [istikana].

2. Thankfulness expressed by the body and the limbs [shukr bi'l-badan wa 'l-arkan]. This is the characteristic indication of loyalty and readiness to serve [al-wafa' wa 'l-khidma].

3. Thankfulness expressed by the inner feeling [shukr bi'l-qalb]. This requires a careful balance between the visible display of appreciation and the constant preservation of a sense of reverence.

"Beyond this stage, thankfulness passes from the realm of the visible to the realm of the invisible [ghaiba], where the focus of attention is the Benefactor [Mun'im], rather than the benefaction [ni'ma].

"The person who is simply thankful [shakir] is someone who gives thanks for what is available [mawjud], while the person who is very thankful [shakur] is someone who gives thanks for what is unavailable [mafqud].

"The person who gives praise [hamid] is someone who regards withholding as a gift, and views harm as a benefit, and in whose sight the two qualities eventually become equal.

"The glory [majd] that exhausts all expressions of praise [mahamid] is the witnessing of perfection [kamal], in the quality of Beauty [Jamal] and the attribute of Majesty [Jalal], with the eye of direct perception, on the carpet of nearness [to the Lord]."

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On the basis of extensive study of the Qurʾān, Toshihiko Izutsu’s concluded that “Islam as a religion is . . . an exhortation to gratitude towards God.”

 The analysis which follows is divided into four sections. It begins with a study of gratitude of the heart, tongue and body, and concludes with an overview of the meaning and significance of the obligation of thankfulness towards others.

 Gratitude of the Heart : For Sufi authors, the foundation of gratitude, as we would naturally expect, lies in shukr al-qalb or “gratitude of the heart.” This entails, first of all, recognizing the blessing as a blessing—not in itself an easy task considering the human tendency to overlook blessings. The usual explanation that is given is that it is the result of an inbuilt propensity towards ghafla or heedlessness, not just of God, but also His favors.5 Secondly, it involves retracing the gift to its ontological origin. After all, we read in the Qurʾān, “you have no blessing (niʿma) except that it is from God” (Cor 16, 53).6 It was this awareness that led Kharrāz to declare in no uncertain terms that “gratitude of the heart is that you know that blessings are from God alone and not another.”7 Likewise, Makkī (d. 996) would define this level as one that involves “witnessing the Benefactor in the blessing and the appearance of the Gift-Giver in the gift, so that you see that the blessing and the gift are from Him.”8 Similarly, Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1350), in his commentary on Ansārī’s (d. 1089) Stations of the Travelers (Manāzil al-sāʾirīn), stresses the same idea when he writes, “when one recognizes a blessing, he attains through knowledge of it knowledge of the Benefactor.”9 Our authors never tire of emphasizing that even though others might appear to be the sources of one’s blessings, they are simply means (asbāb) through which God confers them upon us. Gratitude of the heart is to see through the means to the source, even though, as we shall soon see, the full embodiment of this virtue entails also extending one’s thanks to the “intermediaries.” But to the extent that this stage involves acknowledging the true nature of the gift, it requires that one not be incognizant of its ultimate origin. In explaining this very point, Ghazālī would argue, in chorus with other authorities, that to consider that any other than God may be responsible for the bestowal is to be guilty of association (shirk). If a man were to receive a gift from a king, he explains, but ascribed some of the favor to the ruler’s vizier, steward, or any of his servants, under the mistaken presumption that one of them was responsible for the benefaction, his feelings of indebtedness would be divided between the king and his subordinates. By such a division of affection, he would betray the right of the king (ḥaqq al-malik), who, by his own decision to bestow the gift, and through his own power of sovereignty, was the sole source of the gift, and in this respect, entirely deserving of the man’s gratitude.10 Moreover, such a man would no longer be a muwaḥḥid or “affirmer of divine unity” in so far as recognizing the sole sovereignty of the king was concerned. The favors which come our way in this world are, in Ghazālī’s eyes, not much different.11 This does not mean, as already noted, that one need not be grateful to others, since the Qurʾān, as our Sufi authors frequently remind us, itself commands such thankfulness. Gratitude towards others, however, must be tempered by an awareness that there is no actor in existence besides the divine Actor—that He interacts with us as something of a Grand Puppeteer from behind the theatre of creation. The importance that our authors place on recognizing God as the ultimate source of gifts is underscored by the fact that, for Ibn al-ʿArabī, one only gives gratitude its “right” or ḥaqq when she acknowledges the divine origin of the gift. This kind of gratitude, the pivot of all others, he calls al-shukr al-ʿilmī,12 what we might translate as “gratitude of knowledge” or “knowing gratitude,”13 since it deals first and foremost with cognition and awareness. The epistemic dimension of the virtue is itself rooted in the etymology of the word shukr, which has as one of its principle meanings to “to unveil (kashf) and make manifest (iẓhār),”14 and entails revealing and disclosing an act of benefaction. It involves perception, awareness, and knowledge, the kind which by definition cannot be veiled or concealed from the shākir, the “unveiler.” Ibn al-ʿArabī considers this aspect of gratitude to be its most important element. “As for al-shukr al-ʿilmī,” he writes, “it is true gratitude (wa huwa ḥaqq al-shukr). It is to see that the blessing is from God. If you see that it is from God, then you have shown gratitude to Him with true gratitude (ḥaqq al-shukr).”15 This “true gratitude” is the kind which God also commanded Moses, according to a famous ḥadīth, to observe: Ibn Mājah reports in his Sunan, from the Messenger of God, blessings and peace be upon him, that God revealed to Moses, ‘O Moses, be grateful to Me with true gratitude.’ Moses said, ‘O Lord, who is capable of that?’ He replied, ‘If you see that the blessing is from Me, that you have shown gratitude to Me with true gratitude.’

