Highest Level of Gratitude – Sahifeh Sajjadieh – Dua 35

“In the name of God, the beneficent, the merciful”

“Highest Level of Gratitude – Sahifeh Sajjadieh – Dua 35”

“Thirty-fifth Dua Sahifeh Sajjadieh: In the position of satisfaction”

“O God! Send peace upon Muhammad (S) and his family (Ahl Al-Bayt), and make my heart rejoice at your destiny (what you want for me), and do not narrow my heart so that I may be satisfied with your judgment and strengthen my certainty so that I may confess that your judgment does not apply except to wisdom. Thanks much more for what you have not given me than what you have given me”.

In this prayer, Imam As-Sajjad (A) is said, “God, give me certainty that I will be more grateful for what you have not given me than for what you have given me. This is a mystery and absolute wisdom, because when a person can be thankful for what God has not given him, he has come to the knowledge that God Almighty is “Javad”, Meaning, who never has stinginess. God is “absolute Javad” so, it is impossible for Him to be stingy. And that God is aware of my needs and is not ignorant. God is “absolute knower” and knows all my needs. So, if He did not give anything to man, it was not out of stinginess or ignorance, but according to a wisdom that He knew, and I am ignorant of that wisdom.

If one achieves this knowledge of certainty, he has reached a level of the knowledge of monotheism, which is so high that Imam Sajjad (A) wishes such certainty from God Almighty. However, they themselves (Imams (A)) have all the levels of faith and monotheism, and they have said these sentences to teach us and explain the levels of monotheism.

1- To be grateful for what God have given us is obligatory, and 2- Blessing that we think, may be in fact punishment, and 3- It may be a blessing for a test, and 4- Blessing will be questioned in the Day of Judgement. While to be grateful for what God did not give us does not have any of these aspects and only conveys the gratitude of the worshiper for God.

In principle, “Abd Shakur” is a slave who is grateful for what God has given him or not, otherwise the name of “Shakur” will not be applied to him. If someone is thankful for what God have given him then he will be called “Shakir”, not “Shakur”.

And since the summation of the number of things that God did give us and did not give us are more than what He did give us, then gratitude for the first case is in higher level and therefore slave will be called of “Shakur”. God Almighty said, “Yet only a few of My worshipers are thankful” (Saba:13).

So, thanks God for what you did give us and for what you did not give us.

All praise is to God to the extent that He deserves it.