Ash-Shakur
The Appreciative
Exalted and Glorious
Why should Allah punish you if you have thanked Him and believed in Him? And Allah is Ever All-Appreciative, All-Knowing. (4:147)
That He may pay them their wages in full, and give them more out of His Grace. Verily He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Ready to appreciate. (35:30)
And they will say, all the praise and thanks be to Allah Who has removed from us all grief. Verily, Our Lord is indeed Oft-Forgiving, Most Ready to appreciate. (35:34)
Verily, We showed him the way, whether he would be grateful or ungrateful. (76:3)
Allah is Appreciative because He recognizes good actions and rewards us beyond all measure. Ash-Shakur is more than Ash-Shakir. the one with a heavy heart and repeats this name 41 times over a glass of water, then washes his face with this water, his heart will lighten, and he will be able to maintain himself.
As-Shakur is the One Who increases the few actions of His servants. He rewards them in multiple. His thanks to His servants is to forgive them; so increase your thanks and praise Him and exalt Him.
From: The Meanings of the Names of Our Lord, by Shaykh Muhammad Sa’id al-Jamal ar-Rifa’i Head of the Higher Sufi Council in Jerusalem and the Holy Land Teacher at the Dome of the Rock (al-Aqsa)
*****
ASH-SHAKUR
He is the one who repays a good deed with a much greater reward. Thankfulness is to return good with good. To be thankful is a human being’s duty toward Allah. He is the one who created us and poured upon us all His bounties. He has left us free to see His gifts and to be thankful, or to be blinded by arrogance, denying even His existence.
Blessed are those who choose the path of thankfulness, spending what Allah bestows them in Allah’s way. Then Allah ash-Shakur returns their thankfulness with rewards infinitely superior to their good deeds, and this in turn paves the way to further good deeds.
The thankful know that all they are and all they have is from Allah. They use every part of their bodies, minds, tongues, and hands, only for the purposes for which they were created. They use all that they have, their talents, strength, and money, for Allah’s pleasure in Allah’s creation. Allah helps the thankful and increases their wisdom, their abilities, and their fortunes.
People who deny the bounties of Allah and hide them in secret rooms all for themselves are misers. They pretend that they have nothing therefore, although they have a lot, it is just as if they don’t have anything they want more and more. Never finding enough, they suffer destitution in the midst of abundance. Allah leaves them alone with their egos and their insatiable greed. All the bounties that they have received decay, stored in some secret place, unused. They pass from one loss to another, from one disaster to a worse one. If they do not take heed of these lessons, their unthankfulness will lead them to eternal damnation. We take refuge in Allah from such an eventuality.
‘Abd ash-Shakur sees all as good and as nothing but good, and knows that all good comes from Allah. Such a person is in a state of continuous thankfulness. Yet he also realizes that Allah’s bounties are distributed through the hands of His good servants, and is thankful to them as well. The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said, “The one who is not thankful to people will not be able to be thankful to Allah.”
From: The Name & the Named, by Shaykh Tosun Bayrak al-Jerrahi al-Halveti
