Answer: Giving thanks
is a spiritual attitude that is prescribed in all the world’s great
religions. It is rendering back to God, or to one another, what is
freely bestowed as blessing. Giving thanks is closely related to two
other higher spiritual virtues---praise and gratitude. Praise and
gratitude for the many, inestimable favours of the Almighty, including
life itself, are universal among followers of all religions.
There are three ways to give thanks: with the tongue; in the heart;
through our deeds. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (1844-1921), the son and successor of
today’s Divine Messenger, Bahá’u’lláh (1817-1892), and the authorized
interpreter of his father’s teachings, said that verbal thanksgiving is
the least effective expression of thanksgiving because the words spoken
may not necessarily correspond to the actual feeling of the heart: “One
may say thank you a thousand times while the heart remains thankless,
ungrateful. Therefore, mere verbal thanksgiving is without effect.” He
goes on to say that genuine, spontaneous, heart-felt thanks is real:
“But real thankfulness is a cordial giving of thanks from the heart.
When man in response to the favors of God manifests susceptibilities of
conscience, the heart is happy, the spirit is exhilarated. These
spiritual susceptibilities are ideal thanksgiving”.
The third and highest type of thankfulness is not through words or
feelings but through deeds: “There is a cordial thanksgiving, too,
which expresses itself in the deeds and actions of man when his heart
is filled with gratitude. For example, God has conferred upon man the
gift of guidance, and in thankfulness for this great gift certain deeds
must emanate from him. To express his gratitude for the favors of God
man must show forth praiseworthy actions. In response to these
bestowals he must render good deeds, be self-sacrificing, loving the
servants of God, forfeiting even life for them, showing kindness to all
the creatures” (‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p.
236).
A special sort of soul-quality is required to give thanks when troubles
descend: “Be generous in prosperity, and thankful in adversity”
(Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings, p. 284). But ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gives a formula that
all can practice: “The best way to thank God is to love one another”
(Promulgation, p. 468). -
Jack
McLean
