Ingratitude (Kufran)

:Muhammad Mahdi al-Naraqi

2013/05/26

1216

This is the vice of being unthankful for Divine blessings, and its opposite is shukr (thankfulness). The virtue of shukr consists of the following elements:

1. Recognition of blessings and their origin, which is Divine Beneficence.

2. Being delighted on account of the blessings-not for their worldly worth or for having gained them, but for their value in bringing us closer to God.

3. Acting on this joy and delight by undertaking to satisfy the aim of the Giver, in word and in deed.

4. Praising the Bestower of the blessings.

5. To use the bounty given to us in a way which would please Him. By blessings' are meant all those things which bring pleasure, benefit, and felicity, whether in this world or the next.

The Holy Quran says:

... If you are thankful 1 will give you more; but if you are thankless, My punishment is surely terrible. (14:7)

And in elaboration of the second part of the previous verse, the Quran says:

God has struck a similitude: A city that was secure and well content, its provision coming to it in abundance from every place, then it was unthankful for the blessings of God; so God let it taste the garment of hunger and fear,for the things that they were working. (16:112)

Ethics