The Gratitude of the Hands, the Stomach, and What Lies Between

He was also asked: how do we make shukr with our hands? He said: do not use them to take what is not one's own — stealing — and do not withhold them from giving what is due to Allah (swt): zakāt, ṣadaqah, charity, spending in the path of Allah (swt). The hand is for giving, not for taking; when a person fulfils the function of the hand properly, he is making shukr to Allah (swt) with the limbs of his body.

Rasūlullāh (peace be upon him) said, in a ḥadīth, that every morning every other limb of the body implores the tongue: "O tongue, fear Allah (swt) in respect of our rights. If you are grateful to Allah (swt) and do what is right, we shall be safe on your account. But if you do wrong, are ungrateful to Allah (swt), say the wrong things and use us the wrong way, we shall all suffer for it on the Day of Judgement. Please fear Allah (swt) regarding our rights; please be careful."

He was then asked: what is the shukr of the stomach? He replied that its lower part is for food, and its upper part for knowledge — in other words, do not fill the stomach with excessive eating; and protecting the stomach from consuming ḥarām food is likewise obedience to Allah (swt) and gratitude shown through the stomach.

He was asked again: what is the shukr of the private parts? When this question was put to him, he answered from the Qurʾān, from Sūrat al-Muʾminūn:

Those who guard their chastity, their private parts, except with those to whom they are married, or those lawfully in their possession — for them there is no blame; but those whose desires exceed these limits are indeed wrongdoers. So refraining from using the private parts in the ḥarām manner, keeping away from zinā and every such prohibited act, is making shukr to Allah (swt) with them; and using them rightly, within the bounds the sharīʿah sets, is ʿibādah, worship, and shukr to Allah (swt).

He was asked: what is the shukr of the feet? He replied: if a person learns of the death of a righteous man who used his feet in doing good deeds and acts of worship, he should use his own feet in the same way; but if the man who died was someone he found despicable, he should turn away from what that man used to do, and thereby be grateful to Allah (swt). What this means is: go and seek knowledge; sit in the company of the ṣāliḥīn, the righteous; sit in the company of the ṣādiqīn, the truthful; sit in the company of people whose hearts are alive, and benefit from them. This journeying toward them, going to seek knowledge in their majlis, is using the feet in the path of Allah (swt), and is thereby making shukr with them. But to keep away from the fāsiqīn, the fājirīn, those who openly transgress and disobey Allah (swt), to shun the company of such people and their ḥarām places, is likewise making shukr to Allah (swt), shown in the negative as much as the positive.

As for the one who uses only his tongue to express his shukr, he is like a man who merely drapes the hem of his garment over himself without putting it on — it is of no use to him in the heat, or the cold, or the snow, or the rain. A man of knowledge once wrote to his brother: "Yā akhī, yā ḥabībī, we have been granted so many of Allah's (swt) blessings, despite our many acts of disobedience, that it is impossible for us to count them; we do not know which we should be most grateful for — the best of our good actions, which He enabled us to do, or the ugliest of our wrong actions, which He has veiled for us. It is all from Allah (swt)." A person who can make shukr to Allah (swt) is among His greatest servants.