Ibrahim · Makki · ayah 7 of 52

Ibrahim 14:7

وَإِذْ تَأَذَّنَ رَبُّكُمْ لَئِن شَكَرْتُمْ لَأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ ۖ وَلَئِن كَفَرْتُمْ إِنَّ عَذَابِى لَشَدِيدٌ

“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.'"”

Saheeh International

Essence

Your Lord has announced the terms aloud: thank Him and He gives more; cover His gifts and meet His severity.

A reflection

A present bought with your own money

A seven-year-old hands her father a birthday present. It is a mug with his name on it, wrapped in far too much tape. She paid for it from the pocket money he gave her. He is delighted, and not because he needed a mug.

This ayah begins with a proclamation from rabbukum, your Lord. The One who rescued a people from Pharaoh sets out the terms of everything after. Be grateful, and I will increase you. Be ungrateful, and My punishment is severe.

It is easy to hear this as though Allah were waiting on our thanks. The very next ayah removes that thought. Musa says: if you are ungrateful, you and everyone on earth together, Allah is Free of need, Praiseworthy (14:8). In a hadith qudsi Allah addresses the first and last of humankind and jinn. If all had the most God-fearing heart among them, it would add nothing to His dominion (Muslim 6572).

So thanks adds nothing to Him. Why ask for it, then? Because the asking is for us. Whoever is grateful, Sulayman said, is grateful for his own good (27:40).

There is a humbling point here for the ego. Even our gratitude is His gift. A saying attributed to Dawud asks: how can I thank You, when my thanking You is itself a fresh blessing from You? The reply comes: now you have thanked Me. Whether or not the words are Dawud's, the logic holds. Pride in being a grateful person is pride in a present bought with His money.

Every thank-you we offer is that child's mug. He receives it gladly. And then, of all things, He rewards it with more.

The full entry has 7 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.