Gratefulness, A Journey Of Acceptance

Gratefulness.

 It is not something to be easy to comprehend nor implement with. For me, gratefulness is started with "Alhamdulillah", means that All Praises and Thanks be to Allah. That "Alhamdulillah" means a lot to me. I've been here just because of Allah. From nothing, from zero, Allah creates me to be a human, the best the creature in this world.

Allah creates human as the representative of Allah on the earth, as viceroy or "khalifah". This means to rule the world wisely and not make any destruction nor damage of the earth.  By becoming the best, it doesn't mean I don't have any frailness and consequences of what I would do.

Sometimes I should carry burdens of what I've done as my consequences. And sometimes the sad and sorrow that happened in me because of it is just become my destiny. But whatever it is, no matter how hard this life will be, I should be more grateful as my life was being so perfect just like this. Gratefulness is divided into two, they are grateful when happy and sad.

Allah says, "And (remember) when your Lord proclaimed, 'If you are grateful, I will surely increase you (in favor); but if you deny, indeed, My punishment is severe.'" (Ibrahim 14: 7)

The prophet Muhammad showed utmost gratitude in his worship to Allah. Even he already knew that heaven is surely opened for him, He would pray a large part of the night throughout the year, and his gratitude would even increase in times of special divine bounty. Like in Ramadan, one of his wife, Aisyah reported, "When the Prophet prayed (the night prayer or "Qiyamul Lail"), he would stand until (the skin of) his feet swelled. So, Aisyah said, "O Prophet of Allah, do you do as such while Allah has forgiven you all mistakes?" He responded: "Should not I be a grateful servant of Allah?" (Muslim).

Being happy doesn't mean you enjoys all your life lively. Happy means you've given more change to make others happy. Indeed it is the way to show your gratefulness to others. And for Allah who had given us the change to be happy, means that we have to pray more, to say "Alhamdulillah" more, to do the good things and avoid the bad things.

When I was happy, sometimes I missed pray 5 times, I didn't read the Qur'an. Sometimes I forgot to whom I got back and where the happiness coming from. It was easier said than done. I am not always be a good muslim. I always makes mistakes.

Meanwhile when the sad comes, as just this time was one of my hardest part of my life, I remembered Allah easily. I think of Allah more, I prayed day and night, I cried a lot. Sometimes I blame Allah, "Why did you give this destiny?", "It is so unfair for me!", "She should get more punishment than myself!", and "I am just the bad luck". There were so many nights that I gave up on life and consecutively blame Allah and me. There were so many insomnia and bad dreams during this 3 months. And also there were some enlightenments during those crazy days.

I found myself during those prayers and sadness. I found my past self was longing and waiting to move on, to accept, to be grateful, and to forgive myself. There was the past that couldn't be changed easily, but the future will always be bright for the one who sees the future. When I am sad, this would be easy to remember to Allah, but to be grateful to accept no matter how sad you are, it still took more works, more bag eyes, and so much more.

Allah, the Almighty says, which means, "And it may be that you dislike a thing which is good for you and that you like a thing which is bad for you. Allah knows but you do not know." (AI-Baqarah, 2:216). That was the best answer during my sadness, sorrowful, and misfortunes that leading me to be grateful and an acceptance of myself. Even sometimes, deep in my mind still recording about the bad times, I am still grateful to get my acceptance and forgiveness right now.

My gratitude to have one of a kind of my friend, just call him Yudha. Despite of colleagues' friends having a good android or apple phone or some other good stuff, he still uses his old phone, brand a really  old "n*kia" that only has 12 keypads and its ability to stay 7 days without charging. He said that sometimes it was hard to catch up with some social medias nowadays and follow some new information about colleague schedules. He was using his old laptop to hack some androids so he could catch up with some news. If I said, "Why don't you change your phone? You make yourself harder". He always said, "This phone still in a good condition."

When his friends asking to have lunch in food court together he always said he was not hungry even though I knew he had no breakfast at all. Sometimes he brought "quack*r" oatmeal that simply add with only hot water so he could manage to have a proper lunch.

I am not telling his family background since it is secret, but for me, he was the one that really grateful in his economic condition right now. His family economic had collapsed since his father gave up on his business, his mother was a housewife that have 0 salary, and even his house still has a debt. From now on, he should continue his life in a different way when he used to.

My friend remembered me of an article about Abraham Lincoln (Abe), one of the greatest president of USA, "Whatever you are, be a good one." This means not only be a good for others, but also be a good one for yourself. There was the period of Abe losing her sister, Sarah. Abe was in shock. He loved his sister and would miss her terribly. But instead of becoming bitter, Abe was grateful for the years they had together. More tragedy would come to Abe's life, but he found things to be grateful for and made the most of each situation.

"It is my destiny. I should be grateful. There are much people worse than me. So I wouldn't complain," he said. That was something that I've been longing for. An acceptance to what the destiny is. Even it is cruel for us, what it would turn out to be. That might be what Stephen King said were true, "Life is like a wheel, sooner or later it always come around to where you start again."

"Or do you think that you will enter Paradise while such (trial) has not yet come to you as came to those who passed on before you? They were touched by poverty and hardship and were shaken until (even their) messenger and those who believed with him said," When is the help of Allah?" Unquestionably, the help of Allah is near." (Al Baqarah : 214). In Qur'an it is already said that we will get the hardship, but we should not be miserable just so you know Allah will helps us.

Referencess :

• http://aboutislam.net/shariah/prophet-muhammad/manners/how-the-prophet-expressed-gratitude-to-allah/
• https://abdurrahman.org/2010/07/07/and-it-may-be-that-you-dislike-a-thing-which-is-good-for-you-ibn-al-qayyim/
• Al-Qur'an
• http://characterfirsteducation.com/c/curriculum-detail/1960134?__v%3Afile=8dbc1ac04c464521aa3186d600e8978d