Shukr in Action: Unlocking Barakah and Ease

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The Action of Shukr

We often think of gratitude as a feeling—something we experience when good things happen. But I like to think of it as a verb because in Islam, shukr is more than a passive emotion. It’s an action, a state of being, a way of life. A form of worship.

A common practice, even among non-Muslims, is keeping a gratitude log. While there is nothing wrong with writing down things you’re grateful for, shukr should go beyond words on a page. Gratitude is meant to be expressed through actions and reflected in the refinement of our character.

Showing Is Better Than Telling

True shukr means showing Allah ﷻ that we are thankful for what He has given us. It’s not just saying "Alhamdulillah" but proving it through how we treat His blessings.

• For your children: You deepen their love for Allah ﷻ by teaching them His names and attributes. You increase their understanding of Islam and protect their deen until they’re strong enough to do so themselves.

• For your spouse: You speak to them with respect and kindness, even in moments of frustration, remembering that they are a rizq and barakah from Allah—an answer to a prayer you once made.

• For your time and opportunities: You invest in learning, worship, and self-improvement. You prioritize acting on the knowledge you take in.

• For life: You live it more in accordance with Allah’s ﷻ will and pleasure. You seek out opportunities to live offline, slow down, and appreciate the beauty surrounding you. You respect death and love the people in your life while they’re still here and able to feel your love.

Gratitude is expressed through careful treatment of what and who Allah ﷻ has placed in your life.

Believing Is Seeing

One of the biggest obstacles to gratitude is not realizing what’s being done for you. You can’t be grateful for what you don’t see.

This is where muraqabah comes in.

Muraqabah is often translated as "mindfulness of Allah" or "the watchfulness of Allah." The simplest way to explain it is that even though you cannot see Allah ﷻ, you see signs of Him interacting with His creation. You notice how He manages His world with such ease and complexity, how everything is meticulously connected, and how He places opportunities in front of you seemingly out of thin air.

It means living with the awareness that Allah ﷻ is actively governing everything you see and everything you don’t.

Believing is seeing. And when you believe, Allah ﷻ shows you even more—until seeing strengthens your belief even further.

Shukr Facilitates Ease

Living a life of gratitude facilitates a life of ease—even during hardship. It may appear that grateful people are carefree, but that’s not it.

They’re confident in their Lord and His promises.

Confident that He will never leave them without relief.

Allah ﷻ has designed life in such a way that your path is shaped by what you give and how you respond to His blessings.

Shukr aligns with this divine system: the more you recognize and act upon Allah’s blessings, the easier things become.

Allah ﷻ reassures us that He does not intend hardship for us but rather facilitates ease:

People often overlook that ease doesn’t just mean that Allah ﷻ will make it easy for you to succeed and do good—it also means He will protect and help you restrain from evil.

When Allah ﷻ grants ease, He gives you the ability to:

• Resist temptations more effectively.

• Have greater control over your desires and whims.

• Find patience in moments of anger.

• Experience tranquility even in uncertainty.

Through gratitude, we align ourselves with Allah’s mercy and allow His guidance to take root in our hearts.

Where Your Focus Goes, Your Energy Flows

The number one thing that magnifies hardship are complaints.

Complaining is dangerous because it shifts your focus away from Allah’s blessings and toward what you perceive as lacking. It blinds you to ease, making minor inconveniences feel unbearable. It weakens patience, fuels discontent, and invites negativity into your heart.

Complaining isn’t just a verbal habit—it’s a mindset. It reinforces the idea that things aren’t going your way, rather than trusting that everything is going Allah’s ﷻ way. It breeds entitlement, making you feel that you deserve more rather than appreciating what you already have.

Gratitude and complaining cannot coexist. One will always overpower the other.

So how do you break the cycle of complaining? You replace it with muraqabah—mindfulness of Allah’s blessings.

Before or while voicing a complaint, stop yourself and remember:

• You have everything you need for this moment. Everything else will come when you are truly in need of it.

• We’re called to spread salam, and that means within ourselves as well.

• To thank Allah ﷻ for the ease you still have.

• Wherever your focus goes, your energy flows. When you focus on problems, you’ll only see problems and not their solutions.

Even in hardship, there is always something to be grateful for. Instead of complaining, turn to du'a.

Shift your focus from dwelling on difficulties to seeking Allah’s help in overcoming them.

The more you train your heart in shukr, the less room there is for complaints to take root. And as your gratitude grows, so will your ease, contentment, and reliance on Allah ﷻ.

The Opposite of Shukr
To truly understand gratitude, we must also consider its counterpart: wastefulness.
Neglecting Allah’s blessings is a form of denial—failing to acknowledge their worth can lead to their removal. Just as gratitude attracts increase, wastefulness invites loss.

Wastefulness isn’t just about carelessly spending excess wealth or over-consuming material things. It also includes:

• Wasting money on luxuries while neglecting obligations.

• Wasting food by over-purchasing and throwing out what could have been consumed or shared.

• Wasting time on distractions and haram entertainment.

• Wasting energy on worries, debates, and harmful people.

• Wasting potential by ignoring the skills and talents Allah ﷻ specifically gave to you.

These are rizq blockers—they close the doors to blessings because they show ingratitude for what you already have.

When you fail to show gratitude, blessings can turn into burdens.

The more you recognize, protect, and honor the blessings in your life, the more they grow. And the more you waste or mistreat them, the more they slip away.

Gratitude is Work
As Muslims, we know to say “Alhamdulillah” for everything because no matter what it is, it has khair in it. But to show “Alhamdulillah” requires effort, energy, and action.

Allah ﷻ commands gratitude not just in words but in deeds:
"Work, O family of Dawud, in gratitude." (34:13)

Gratitude is proven through daily choices:

• Waking up for Fajr when it’s hard is gratitude for the gift of guidance.

• Using wealth responsibly is gratitude for financial stability.

• Being patient with family is gratitude for the blessing of relationships.

The more you walk the path of gratitude, the more ease, abundance, and barakah you will find waiting on the other side.

To make this real in your life, try this:

Pick a blessing and show Allah ﷻ your gratitude for it through action.

And make this du’a of the Prophet ﷺ:

May Allah ﷻ make us people of shukr in our hearts, minds, and actions. Ameen.

Assalamu alaikum, until next time, in sha Allah

—Khalisa