Ibn al-ʿArabī goes on to say that, within the context of gratitude, one of God’s favors to the shākir is that he is inspired to give what he has himself received to the destitute, but in a manner which entails giving “to them through the hand of the Real (bi yad al-ḥaqq), not his own hand.”17 The favor includes the conferral of the knowledge that in his charitable distribution it is God Himself who is the distributer, and that his own role is no more than that of an intermediary. Moreover, if the recipients of these gifts in turn recognize the divine hand behind the human hand, that in fact the “servant is a veil over the Real,”18 they too enter into the ranks of those who give gratitude its right and thank God with true gratitude. This state of perpetually witnessing the divinity within one’s own activities, says Ibn al-ʿArabī, “is easy on the gnostics who have stripped themselves of their own attributes (mutajarridīn ʿan awṣāfihim) by returning matters to God.”19 Their state of self-transcendence allows them to perceive the Real behind a play of veils.

II Gratitude of the Tongue Gratitude of the heart must give way to gratitude of the tongue. This second stage consists of expressing one’s thankfulness to God through prayer and praise. Due to the powerful effect of words,20 verbal articulation helps deepen the experience of shukr and more thoroughly internalize the virtue.

The process also makes one more cognizant of the blessing, since it forces one in a sense to bring a divine favor to mind which might otherwise remain hidden from sight. Gratitude of the tongue therefore intensifies one’s awareness of the blessing and the divine generosity behind it, leading to even more frequent expressions of gratitude, creating, in effect, a cycle which eventually spills over into bodily gratitude. Shukr al-lisān may be expressed through intimate private prayer, in heartfelt personal conversation with God. It may also involve sharing one’s feeling of gratitude with others. This is why Kharrāz states that “gratitude of the tongue is to praise and glorify God, make known his benefits, and to recollect His kindness (iḥsān).”21 Makkī draws attention to the fact the Prophet would encourage others to continuously praise God in all circumstances as a way of cultivating thankfulness. “How are you this morning (kayfa aṣbaḥta)?” he once asked a companion, to which the man simply replied, “I am well.” The Prophet repeated the question, only to hear him respond, yet again, in similar fashion. When asked a third time, he finally understood the import behind the query. “I am well,” he replied, adding, and “I praise God most High, and thank Him.” “This is what I sought of you,” he was informed.22 Similarly, Makkī notes that the pious predecessors or salaf would often ask each other how they were faring simply to present the opportunity to recollect divine bounties. This is also why Makkī states that if one knows of an individual prone to habitual complaint, then it lies within her responsibility not to ask him of his condition, so as not to participate in his ingratitude.23 Both Tirmidhī and Makkī tie in the etymological relation of sh-k-r and k-sh-r, the latter of which involves parting one’s lips and displaying one’s teeth, to giving voice to gratitude.25 This involves not only unveiling something to oneself, so that one is cognizant of it, but also disclosing to others the favors that one has received by openly praising God for them. The authorities sometimes use Cor 93, 11—“proclaim the bounties of your Lord”—as a basis for this form of thankfulness. While Ibn al-Qayyim notes that the verse has also been interpreted as a command to the Prophet to openly preach his revelations, it may also point to sharing one’s gratitude with others by recalling before them one’s favors through such as expressions as “God has blessed me with suchand-such.”26 Part of the intention behind this is to encourage others to express thanks for their own gifts. Naturally, one has to exercise some degree of caution and prudence in such matters. It would betray the purpose of such a strategy to speak of favors to those who may themselves be deprived of them, because it might make them more cognizant of what is missing in their own lives, or worse, arouse in them ingratitude for blessings already in their possession. One would also not wish induce such corrosive vices as envy and jealousy. Shukr al-lisān must, in this light, be regulated not only by a sensitivity to the plight of others and the effects of one’s words, but also, as Tirmidhī suggests, an introspective examination into one’s own motives for voicing one’s gratitude openly, lest one not be moved by a concealed and hidden desire to gloat, boast and put oneself above others.27 Within the context of their inquiries into shukr, our authors sometimes will discuss the relation between gratitude and ḥamd or verbal praise.28 The relation is highlighted in a tradition in which the Prophet is reported to have said, “Praise is the summit (raʾs) of gratitude. He who does not praise God has not thanked him.”29 One authority notes that gratitude is a response (jazāʾ) to an act of benefaction, while praise is general, and not necessarily precipitated by a specific divine favor.30 Ibn al-Qayyim explains the distinction as follows:

