Islam's Response to Contemporary Issues — Page 143
Socio-economic Peace 143 One who is not grateful to human beings is not grateful to God either. 5 The implication is that anyone who is ungrateful to fellow human beings, even if he were grateful to God, his gratitude will not be accepted by God. So decency, courtesy and gratitude are not discouraged by the Message of the Holy Quran as contained in the earlier verse 6. It is only a quiet message to the recipient of favours that he should not suffer from any complex and his dignity should remain uninjured. The inference would be that to express gratitude is not against the dignity of man; on the contrary, it elevates it further. Turning to the donor, Islam inculcates a completely different attitude. It is considered against dignity and modesty to accept gratitude as if one deserved it. This tendency is found to be a part of civilized behaviour everywhere in the world, but there is one fundamental difference between this universal mannerism and Islamic teachings of noble conduct. Islam instructs the donor to serve mankind for a higher and nobler cause than merely to satisfy a natural urge or earn good reputation by benevolent acts. Islam repeatedly reminds man to do acts of goodness for the sake of God and only to win His pleasure and earn His favours. From this it becomes obvious that when a true Muslim donates something to anyone in need, in truth, he does not do it for his own sake or anyone else’s sake, but only for the sake of pleasing his Creator Who initially bestowed on him everything he possesses. In the light of this principle, whatever he spends on others is by way of an expression of gratitude to his Lord and not by way of any favour to anyone. This sublime attitude has its roots in one of the earliest verses of the Holy Quran which reminds the believers: