Aux mariés le soir des noces, aux étudiants du baccalauréat le jour de l'annonce des résultats, aux étudiants universitaires le jour de la remise des diplômes...
Peace be upon you and the mercy of God. These words are addressed to those upon whom God bestows goodness, yet they refuse to do anything but send evil back to Him. To those who rejoice only in disobeying God, to those deceived by the mercy of their generous Lord. And also to those who are grateful for blessings; so that they may remain steadfast and use these words to advise the heedless, seeking forgiveness from your Lord, and perhaps they will become righteous.
Brother, imagine that you found an orphan child lying on the side of the road. You took pity on him, picked him up, cleaned him, fed him, clothed him, and raised him. You even gave him money to get married. Then, he holds a wedding feast and invites friends, neighbors, colleagues, and relatives, but forgets to invite you! He forgets to invite you, and after the feast, he puts the trash and food scraps in bags and places them in front of your door!
How would you feel towards this ungrateful child? Would you be able to love him after that? Have you seen how terrible it is to be ungrateful and forget the benefactor?
God sets the highest example; God blesses you, O high school student, with success, and you, young man, with marriage, and you, young woman, with marriage. A great blessing after He has raised and nurtured you, and after you called upon Him for success and marriage, and He answered you. Then, on the day of great joy, you forget Him! You even provoke His wrath by excelling in disobeying Him, justifying it by saying you want to be happy.
Obeying Him spoils your joy, while disobeying Him brings you happiness? Blessings come from Him, and the response is with the trash of sins? How bad their judgment is! "O man, what has deceived you about your generous Lord, who created you, proportioned you, and balanced you? In whatever form He willed, He composed you."
If there were no paradise and no fire, would you not be ashamed before the Lord of your blessings? Would you not want to be noble, genuine, and faithful, saying to God on the day of joy, "Thank you, my Lord"?
Imagine how beautiful it would be if, at the moment the high school results were announced, we went out into the streets and saw young men, pure and righteous, prostrating themselves in gratitude to God. Instead, we see young men and women hanging out of car windows, shouting like madmen, expressing their joy with car horns that disturb the worshippers in the mosques, and continuing this behavior until the next morning, not even asking about the evening prayer or the dawn prayer! "And few of My servants are grateful."
Brother, imagine with me that the authority responsible for the exams had announced that they would publish the grades online, then monitor the behavior of the students. Those who are found to be disciplined and have not engaged in any uncivilized behavior will be rewarded by adding five points to their grades. If this were announced, do you expect that one-tenth of the bad behavior, such as shouting in the streets, using fireworks, and firing guns, would occur?
Or is God's gaze less important to many than five points that do not save from the fire nor enter paradise? Five points are enough to regulate behavior, but the phrases "forbidden, not allowed, disobedience" do not mean much to many because they are from the right of God Almighty, who has become insignificant to them.
They have become insignificant to God's prohibition and the prohibition of His Messenger from injustice, and the Prophet's saying, "Every Muslim is sacred to another Muslim," and His saying, "No harm nor reciprocation of harm."
When you use "firecrackers" and fireworks in the middle of the night and disturb dozens of people living around you, how will you face God on the Day of Judgment? You have been forbidden from harming people, but you did not heed His command and prohibition. When? On the night He blessed you with a great blessing!
How will you face God when He asks you about a small child who wakes up in fear from the sound of your fireworks, crying and disturbing the sleep of the household? What will you say when God asks you about an elderly woman who is bedridden, exhausted by diseases, waiting to sleep to rest a little from her pains and the sores on her body, but you frighten her with your games, causing her to groan repeatedly and not sleep, returning to the cycle of pain and unable to cry out to you to say, "Fear God"?
What blessing do you hope for in your life after that? In the hadith narrated by Abu Dawood and authenticated by Al-Albani, a companion was with the Messenger of God, peace be upon him, "dozing" on his mount and sleeping with a rope in his hand. One of the companions wanted to joke with him and pulled the rope from his hand, causing him to startle and wake up. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said, "It is not permissible for a Muslim to frighten another Muslim." How many Muslims have you frightened on the night of the descent of the blessing, O ungrateful one?
