The Gratitude of the Eyes and the Ears

Ibn Abī al-Dunyā (may Allah be pleased with him), one of the salaf, reported an account from Abū al-Mughīrah. Asked to explain how shukr is made, how it is achieved through the limbs, he answered: a person is constantly immersed in Allah's (swt) generosity, and incapable of being sufficiently grateful to Allah (swt). He is most loving toward His servants, even though He has no need of them; and His servants are wholly disrespectful toward Him, even though they are utterly dependent on Him. Whenever a servant is afflicted with a misfortune, Allah (swt) grants him three things: that it does not affect his faith; that it is no more severe than it might have been; and that, as it was decreed, it has already happened and is over.

He was asked again: what is the shukr of the eyes? He replied: it is when the eye looks upon good, recognises the good, and makes it known — and when it veils itself, turns away, from anything ḥarām, anything prohibited. When the eyes are kept from looking at what is ḥarām, that is making shukr for the blessing of eyes; and when the eyes are used to look at what a person is meant to look at, that too is an appreciation of Allah's (swt) gift. Rasūlullāh (peace be upon him) said that when a person looks upon his father's face, or his mother's face,^** Allah (swt) writes him a ḥasanah. One of the companions said: "Yā Rasūlallāh, we look at our parents' faces a hundred times a day — do you mean we get a ḥasanah a hundred times a day?" He said: "Yes, a hundred times a day you get a ḥasanah." Rasūlullāh (peace be upon him) said that when a person looks upon the pages of the Qurʾān, he gets a ḥasanah; when he looks upon the Kaʿbah, he gets a ḥasanah; when he looks upon the face of the Prophet (peace be upon him), he gets a ḥasanah. When the eyes begin to weep on hearing the lofty teachings of Islam, that too is making shukr to Allah (swt): it is worshipping Him, fulfilling the function of the eyes. When a person covers up the faults of others rather than looking at them, and likewise does not look upon what is forbidden to him, upon those who are not lawful for him to look upon, then he is making shukr to Allah (swt) through his eyes as well.

Allah (swt) has created people such that some are weak in a particular respect while others are strong — some, for example, have a weak memory, while others have a strong one. This does not mean that Allah (swt) is unfair or unjust; naʿūdhu billāh from even suggesting such a thing. The evident reason Allah (swt) does this is so that those who are blessed with a gift, seeing someone who has not been granted the same, are reminded to show gratitude to Allah (swt) for it, and to use it as Allah (swt) intended it to be used. Seeing somebody sick, or unable to walk, disabled, blind, or deaf, and saying, yā Rabbī shukr, yā Rabbī — alḥamdulillāh yā Rabbī, You have blessed me with sound arms, sound legs, yā Rabbī shukr, yā Rabbī — is shukr. Even not going bald, having one's hair still, is a niʿmah: alḥamdulillāh yā Rabbī, beautiful hair, shukr yā Rabbī. It is a niʿmah. An eye is needed even to see this; and if a person can see it, and the heart can interpret it, he is making shukr to Allah (swt).

He was then asked: what is the shukr of the ears? He replied: if one hears something good with them, one understands it; and if one hears something bad, one rejects it. What is good? Listening to ḥikmah, listening to the Qurʾān, listening to a ḥadīth of Rasūlullāh (peace be upon him), listening to the teachings of Islam — through the ear first, so that the heart may then come alive. But when one listens to ghībah, backbiting, to namīmah, tale-carrying, to anything of a ḥarām nature — ḥarām music, for instance — then one is not making shukr to Allah (swt) through the ears.