SHUKRANLILLAH! (MY GOD, THANK YOU!)

On my way to a class on the Ethnography of Mesoamerica the other day, I stopped by one of the five Tim Hortons coffee shops we have on campus.

The prospect of a chocolate chip muffin (my all-time favorite Timmy’s baked good!) and an Iced Cap would defiantly brighten up what was surely going to be another incredibly long and boring lecture.

After picking up my muffin and drink, I headed down to my class, relishing the thought of digging into my main meal of the day.

As I settled into my customary seat right at the back of the classroom, I greedily opened my muffin, longing for that satisfying first bite.

But to my utter horror, the muffin that lay before me was not chocolate-chip like I had ordered.

It was blueberry.

I despise blueberry muffins. Everything from their artificial blue shade to the pieces of fake blueberry that get stuck between your teeth.

While the proff droned on about how Mexican villagers on the outskirts of Chihuahua perform agricultural rituals, I had a mini implosion inside of me at how this promising culinary experience had gone so wrong.

I was about to begin repeatedly banging my head on the desk in front of me, when I stopped and thought about my situation.

Here I was, sitting in the middle of a respected educational institution, food in front of me, and a roof over my head.

For starters, how many people my age around the world would yearn for the kind of education I was receiving?

What would a starving child in Africa give for just a bite of that muffin that I had just seconds ago so contemptuously disregarded?

God has given me SO MUCH to be thankful for, yet here I was, mourning over a mis-ordered muffin.

When it comes expressing thankfulness to Allah (swt) for all of His favours, nobody puts it better than Imam Sajjad (as).

One of his famed Fifteen Whispered Prayers is the ‘The Whispered Prayer of the Thankful.’

‘Beautiful’ would not even come close to describing this supplication. Here is a small excerpt:  

“Thy favours are many - my understanding falls short of grasping them, not to speak of exhausting them!

So how can I achieve thanksgiving?

For my thanking Thee requires thanksgiving.

Whenever I say, 'To Thee belongs praise!' it becomes thereby incumbent upon me to say, 'To Thee belongs praise!``

You can find the rest of this munajat here, or here.

For the record, I now positively adore blueberry muffins.