Ingratitude to God Is the Suffering of Soul

God doesn’t need us but feels satisfaction and is pleased when we show gratitude.  But for us ‘gratitude to God’ is our destiny.  We need it more than anything else.  But look at our time: for so many gratitude is gone.  We have lost the sense of reverence for life and being alive.  A constant stimulation, whether work, exercise, eating, making love, taking care of family, art or scientific and philosophical curiosity—when I was a disbeliever I used to do all of these and feel to be in the dark.  But if you ask those who don’t believe and thus live this disbelief, which is walking on the edge of razor, because deceptions and temptations are always in the way, they succumb to the God given enthusiasm and passion for life and reject that they are in the dark.  I know that because I have been one of disbelievers.  There is no other way to go.  It is pleasure or curiosity.  One feels this fresh air and water and loves life, but to no avail, because in the depth of the heart of disbeliever is despair.  The universe is indifferent and dead. I am here as an accident.  There is no real point in life.  However, I continue living, and like ouroboros who bites its tail, continue worshipping “humanity” and “humanism” and “naturalism”.  But they don’t know and have lost hope to know why they are here.  What is the point of all these?  What is “naturalism” that they worship? 

The ingratitude to God has consequences and the above description is the first consequence: to be in the dark.  The second consequence is that we become cancerous as the beating heart of life is gratitude to God.  Those who are blind to this source think they will die and turn into dust, because they have only faith in the phenomenal world.  They are unaware of their eternal soul.  The suffering will ensue for ingratitude, as one disconnects from the source of life and becomes alienated to it.  The scriptures from the time immemorial are reminding us from this fact.  I used to think it is a human made machinery for feeling good, that there is a justice after death or to control, as some say, others.  But I know that it is the truth now.  Only those who are ensnared in despair and are in the dark will deny the consequences of ingratitude.  The Quran is the last reminder and a stark warning of this fact:

 

“When man suffers some affliction, he prays to his Lord and turns to Him, but once he has been granted a favor from God, he forgets the One he had been praying to and sets up rivals to God, to make others stray from His path. Say, ‘Enjoy your ingratitude for a little while: you will be one of the inhabitants of the Fire.’  What about someone who worships devoutly during the night, bowing down, standing in prayer, ever mindful of the life to come, hoping for his Lord’s mercy? Say, ‘How can those who know be equal to those who do not know?’ Only those who have understanding will take heed.” (39:8-9)

“Have you not considered that God sends water down from the sky, guides it along to form springs in the earth, and then, with it, brings forth vegetation of various colors, which later withers, turns yellow before your eyes, and is crumbled to dust at His command?  There is truly a reminder in this for those who have understanding. 

What about the one whose heart God has opened in devotion to Him, so that he walks in light from his Lord? Alas for those whose hearts harden at the mention of God! They have clearly lost their way.  God has sent down the most beautiful of all teachings: a Scripture that is consistent and draws comparisons; that causes the skins of those in awe of their Lord to shiver. Then their skins and their hearts soften at the mention of God: such is God’s guidance.  He guides with it whoever He will; no one can guide those God leaves to stray.” (39:21-23)