Always count your Blessings
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ، عَنْ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ قَالَ: «إِذَا نَظَرَ أَحَدُكُمْ إِلَى مَنْ فُضِّلَ عَلَيْهِ فِي المَالِ وَالخَلْقِ ، فَلْيَنْظُرْ إِلَى مَنْ هُوَ أَسْفَلَ مِنْهُ»
Abu Hurairah (radi Allahu anhu) said the Prophet (ﷺ) said : If anyone of you were to look at a person whose superior to him in wealth or in an appearance then he must look at those who are inferior to him in wealth and looks.”
Collected by Al-Bukhari (6490) and Muslim (2963)
Benefits for this subject:
This hadith is a balanced scale for worldly matters which directs a person to look at those who are at a lower grade than he is in life; since attaining this World isn’t our ultimate goal. When you reflect over those who are inferior to yourself this will guide you to count your blessings . Unlike, looking at someone who is superior to you in worldly affairs, then this can cause you to be ungrateful for the favors Allah has given you.
The Muslim has be given an enormous amount of blessings which are immeasurable, an if Islam was the only blessing that you had, then that alone is one you could never be thankful enough for.
Most of humanity are heedless and forgetful about the blessings they have. So much so, there are those who are tested with poverty, or a sickness, or even another type of calamity; and had they looked at other people around them they’d realize that there are those who are worse off than they are.
For example there are some people who are debt but have good health and being healthy is among the greatest of blessings; as there are some people who a paralyzed and only can consume their food through a tube.
There are some people blessed with sight while others are blind. Thus if a servant spent his life counting his blessings he wouldn’t be able to do so. There are some people who are bed ridden and this could be better for his well-being and worldly affairs. It could be that Allah has turned an illness greater than the one he’s faced it away from him.
There are some people who live in a small house which isn’t nicely decorated. However if he looks at others he’d see that some people live in cardboard boxes ;and other families are sleeping on the sidewalks. These are the affairs of this life.
Then in regards to the issues in which a person must look to those superior to him are religious ones. For example if he completes the Quran once month then he should look at the one who completes it once a week in order to earn more good deeds. Another example is if there is a person who follows the Sunnah more than the does then he knows his shortcomings in Islam and worship and this should serve as a motivation for him to do better. Don’t look at the disbelievers and at how they are destroying themselves, rather look at those who saving themselves and how!
You must be sincere with yourself , thus taking your role-model and the one you look to as having achieved the things that really make him worth following. Look at the person whose goal is achieving a higher place in Jannah as the one to follow. This will encourage you to do good deeds. At the same time don’t be conceited with your deeds, but be humble before your Lord.[1]
Translated by
Abu Aaliyah Abdullah ibn Dwight Battle
Doha,Qatar 1441 ©
[1] Irshaadul Akhyaar ila Sharhi Jawa’il Akhyaar pg 111-113, by Shaykh Abdul Kareem Al-Khudair