Imām Ibn Qudāmah -rahimahullāh- said:
As for being negligent regarding graces, then it has several reasons:
One of the reasons is due to ignorance which makes them not to count every blessings in their life as graces. Hence, they don’t express their gratitude for those blessings.
Also, seeing that it encompasses all humans, and all people share them, and no one see it as been specific to some individuals which also make them disregard the blessings let alone expressing gratitude to Allāh for it.
For instance, the blessings of air which many people disregard. But If Allāh should withhold it from them for a moment, they will die instantly.
Moreover, some individuals don’t express gratitude to Allāh for His blessings upon them except when they are tried with a tribulation and are rescued thereof. This is all due to their ignorance.
Also, the one with a proper eyesight doesn’t regard it as grace except when he becomes blind. Whenever the eyesight is restored back to him, he feels its grace and therefore show gratitude to Allāh for it and counts it of the great blessings.
His situation is as though an evil slave who is beaten continuously, whenever the beating is ceased for a while, he becomes thankful and sees it as a blessing, but if he wasn’t beaten in the first place, he would have become ungrateful.
Hence, people don’t show shukr except when faced with some calamities and are rescued thereof.
In this context, it was reported that someone complained of his poverty to a person of insight and righteousness. The righteous person was sad on that and replied to the person by saying:
_Would you be pleased to loose your eyesight and be given ten thousand Dirham? He said: No, the righteous person said: would you be pleased to become dump and be given ten thousand Dirham? He said: No. He asked again: would you like to loose your two hands and legs for ten thousand Dirham? He answered in the negative, lastly, he asked again: would you prefer to become insane just for ten thousand Dirham? He said: No. Thus, he now cautioned him that: Don’t you feel shame complaining about your lord while He has bestowed upon you numerous blessings which are more precious to you than fifty thousand Dirhams?._
Allāhu A’alam! Bārakallāhu fīkum!
*20th Rabī’u Ath-Thanni,1440H.*
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