What your 'Thanks' will do?

Bismillah hir Rahman nir Raheem,

I came across this article in Bro.Birkah's blog. Masha Allah, after a long analysis, I could at least partially understand the effect of language Allah has used. Alhamthulillah. I have re-posted the original article without any edits. The one-line is Give more, more and more thanks to Allah and see your rizq growing. Believe...!!

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Before you read on, I would like you to look carefully at the English translation of the verse and see whether you pick up on any emphasis, and then to compare that with what will follow in shaa’ Allaah.

And when your Lord proclaimed: "If you give thanks , I will give you more, but if you are thankless , verily! My Punishment is indeed severe."

I would like to focus also on only one clause of the verse, as that should be sufficient to make the point clear;

لَئِن شَكَرْتُمْ لأَزِيدَنَّكُمْ

If you give thanks, I will give you more

This verse contains one of the secrets to happiness, success and contentment, and it is as though Allaah is saying to us, “I shall impart this simple secret to you if you are wise enough to take heed.” The secret? “All you have to do is be thankful to Me for what I have given you, and oh-so-much-more will come your way. All you have to do is to thank Me, and your rizq will come; you need not worry about overburdening yourself and spending sunrise to sunset seeking your rizq (although of course you should work), just give Me thanks and praise Me for what you already have!”

How is He saying all of this through this clause? By emphasizing the concept, then emphasizing it more, then emphasizing it once again, and even emphasizing it a fourth time, so that there is no doubt in our minds about it.

In just these three short words, there are four emphases; or to be even more accurate there are only two words that make up this clause for the third is entirely for emphasis. The first two emphases are the initial laam al-qasm followed by the particle إِنْ in لَئِن; the third is another laam al-Qasm in لأَزِيدَنَّكُمْand the fourth is the letter noon of emphasis in the same word. Four different instances of emphases for one concept – that if we thank Allaah for what He has already given us, He will provide us with more.

Look back now to the English translation, If you give thanks, I will give you more. There is nothing that particularly draws the reader to this verse, nothing that makes them feel like this is such an important secret and key to their life and sustenance. It is almost mocking the words of Allaah (by limitations of the language not by fault of the translators); as Diyaa’i mentioned in his article Dalaalat al-Tawkeed fee al-Jumlah al-‘Arabiyyah, one of the aims of using emphasis in Arabic is to remove all doubts from the mind of the addressee about a concept which would otherwise contain doubts.

So Allaah usually emphasizes messages in the Qur’an which we are not 100% convinced on, and the concept in question would be a prime example. The greater the doubts, or the more important the concept, the greater the number of emphases used. So when you have a concept which has been emphasized four times, this should tell us how important this concept is to us; when we restrict ourselves to reading the translation and losing out on comprehending this message, we cheat none but ourselves.

And just as this part of the verse has been emphasized four times, so too has the second part of the verse warning us of the consequences of being ungrateful; a warning from which we seemingly prefer to turn our ears by not granting ourselves access to it,

وَلَئِن كَفَرْتُمْ إِنَّ عَذَابِي لَشَدِيدٌ

but if you are thankless, verily! My Punishment is indeed severe.

Something to think about next time we complain.

courtesy:  islamicnetwork.com
to understand the different laams, go here.

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