Supplication to Express Gratitude to Allah: Quranic Supplications 27
During Ramadan 2023, Sheikh Faraz Rabbani gave a series of daily video talks on supplications in the Quran. This series of articles are drawn from those talks and the related eBook. This article is about expressing gratitude to Allah. The video series can be viewed here.
ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَ
“All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds.”
This is not only an act of remembrance. It is from the opening of the Quran and found in many places in the Quran. The scholars tell us this is also on its own a supplication. When we finish things we say: اَلْحَمْدُ لِلّٰهِ رَبِّ الْعٰلَمِیْنَۙ – “All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds.”
This statement that all praise is due to Allah, that all praise with gratitude is deserved by Allah, is also a supplication. Why? Because we are affirming, “O God, I thank You for this good and all good. And I ask You that You preserve that good. That You increase that good. And that You grant me greater good of the good of this life and the next.”
Thirty Fold Reward
Every time we say: اَلْحَمْدُ لِلّٰهِ – or we say: اَلْحَمْدُ لِلّٰهِ رَبِّ الْعٰلَمِیْنَۙ – it is both remembrance (dhikr) and supplication. There’s an amazing hadith of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, which teaches us that saying: لا اله الا الله – “There is no God But God,” has tenfold reward. But saying: اَلْحَمْدُ لِلّٰهِ – “All praise belongs to Allah,” has thirty-fold reward because it affirms Divine Oneness as remembrance.
If coupled with reflection it is also a supplication and a commitment to Allah. So when we say: اَلْحَمْدُ لِلّٰهِ رَبِّ الْعٰلَمِیْنَۙ – we say it with gratitude and seeking Allah to increase us in good.
What is gratitude? Gratitude is for the servant to direct everything that God has blessed them with towards the good it was created for. So: اَلْحَمْدُ لِلّٰهِ, don’t just say it with the tongue. Feel it and mean it. Commit to the way of gratitude. Seeking that from Allah Most High, for surely He Answers.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of all the worlds.
