Gratitude, as the key to happiness and joy in life, has stages and requirements that must be considered. Professor Mahmoud Mamizadeh, an expert on religious matters, addresses the factors of gratitude in this note.
There are certain factors that cause us to have a positive reaction to God’s blessings, to properly express gratitude for these blessings, to appreciate what we have, and not to exaggerate what we lack. Five factors have been proposed regarding this, which we will explain one by one:
Factor One: Correcting the list of what we have!
Factor Two: Recognizing what we have! There are some things we possess but do not properly recognize.
Factor Three: Adjusting our desires! After all, humans have desires in life that, if not properly managed, can lead them astray onto wrong paths!
Factor Four: Correcting the scale by which we measure our possessions. In everything, we have measuring instruments such as scales and thermometers. Regarding the scale for our possessions, we measure our assets based on certain criteria.
Factor Five: Adjusting the pattern of sustenance! We need to recognize and actually regulate the material and spiritual blessings that God has bestowed upon us.
Let us list our possessions and make corrections in that list. Some things we do not consider as possessions until we include them in our list, then we realize their existence. As Hajj Agha Qara'ati says: "Just the thumb, a small part of our body—if it were absent, several ministries in our country would shut down! Without a thumb, the Ministry of Education would be closed because no one could hold a pen or pencil. You need your thumb to write. The Ministry of Health would be closed because no one could perform injections without a thumb. The Ministry of Labor and Welfare would be closed. Can you find a tailor who can sew without a thumb? Can you find a builder who can build without a thumb?"
As you see, the absence of a simple blessing causes many large ministries in the world to stop functioning. This is true for all of God’s blessings, big and small. Sometimes, we never remember these blessings throughout our lives, and for this reason, one of the important factors in gratitude to divine blessings—leading to the increase of blessings and prevention of punishment and deprivation—is listing the blessings. Therefore, it is necessary to list and revise our possessions and know what we have and what we lack.
A person once said to his friend, “Where were we when God was dividing sustenance?” His friend took him to a hospital and said, “Where were we when God was dividing sickness?” Meaning, why do you always focus on the lack of wealth but not on having health?
All of us have certain possessions, facilities, and assets in life, which are actually the foundation of happiness, a sense of well-being, and feeling of having and enjoying. We need to look at what we have in life! To avoid mistakes and errors in this regard, several points must be considered.
The first point is that the list of our possessions is also a criterion for measuring our level of having or lacking. That is, based on this, we judge whether we are prosperous or deprived, happy or unhappy. Secondly, this orientation determines human activity. If we feel a deficiency or lack, we strive to obtain that thing. The direction of human movement is very important. Life and time are passing and cannot be stopped. Ultimately, according to the Quran, a person either reaches success and salvation or loss. “Indeed, the believers have succeeded” on one hand, and on the other, “Indeed, man is in loss.” In short, the end is either success and salvation or loss.
We have two types of beliefs about this: a wrong belief and a correct belief. The wrong belief is the illusion of material possessions. People only consider having material means as the criterion for whether they have or lack something. The job they have, where they live, their clothes and luxuries available to them and their family — everything related to material aspects. If they have these, they say “I am happy” and “I feel good.” If not, they feel miserable and unfortunate. The solution is for a person to think not only about material possessions but about comprehensive possessions. When we think only about material possessions, that is an illusion. But in the latter case, we see comprehensive possessions, which may not even be material.
If a person correctly defines themselves and does not limit themselves to just the physical and bodily aspect — contrary to the humanistic thought that places the human being as the center and only the human body — focusing solely on the body without any attention to spirituality and the unseen realm, the human is limited to the visible body and anything that makes them look better, more beautiful, or simply anything that gives pleasure. But a human is a composite being of body and soul. When a person understands their true nature—that they have both physical and spiritual dimensions—and looks realistically, they will measure their possessions accordingly.
In the materialistic view, concepts like spirituality, religion, divine guardianship, belief in God, belief in the afterlife, and such have little value; only material aspects matter. But in a realistic and comprehensive view, both dimensions are considered. There are people who are materially poor but spiritually hold very high status. Historical figures such as prophets and saints, true believers who were materially poor but spiritually elevated. For example, the late Ayatollah Bahaeddini once said about Ayatollah Bahjat: “Right now, the richest man in the world is Ayatollah Bahjat!” If you ask anyone who the richest person in the world is, they say “Elon Musk,” because they consider only material wealth. But spiritually, Ayatollah Bahaeddini believed Ayatollah Bahjat was the richest man in the world, even though he lived in a very simple house and many elders urged him to change his home, but he refused. He had a great soul. This may be hard to understand for those accustomed to materialism. You see footballers, actors, and many whom people like to take photos or get autographs with, but they would go to Ayatollah Bahjat’s mosque to pray behind him and seek guidance from him. That spiritual and heavenly aura was so powerful that it had such influence.
So, if we recognize the reality of humans—that they are not just matter—then we will not limit their possessions to material things only. When this happens, the unknown and hidden blessings that God has given us will be appreciated.
From a religious point of view, material facilities are necessary but not sufficient; spiritual and emotional facilities must also be considered.
For a person to feel contentment and satisfaction with life and achieve true happiness, certain facilities must exist, which are called life possessions. When a person correctly understands and recognizes their possessions, it plays the most important role in their life satisfaction.
In the Quran and Hadiths, regarding life possessions, two points should be considered: first, the examples of life possessions, and second, the classification of these examples. In the first part, i.e., examples of life possessions, six keywords are mentioned in the verses and narrations: blessing (ni‘mah), happiness (sa‘adah), enjoyment (ʿaysh), comfort (rahah), good (khayr), and richness (ghina). Each of these is an example of our possessions, which will be explained along with their classification.
In a general classification, our facilities are either material, such as the blessing of existence, wealth, property, home, job, and similar things related to material aspects, or immaterial, such as the blessing of health, security, reputation, and honor in society; blessing of intellect, guardianship, monotheism, the blessing of Islam, and similar.
This general classification helps us to recognize our life possessions realistically and not imaginatively.
