In all the trials of life and pain, doubt and heartache, love and forgiveness of each other how uplifting to ask for Gratitude to soar like an eagle above the earth. The earth where our troubles and joys are found but Gratitude takes one inner and higher. It is to the other world. Another world where equality and peace reign upon the earth or otherworldly, altogether spiritual, non-material.

Ask first that your Gratitude for all you have shines high like an eagle so that in comparison your troubles seem small and as such you are given great strength and confidence to face and inshallah overcome them by yourself or with the assistance of some anonymous solidarity.

Oh Allah, God of Abraham, Solomon, Moses, Mary, Jesus, Muhammad (peace be upon them All) improve my gratitude/shukar to You Alone. Not gratitude to my memories (good or ill) nor to my personal achievements, nor to wealth or poverty, nor to charity, nor to my sense of arrogant self-righteousness, even though I may feel justified. All Justice is Yours to dispense or otherwise.

Gratitude to You Alone oh Allah. All is from You.

Nothing is of my doing but by choosing of this or that thing, this or that emotion to dominate my mind and heart. Nothing is of my doing but what I choose and accountable for.

By Musa Askari