The difference between the two is that ‘gratitude’ is more general (aʿamm) with respect to its types (anwāʿihi) and causes (asbābihi), but more specific (akhaṣṣ) with respect to those things to which it is attached, while ‘praise’ is more general with respect to those things to which it is attached, but more specific with respect to its causes (asbāb).31 What he means is simply that there are more ways of expressing gratitude than there are of praise, because gratitude may appear within the heart, on the tongue, and in one’s actions. Praise, on the other hand, is confined only to the first two. Moreover, gratitude is narrower and more restricted with respect to those things to which it might be attached, since it is a unique response to divine favor and benevolence, while praise may be inspired by virtually anything, including the contemplation of divine grandeur. This is why he also states that praise is attached to everything that might also induce gratitude, while the opposite is not so. Conversely, gratitude can be expressed in every manner in which praise might also be expressed, while the opposite is not necessarily the case, since one does embody praise through one’s actions. So gratitude is broader than praise in some respects and narrower in others, and vice-versa.32 Needless to say, both are essential elements of the spiritual life.

 III Gratitude of the Body Finally, our authorities speak of shukr al-badan, (also shukr al-jawāriḥ, “gratitude of the limbs”33), the consequence of an inner state which wells up within the heart, flows out into the tongue, and then extends into and permeates the limbs. The underlying idea behind it is that the favor be employed for the ultimate purpose for which it was given, namely, as a means of drawing closer to the divine Benefactor. In the most elemental sense, it implies that the gift be used appropriately, which means, in conformity to the dictates of revelation. The idea is perhaps most famously encapsulated in a story from the life of Junayd (d. 910) when he was a mere lad of seven. His uncle and teacher, the great Sarī al-Saqaṭī (d. 867), asked him in a gathering to explain the meaning of thankfulness. His response—a foreshadowing of the eloquent concision for which he would later become known—was “it is that you not disobey God

through a blessing.”34 Kharrāz briefly explains this point when he states that gratitude of the body is “that you not use any limb which God has made sound and whose form God has beautified to sin, and instead, that you obey God most High through it. This is also with respect to everything that He has conferred upon you and given you possession of from the world, that you use it as an aid in your obedience to Him . . . and that you not squander it in waste.”35 Likewise, Makkī writes that it is “not to sin against Him through His blessings, and to make use of His blessings in His obedience.”36 Along similar lines, Maybudī (d. 1126) observes that gratitude is “recognizing God’s blessings on you and putting them to work in obedience to Him.”37 One of the more explicit Qurʾānic foundations for this form of shukr appears in 34, 13, “work, O family of David, in gratitude.” A number of authorities also use the Prophet’s words to ʿĀʾisha, “shall I not be a grateful servant?” in response to her query about his prolonged night vigils as an example of shukr al-badan from the sunnah.38 Ghazālī provides a helpful analogy to illustrate why gratitude of the body is not only an essential element of shukr, but of Islamic piety in general. Imagine a king who with nothing to gain invited a man in a faraway land to assume residence in his royal palace so that he might enjoy his friendship and the comforts of the court. And suppose if in addition he also generously dispatched a riding beast, clothing, and money to the man to alleviate the hardships of his journey. Now, were the man to use what he received to travel to the king, such an act would be one of thankfulness, because the manner in which the gifts were employed would conform to the desire of the ruler. On the other hand, were he to remain where he was, or worse,

