A Bountiful Harvest

Islam’s concept of thanksgiving is that Muslims are not assigned one day to give thanks, rather they are assigned their whole life to be grateful to God. According to the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), “One who is not grateful to others is not grateful to God.” This saying analyzes what a true thanksgiving is about. It is not just giving thanks for food on one day, but every second, every moment of your life not only for food, but for all you have. We should not be giving thanks on an assigned date, but rather savor all moments and blessings God Almighty has bestowed upon us. We should be teaching our next generation, and the generation after that not only this saying of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) but all guidelines in Islam about giving thanks, and how important it is to remember God and His blessings in the best way possible.

Most people underestimate this particular holiday for many reasons. Why thank God only this one day out of the 365 days we have in a year? Why thank God when you should be thanking the Almighty Provider every day? For instance, African people don’t have clean water or full meals every day; little kids walk miles to get the dirtiest water and the most limited quantity of food. But what do we do? Have we ever at least taken the chance to think about how sad their lives are, how they’re the ones appreciating for the littlest things? But that’s exactly the problem. Most people don’t. We don’t think about any of that, but rather waste those very blessings other poor parents would die for their children to have. The true beauty of any celebration is sharing wealth and blessings with the needy.

By Fizah Ahmad