O you whom God has blessed with a wife, and O you whom God has blessed with a husband, did not the Messenger of God prescribe for you two to pray two rak'ahs on the night of your wedding with lawful joy and permissible singing? Instead, you made a bundle of sins, causing hatred towards God! "Will you exchange that which is lower for that which is better?"
O high school student, did you not pray to God before to grant you success? O groom, did you not pray to God before to provide you with the costs of marriage? O bride, did you not pray to God to provide you with a husband? Then, on the day God answered your prayers, you disobey Him! "And when adversity touches man, he calls upon Us, whether lying on his side, or sitting, or standing. But when We remove his adversity from him, he passes on as if he had never called upon Us for the adversity that had befallen him. Thus is made fair-seeming to the transgressors what they do."
And if you, O student, face problems in your university, and if you, O newlyweds, face problems in your life, you say, "How is this?" And perhaps you also blame fate! "And when We bless man, he turns away and distances himself. And when evil touches him, he is desperate."
You sowed seeds of evil over the years... and you lament when you reap what you have sown. You are deceived by the mercy of your Lord for a moment... you did not preserve the good nor were you ashamed.
There is no gratitude in prosperity nor patience in adversity, so with what do you hope to enter paradise? Do you rejoice only if you disobey your Lord, anger Him, forget Him, and repay His good with shirk? By God, a heart that rejoices only in this is a sick heart. Go and seek a cure for it before you meet God on a day when neither wealth nor children will benefit, except for those who come to God with a sound heart.
Repent to God, O ungrateful one, and learn gratitude for blessings from the Messenger of God, Muhammad, peace be upon him, who, when he entered Mecca victorious over those who had lied about him, harmed him, and fought him for eighteen years, entered with his head and chin lowered on his mount, humbling and submitting himself to God Almighty, acknowledging His favor.
Then learn gratitude for blessings from Joseph, peace be upon him, who, when the blessings of God upon him reached their peak—his innocence was revealed, he was released from prison, he was given kingship, he saved people from famine, and his father and brothers were gathered to him—said to his father: "O my father, this is the interpretation of my dream from before. My Lord has made it true. He has done well by me when He brought me out of prison and brought you to me from the wilderness after Satan had sown discord between me and my brothers. Indeed, my Lord is subtle in what He wills. Indeed, He is the Knowing, the Wise."
Then he turned to his Lord, saying: "My Lord, You have given me of the kingdom and taught me the interpretation of narratives. Creator of the heavens and the earth, You are my protector in this world and the hereafter. Take my soul as a Muslim and join me with the righteous."
Apprendre la gratitude et la reconnaissance vient des prophètes de Dieu, paix soit sur eux. Dieu ne nous demande pas plus que ce que nous pouvons donner : "Que ferais-je de vous si vous êtes reconnaissants et croyants ? Dieu est Reconnaissant et Omniscient." Tout ce que Dieu veut de vous, c'est que vous croyiez en Lui et que vous Le remerciez. Cette gratitude est un acte que l'âme noble ne peut s'empêcher de faire, car l'ingratitude, le déni et l'oubli des bienfaits sont lourds pour les âmes nobles.
Pour conclure, n'oubliez pas Dieu, comme cet orphelin ingrat a oublié Celui qui lui a fait don lors de sa nuit de noces. Et rappelez-vous la parole de Dieu : "Ô vous qui croyez, craignez Dieu. Que chaque âme considère ce qu'elle a préparé pour demain. Craignez Dieu, car Dieu est bien informé de ce que vous faites. Et ne soyez pas comme ceux qui ont oublié Dieu, et Il les a fait oublier à eux-mêmes. Ceux-là sont les pervers. Les compagnons du feu ne sont pas égaux aux compagnons du paradis. Les compagnons du paradis sont les bienheureux. Si Nous avions fait descendre ce Coran sur une montagne, vous l'auriez vue s'humilier et se fendre par crainte de Dieu. Telles sont les paraboles que Nous présentons aux hommes, afin qu'ils réfléchissent."
Que la paix et la miséricorde de Dieu soient sur vous.