Badges mark quoted or attributed material (Qur'an, hadith, another author, an opposing view). Unbadged passages are Maulana Wahiduddin Khan's own words.
No Acknowledgement of God
A
ny normally generous father enjoys gifting things to his children. But let us see from what angle such gifts are regarded. Suppose he gives his son a car and then writes on the windshield “A Gift from Dad”. This, in fact, is a case of ungratefulness. A blessing which is in actuality given by God, is thus attributed not to God but to a person. This is a case of a failure to acknowledge God’s magnanimity and that is the greatest sin in this world.
The Quran states that, when Prophet Solomon received a blessing he immediately said: Haza min fazli rabbi which means, “This is by the grace of my Lord.” (27:40) This is the only correct way to express true faith. That is, the Prophet described an apparently material blessing as “God’s gift”. True believers consider that everything belongs to God alone and acknowledge God by attributing everything to Him.
Whatever people get in this world is apparently by their own efforts. But this only appears to be so. The fact is that every single thing is a blessing from God. It is required of a person that he remove the veils in which reality is shrouded and by discovering the truth may say on receiving every blessing that this is God’s gift given directly to me by God. Gratitude is the religious term for this acknowledgement. Only those who acknowledge God and are grateful to Him have a legitimate right to live in this world. On the contrary, those who fail to do so have no right to live in this world, for they are no better than sinners and intruders.