How to Be Thankful to Allah so He Provides More
In this season of thanks, Ustadh Michael Wolfender provides lessons from Surat An Naml (27 The Ant) focusing on a father and son who naturally and genuinely thanked Allah (27:15-16) Who thusly granted them more and more. The father Dawood and his son Suleiman were kings in their time who recognized how Allah provides individuals favors specific to each of us. You simply have to look and recognize them and be thankful to Allah. Like when Suleiman was leading an army and heard an ant as referenced in 27:18: “And when they came across a valley of ants, an ant warned, “O ants! Go quickly into your homes so Solomon and his armies do not crush you, unknowingly.” And then in the next ayat where instead of ignoring a small creature’s concern, Suleiman turns to Allah: “So Solomon smiled in amusement at her words, and prayed, “My Lord! Inspire me to ˹always˺ be thankful for Your favours which You have blessed me and my parents with, and to do good deeds that please you. Admit me, by Your mercy, into ˹the company of˺ Your righteous servants.”
He made this dua to Allah thanking Him for the blessings He provides and parents, recognizing that what matters is doing good deeds pleasing to Allah over seeking the acceptance of other people. He concluded this dua asking Allah to make him among the righteous people who go to Paradise.
In 27:17, Allah advises how He provided Suleiman the capacity to speak to birds and other measures of power and control specific to Suleiman. This is also true how Allah endows each of us individually. Recognizing this helps to understand how we need Allah to be pleased with us to earn paradise.
27:20 provides another example of Suleiman connecting with animals: “˹One day˺ he inspected the birds, and wondered, “Why is it that I cannot see the hoopoe? Or could he be absent?”
The bird advised him (27:22 – 25) of a queen who led her people in worshipping the sun instead of Allah. And when she received his letter (27:28 – 31), she decides to send a gift (27:35). To which upon receipt, Suleiman replies (27:36) that what Allah provides is better and that he doesn’t need the gift. Typically, humans are gratified upon receiving gifts, rather than considering the best provision consistently is provided by Our Creator. Suleiman declares the fact that the gift givers are sun worshippers, which is wrong. He cares about their belief and not about any gift from this society. This conviction ends well as the queen comes to understand Suleiman’s true interest and she accepts the beliefs he so wishes to convey of Islam’s tenets (27:44).
This surah entails many actual realities commonplace in fictional blockbusters such as
super powers, super heroes and magical powers. The Qur’an, as Truth, advises of this reality: Allah gave Suleiman more because he was alert, he knew what comes from Allah and he was appreciative. Allah then gave him more as reward for Suleiman’s consistently keeping Allah on his mind.
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