use the provisions to journey even further away than he already was, then his actions would constitute kufr al-niʿma or ingratitude of blessings. This is because the gifts were generously conferred for a purpose, namely to help him make his way to the kingdom so that he might enjoy the delights of the royal palace and its ruler, in comparison to which the joys of his own land were no more than mere shadowy pleasures. For Ghazālī, the analogy illustrates how all the blessings which have been conferred on the human being in this world from the time of his birth to death, extending from health to wealth and everything in between, have been conferred with one end in mind: to help draw him close to God and experience the only real and lasting felicity possible. He can also understand how when these gifts are made use of for the realization of this end, one is grateful. When, on the other hand, they are used to keep one alienated from God, to prevent one from realizing the very purpose for which he was created and sent into the world, they are not only squandered, but worse, transformed into instruments for the perpetuation of his own exile and ultimate destruction.39 Makkī, from whose meditations Ghazālī drew many of his own insights, saw this as the kind of transmutation (tabdīl) of blessings of which the Qurʾān describes in 14:28, “Have you seen those who transmuted blessings in ingratitude (kufran).”40 The logic of Ghazālī’s reasoning is further explained by him from a slightly different vantage point, but with teleology still very much at the center and with a more pronounced Aristotelian undertone. Everything he says has a purpose, a wisdom or ḥikma behind its creation, which in some cases is clear and transparent and in others subtle and less perceptible. For a human being to use anything in a manner which conforms to its raison d’être constitutes shukr, while to do otherwise comprises kufr.41 Take, for example, a hand. If it is used to unjustly strike another, argues Ghazālī, then such an act is one of ingratitude, because the hand has a purpose, to protect an individual from what harms him and to lawfully acquire what benefits him. Similarly, if the branch of a tree is broken off for no justifiable reason, then such an act also reflects a state of ingratitude because the branch also has a purpose, namely, to bear fruit and benefit others. The same can be said of the hoarding of gold and silver as well as the use of utensils crafted out of them, because these metals have a purpose, and this is to serve (as far as humans are concerned) as currency for trade and economic transactions. For one to amass them with the aim of satisfying extravagant tastes and make a show of one’s own riches 

before others is to betray the purpose for which they were created. It is also to contribute to imbalances in the economy of the land.42 One may also extend this kind of ingratitude to include the gross accumulation of wealth in a way which prevents the destitute and needy from accessing the basic amenities of life and which generates stark disparities between the rich and poor. To be a miser, to be uncharitable, to be stingy with one’s possessions are all to be included within the broader scope of kufr al-niʿma. On the other hand, to put one’s faith into practice with a desire for God alone, to abide by one’s knowledge and impart it to others, and to live in moderation and share from one’s own wealth, all of these would be respective examples of the shukr al-niʿma of faith, knowledge and wealth. In short, all acts that are praised by religion have, as Ghazālī sees it, the goal of facilitating the ends for which everything was brought into existence. Gratitude is therefore inseparable from being just towards God’s creation, giving all beings their rights, and comporting oneself in relation to them in a manner which facilitates the attainment of their final ends. Shukr is to use what one has received from God, or what He has given one power over, wholesomely and beautifully. It is to employ divine favors in a manner which conforms to what God loves, and what He loves, says Ghazālī, is to see everything reach its teleological end. To stand as an obstacle to this attainment, however, lies at the heart of ingratitude.43 A genuine state of shukr therefore involves a deeper appreciation of the wisdom behind the dictates of revelation along with courtesy and propriety towards God’s creation. Only then can one grasp the significance of shukr al-badan as outlined in Junayd’s terse definition above. With these considerations in mind, we are in a better position to understand why in the Qurʾānic account (Cor 7, 17) Iblīs vows to lurk on the “straight path” to induce ingratitude among human beings. For Ghazālī and others, the gravity of his oath can only be grasped when one realizes that kufr al-niʿma is not simply heedlessness of life’s gifts or mere discontentment with one’s lot, but a more encompassing and embodied condition which involves the abuse and denial of divine favors. This is why he writes that “one will not understand the meaning of this verse who does not understand the entire matter,”44 with the “entire matter” being the full scope of what shukr entails. In this light, we can see why gratitude may be construed as virtually synonymous with Islam itself, as faith and practice, a point explained by ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Qāshānī (d. 1330) when he writes, “as for God giving islām and īmān the name of

gratitude (shukr), it is because gratitude has come in the Qurʾān as the counterpart of kufr.”45 This very same point was also made by Izutsu when, as we saw earlier, he observed that “Islam as a religion is . . . an exhortation to gratitude towards God.”46 

