A point made by Ustadh Amjad Tarsin in the Seekers Hub online course “Being Muslim” is that often in the Holy Qur’an disbelief is juxtaposed not with belief but with gratitude. This indicates a connection between gratitude and belief. More specifically, belief could be said to be a form of gratitude.
Gratitude has two parts. The first part of
gratitude comes by pronouncing the Islamic testimony of faith: “ash-hadu an
la-ilaha illa Allah wa ash-hadu anna Muhammudan abdahu wa rasooluhu” or “I
believe that there is no god but Allah and I witness that Muhammad is His
servant and messenger.” By pronouncing this testimony one renounces the worship
of other than God. The second part of gratitude is to behave in a way that
affirms the above testimony. This means learning what God wants of one; that
is, what pleases Him and displeases Him. And it means putting what one learns
into practice.
Behaviour affirming a belief system has a special
name: praxis. A person who practices praxis can be said to be a person of
integrity – or someone who practices integration. This is why Islam is
sometimes said to be an orthopraxy – or orthodox practice, or orthodox
integration.
May God grant us the ability to be people of
integrity who practice integration of behaviour with faith. Aameen.
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