This is the reward for your kindness to him

My brother, imagine that you found an orphaned child lying on the side of the road. You pitied him, carried him, cleaned him, fed him, gave him drink, and clothed him. You raised him and spent on him, not being stingy with him in any way. Instead, you showered him with your affection and tenderness. And although you were sometimes strict with him, it was for his own good. He fell ill many times, and you stayed by his side. He was sad, and you wiped his tears. People mistreated him, but you were his refuge, and you embraced him to your chest. You educated him at your own expense and gave him money to hold his wedding. And throughout all this, you expected to see him as a groom, to rejoice in him. You anticipated that on his day of happiness, his eyes would be filled with gratitude, appreciation, affection, and recognition. You expected him to rush to you, embrace you, kiss your hands, and weep with joy and love for you. You expected him to boast of you to the world and express his loyalty to you in front of others.

But! The day of the wedding came, and there he was, hosting the celebration, inviting friends, neighbors, and colleagues, and... forgetting you! To be honest, he did not forget you. However, he remembered your awe in himself, feeling that your presence would spoil his joy because he wanted to let loose and enjoy himself. He wanted to laugh hysterically, and he knew he could not do that in your presence because of your awe. Therefore, he forgot you and said, "I will appease him later!"

The party ended, and he placed the empty plates and food scraps in bags, then put them in front of your house! And in doing so, he relied on your known kindness and generosity!

How would you feel towards this ungrateful child? Would you be able to love him after that? Do you see how terrible it is to forget kindness and ignore the benefactor?

And the highest example is with Allah:

O mankind, what has deceived you concerning your generous Lord (6), who created you, proportioned you, and balanced you (7).

May Allah bless you, O high school student, with success. May Allah bless you, O young man, with marriage after you have suffered from loneliness and wasted your energies. May Allah bless you, O young woman, with marriage after you feared that the train had passed you by. You have long prayed to Allah to grant you a wife and to grant you a husband.

Allah, the Almighty, who has raised you, bestowed His blessings upon you, relieved your distress, concealed your faults, and from the money He has given you, you hold your wedding or success celebration.

Then, on the day of great joy, you forget Him! Indeed, you provoke His wrath by excelling in disobeying Him at your wedding or success celebration.

You justify this by saying that you want to be happy. His obedience and remembrance spoil your joy, while your disobedience brings you happiness! So, the solution was to forget Him!

"And when We bestow favor upon a person, he turns away and distances himself."

Even if there were no Paradise nor Hellfire, would you not be ashamed before the Bestower of your blessings? Would you not find your joy in saying to Allah on the day of happiness, "Thank you, O Lord"? Say it and express it in everything you do!

I do not say to you, "It's okay, take it easy on yourself, and endure the bitterness so that you do not disobey Allah!"

Rather, this gratitude and loyalty is a noble character that a person of noble soul cannot do otherwise, and he finds no joy except in it. For meanness, ingratitude, and forgetting blessings are heavy on noble souls.

In our days of joy and celebrations, the greatest problem is not just mixing, corrupting songs, and neglecting prayer. It is in the indication of forgetting Allah on the day He loves to see our loyalty to Him!

Allah, the Almighty, says: "And be not like those who forgot Allah, and He made them forget themselves."

There is a great difference between one who expresses his joy on the day of success with loud music and shouts that disturb the worshippers in the mosques, not even crossing his mind to enter the mosque or pray on time!

And on the other hand, one who thanks Allah on that day by inviting his friends to enter the mosque together to pray to Allah in gratitude and appreciation!

It is the difference between remembering Allah and forgetting Him!

So, remember me, and I will remember you. Be grateful to me, and do not be ungrateful.

Dr. Iyad Qunaybi