IV Gratitude to Others Our discussion of the embodiment of gratitude would be incomplete without some final remarks about the obligation of thanking others. We should begin by noting that it would be a mistake to suppose that this kind of gratitude somehow stands in contrast to gratitude to God, or that the latter is even more important than the former (as one author, for example, has suggested about gratitude in the medieval West47). To do so would be to misconstrue their relation as distinct and perhaps even competitive, when in fact the latter integrates and sanctifies the former. In other words, to be grateful to God requires of one to be grateful to others. The underlying idea here is very much in keeping with the theocentric vision of Islamic and by extension of Sufi ethics which grounds all of human virtue in one’s relationship with God. “He has not shown gratitude to God,” the Prophet is reported to have said, “who has not shown gratitude to people.”48 And in another ḥadīth we read, “those who are most grateful to God are most grateful to people.”49 Both traditions reflect the juridical notion that the “rights of the servants (of God)” (ḥuqūq al-ʿibād) are to be subsumed within the “rights of God” (ḥuqūq Allāh)—that to infringe on the rights of creation is in the final analysis to violate the responsibilities one has towards one’s Creator.50 Within the obligations of shukr at the level of human relations, parents in particular are singled out. While the Islamic tradition is certainly not unique in its emphasis on the obligations children owe parents—indeed, Hume  remarked that “[o]f all crimes that creatures are universally capable of committing, the most horrid and unnatural is ingratitude, especially when it is committed against parents . . . [t]his is acknowledge’d by all mankind”51—it is nevertheless a curious feature of the Qurʾān that only the mother and father are singled out as objects of thankfulness. “Give gratitude to Me and to your parents,” we read in 31:14. In his commentary on the verse in the Subtle Allusions, Qushayrī draws a parallel between the thankfulness that is due to both. Just as it is not enough to pay lip service in one’s gratitude to God, similarly, it is not enough simply to thank one’s parents through words: one must obey them as one also obeys God.52 Implicit within his brief exegesis is that gratitude towards one’s parents must be embodied at the three levels of the heart, tongue and body, just as it is with God. Qushayrī also specifies that part of the responsibilities of thankfulness towards parents is that one generously provide for them (bi-l infāq wa-l tawfīr) since they were a source of sustenance in early life.53 The mother in particular is accorded a privileged position in the Qurʾān and broader Islamic tradition. While Cor 31, 14 highlights the importance of thankfulness to both parents (wālidayn), it only describes the hardships endured by women: “His mother bore him by bearing strain upon strain,” the verse states, “and his utter dependence on her lasted two years.” And Cor 46, 15, which calls attention once again to the sacrifices of parents, only singles out the mother for special mention: “In pain did his mother bear him, and in pain did she give him birth.”54 Unsurprisingly, these verses would lead a number of exegetes to explicitly prioritize the obligation of gratitude one has towards one’s mother. The Andalusian scholar Ibn Juzayy al-Gharnāṭī, for example, affirms in his commentary that of the two parents, “her right is greater than that of the father.”55 And Qurṭubī, on the basis of his own examination of the structure of the verse concludes that the father’s rank is only a quarter of that of her.56 Ibn al-ʿArabī offers a brief explanation of Cor 31, 14 by drawing attention to a well-known ḥadīth, leaving no ambiguity in his short commentary which follows of who is to given priority among the two parents: And He said, ‘Be grateful to Me and your parents.’ He preferred and gave priority to being beautiful and kind to the mother over your father. It has been established that a man came to the Messenger of God and asked him, ‘To whom should I be most kind and affectionate?’ He replied, ‘Your mother.’ He then asked him again, ‘to whom I shall I be most kind and affectionate?’ He replied, ‘Your mother,’ (and he did this) three times. He then asked him a fourth time, ‘to whom shall I be most kind and affectionate?’ (Finally) he replied, ‘Your mother, then your father.’ And so he put the mother over the father in being kind and affectionate towards, and that is iḥsān [acting beautifully], just as he put the neighbor who is near over the one who is more distant, and each one has its right. If you do not have a mother but have a maternal aunt, be kind and affectionate towards her, for she stands in the rank of your mother. The Prophet counseled that one should be kind and affectionate to the aunt. Indeed, it is striking that in the absence of a mother, Ibn al-ʿArabī skips the father altogether and has the mother’s sister stand next in line in order of preference, preferring the matrilineal line. In another section of the Meccan Revelations, Ibn al-ʿArabī is even more explicit about the priority of kinship which the mother enjoys. He draws attention to the Prophetic custom which instructs the living to address the deceased person upon being lowered in the grave, “O servant of God, O son of the handmaid (ama) of God.” The reason “he is attributed to his mother,” writes our mystic, is “because she has a greater right over him due to her role in bringing out his configuration and the existence of his entity (wujūd ʿaynihi). He is to his father the ‘son of the bed’ (ibn firāsh), while in reality he is the son of his mother.”

