Indeed, expressing gratitude to Allah Almighty is a great blessing. Life is full of ups and downs, and facing difficulties and hardships with patience strengthens a person to endure even greater trials.
Some people think and say that when a person encounters difficulties or burdens, they should respond with patience and gratitude. However, when we try to apply this principle to both individual and collective life, a new discussion arises.
As a whole—whether on an individual level or within the collective sphere of the Muslim Ummah—we often fail to adopt the path of balance when facing life’s challenges. One group is such that, in response to every difficulty, hardship, and burden, they confine themselves merely to the recitation of patience and gratitude. The other group abandons this great weapon of patience and gratitude altogether and focuses solely on seeking practical solutions to problems.
In my view, both approaches deviate from moderation. Similarly, some people close their eyes to personal or communal issues, or they refuse to even discuss them. As a result, these problems intensify and ultimately take the form of an incurable disease, which leads to destruction.
It is not necessary that discussing difficulties should be equated with complaining. Talking about the burdens of personal or professional life is not a sign of psychological weakness. If problems are not identified and hardships are never discussed, then instead of progress, institutions, communities, and individuals inevitably fall into decline.
Moreover, we should also cultivate the habit of talking more about blessings than burdens. It is often said, “Where attention goes, energy flows.” This statement is correct to some extent in terms of words, but practical life presents other realities. When pains, hardships, and struggles appear in life, they polish us and make us truly realize the value of blessings. One does not realize the blessing of eyesight until illness deprives one of vision. The reality of memory as a blessing is understood most deeply by a patient suffering from dementia.
Thus, we can only make others aware of blessings when we first acknowledge and talk about hardships. Therefore, neither should we discuss problems and challenges to the extent that life becomes unbearable, nor should we speak only of blessings to the point where we become heedless of reality. Rather, both aspects must go hand in hand. Blessings lose their true value without hardships, and hardships are not fully understood without blessings. The consciousness of both becomes complete only when both are discussed together.
Therefore, we must engage in serious dialogue about personal burdens along with individual, collective, and communal issues, while at the same time turning to Allah Almighty with patience and gratitude. Only then can we achieve success both individually and collectively in life.
The Writer is Editor in Chief of Nouk-e-Qalam (NQ News) ghazisuhail09@gmail.com
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