In privileging the mother as far as debts of gratitude concerned, we may discern a significant departure from much of classical and medieval Western writing. Aquinas, for example, who devotes a brief section to the subject in the Summa Theologica, stipulates that after God, the “principle of all our goods,” one’s greatest debt of gratitude lies to the father, after whom he singles out “the person that excels in dignity, from whom general favors proceed,” concluding the list with the benefactor “from whom we have received particular and private favors, on account of which we are under particular obligation to him.” There is no explicit mention of the mother. The father’s importance rests in his being “the proximate principle of our begetting and upbringing”—a clear reflection of the mistaken Aristotelian view which ascribes to the male the procreative power responsible for the generation of offspring, and which reduces the role of the female to little more than a provider of passive, inert material upon which the life giving force of the father acts. The process is likened by the Stagirite to a carpenter who carves a bed out of wood, with the carpenter in the analogy representing the active father, the wood the passive mother, and the bed the child who is formed out of the activity of one upon the other. The same tendency to prioritize gratitude to the father is also found in the classical tradition. The Socrates of Xenophon (as opposed to Plato), however, remains at least one notable exception: in encouraging his son to show proper gratitude to his mother, we encounter, in the words of Joseph Hewitt, “a note perhaps oftener sounded in modern literature.” Clearly, Hewitt—the author of a number of articles on the subject —was unfamiliar with the views of our medieval Muslim thinkers. Where our authorities would likely agree with Aquinas would be in his stipulation that gratitude towards others entails recognizing the favor, verbally expressing appreciation, and repaying the gift within the measure of one’s capacity at an appropriate time and place.  Each of these degrees loosely corresponds to gratitude of the heart, tongue and limbs, but in a fashion which inverts the virtue by turning it towards creation (as we just saw above with Qushayrī). While it is true that our authors do not use this three-fold classification to describe gratitude to anyone but God, the schema nevertheless faithfully captures the degrees of shukr within interpersonal relations. The first level would be to recognize the gift-givers as channels of divine benefaction; the second would be to express one’s thanks through heartfelt “praise” (thanāʾ) for their acts of kindness and to pray for their well-being; and the third might involve more tangible and concrete forms of requital. While this final more material form of reciprocation is not typically stressed by our authors except in the case of parents, this aspect of human-to-human gratitude is nevertheless contained within the lexical sense of the term. In Ibn Manẓūr’s famous lexicon, for example, we read that “gratitude must come from the hand, while praise may come from the hand or otherwise.”64 

While the authorities tend not to delve into the particulars of how one should go about expressing gratitude to others, focusing their analyses almost entirely on gratitude to God, they still recognize its binding nature. Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq, for example, is reported to have said, “be grateful to those who help you, and help those who are grateful to you; a favor thanked for will never be exhausted, while if you are ungrateful, it will not last; gratitude increases goodness and keeps at bay the vicissitudes of fate.”65 Makkī also speaks of the necessity of “gratitude towards creation, by praying for them and praising them beautifully because they are the vessels for gifts, and the means (by which) the Giver (confers blessings).”66 Thankfulness to others, for Makkī, is part of a process of “taking on the attributes of God,” of becoming, for lack of a better term, as “divine-like” as possible by stripping oneself of baser human qualities—ingratitude being one of the worst of them. Makkī’s theological reasoning has its origin in the structural parallel that governs divine and human gratitude: just as God has shukr towards human beings for a piety and devotion that has its ontological origin in His own creative fiat and grace, similarly, humans must have shukr towards others for benefactions that also have their point of departure in divinis. The idea would be elaborated more metaphysically by Ibn al-ʿArabī in his claim that when one is grateful to another, one is in fact grateful to God, because the servant is no more than a “veiled form over the real.” Similarly, Ruzbihān Baqlī (d. 1209) would argue that to show gratitude to another is simply to show gratitude to the acts of God, and since one cannot show gratitude to His acts without being grateful to His attributes, and one cannot, in turn, show gratitude to his attributes without being grateful to His Essence, there is, in the final order of things, no way to escape thanking God, because there is no real “other.”67 Like Makkī before him, Ibn ʿAbbād also speaks of the necessity of gratitude towards others as part of his brief explanation of shukr al-lisān towards God, where he emphasizes the need to praise benefactors and pray for them because of their role as intermediaries or wasāʾiṭ. While the emphasis we find among our authorities on the need to supplicate for them might appear to short-change benefactors, such petitionary prayers may be counted, for them, among the most valuable gifts-of-return, especially if they are sincere and heartfelt and arise from the heart of a deeply pious soul, or an individual who has been helped in a time of great duress. The story of Abū al-Ḥārith al-Awlāsī’s

(9th-10th century)68 conversion to the Way fittingly illustrates the power that was believed to be attached to such prayers of gratitude. He relates an account from his youth when he was steeped in a state of heedlessness. One day he happened to stumble across a sick, homeless man lying on the road. “I lowered myself before him,” he says, “and asked, ‘would you like anything?” The destitute man requested a pomegranate, which Awlāsī promptly fetched. On placing the fruit in his hands, the man lifted his head towards his benefactor and prayed, “May God turn towards you (in mercy).” “Nightfall did not approach,” Awlāsi recalls, “until my heart was transformed with respect to all of the vanity in which I was immersed. I then set out desiring to perform the major pilgrimage.”69 A similar story is told of Sarī al-Saqaṭī. One day he happened to give Ḥabīb al-Rāʾī a crust of bread as alms as he was passing by his shop. Al-Rāʾī responded with a prayer, “May God reward you.” “From the day when I heard this prayer,” Sarī would later recall, “my worldly affairs never prospered again.”70 The worldly loss turned out to be a spiritual boon because through it his earthly attachments were severed, and he was able to dedicate himself entirely to a life of prayer and contemplation. Conclusion We began this article by noting how within the Western tradition of ethics there have been two general approaches to gratitude, with one approach placing the accent on feelings of indebtedness which are owed to the benefactor, and the other on concrete, practical measures which are to be carried out by the beneficiary as a way of repaying the gift. In the context of gratitude to God, the Islamic and by extension Sufi tradition combines both within the tripartite scheme of gratitude of the heart, tongue and body, adding as a fourth component the necessity of expressing thanks to those through whom divine favors are received. Gratitude of the heart, we saw, requires both recognizing the favor as a favor, as well as acknowledging its origin in God. Gratitude of the tongue entails verbally acknowledging the gift through prayer and praise, both privately and publicly, with the purpose of the latter being to encourage others to call to mind their own blessings. As for gratitude of the body, it requires using all of one’s gifts to draw closer to the divine benefactor, since the underlying reason they were conferred was to aid the human being realize her own teleological end, which is to return to God. To employ blessings for any other purpose is to express ingratitude to the ultimate gift-giver and fall into the trap of kufr al-niʿma, the seriousness of which is underscored by the fact that it forms a lesser form of infidelity (kufr proper). Finally, our Sufi authors stress the importance of thanking others, in line with the famous ḥadīth, “he has not shown gratitude to God who has not shown gratitude to people.” Among those towards whom obligations of gratitude are due, parents in general, and the mother in particular, are singled out. While Sufi authors typically stress the importance of praying for benefactors as a way of repaying debts of gratitude, implicit within many classical inquiries is the necessity of thanking others comprehensively in a fashion which mirrors the tripartite division of thanking God. From the preceding analysis, we can see why the comprehensive manner in which gratitude is to be embodied places it at the heart of Sufi virtue ethics. Far from being a peripheral virtue, it stands near the center of the human being’s relationship with God.