By Maryam Gamar

Finding reasons to remain hopeful is becoming increasingly difficult in the face of the climate crisis. The more you learn, the more you may realize how severe human devastation of our planet has become. As Muslims, we have a tool to maintain hope and endurance as we participate in climate action. It does not promise to reverse the course we are on, but it offers guidance on how to proceed. Shukr, or gratitude, is a tenet of Islam that extends beyond the Western understanding of saying ‘thank you.’ As found in the Qur’an, shukr is closely connected to one’s relationship with God. We are taught that expressing gratitude and acknowledging the blessings we have been given can lead to greater abundance. As a third-generation settler in Canada, this practice has been difficult for me to embody. Through conversations with others, I have learned that many Muslims in the West have similar struggles because we are often disconnected from those who share our faith and from our ancestral lands where climate action may have been more seamlessly integrated with our way of life. This is what makes shukr so important; it grounds us in our current reality, encourages us to build intentional relationships with the natural world, and maintains hope amid a worsening climate crisis. 

Why we should practice shukr

It is easy to feel grateful when we receive a gift or escape harm. But in Islam, we are taught to practice gratitude in every circumstance, not just in moments of relief or joy. According to one hadith, the Prophet Mohammed (peace and blessings be upon him) would pray late into the night, going well beyond the mandatory prayers. A companion asked him why he exerted himself so much even though God had already forgiven his past and future sins. The Prophet answered, “Shall I not be a grateful servant?” 1

This teaches us that shukr is unconditional and should be practiced both in times of need and abundance. When practiced with intention, shukr can fulfill a primary purpose of worship: expressing our dependence on our Creator’s guidance, our submission to Divine planning, and our intention to receive His generosity. In fact, in the Qur’an God promises increased blessings in response to shukr: “Remember that He promised, ‘If you are thankful, I will give you more’.”2 Receiving a blessing and reacting with shukr sets in motion a continuous cycle of abundance. Each blessing becomes an opportunity to practice shukr, which in turn invites even more blessings as God has promised. This is true even when we receive blessings that are different from what we might be expecting, or what we believe we need. 
Practicing shukr takes different forms; Muslim scholars explain how shukr should be embodied at three levels: the heart, tongue, and body.3 Shukr in the heart means that an individual must recognize the blessing as such and must understand that the source of the blessing was God, even if it came through an intermediary. For example, if I am given a jar of homemade pickles, I would thank my friend for their labour, but I should also thank God for nourishing the soil that helped the vegetables grow and giving my friend the knowledge to preserve them. Shukr of the tongue means expressing one’s thankfulness to God through prayer and praise. In fact, as Atif Khalil relates, “the pious predecessors or salaf would often ask each other how they were faring simply to present the opportunity to recollect divine bounties”.4 They would tell each other about the blessings of their day given to them by God and in doing so collect even more ajr, or reward. Finally, shukr of the body requires that an individual use their physical being in a way that honours both why it was given and Who it was given by. If we think about our time on the earth as the journey back to our Creator, we must think about the gifts we are given along the way as tools to help us in that task. 5

 It is important to differentiate between the Islamic concepts of shukr and ḥamd; the latter is often translated to the word ‘praise.’ Ḥamd is generally expressed verbally, often with the phrase alḥamdulillah, meaning “all praise be to Allah.” On the other hand, shukr can be expressed verbally, in silent prayer of the heart, or through physical actions.6

How shukr can generate hope 

The cycle of expressing shukr and receiving abundance applies even during times of hardship. We currently face a constant barrage of bad news like the loss of native plant species, natural disasters intensified by climate change, and the impacts of war on the land and people of Gaza. It is easy to become overwhelmed by everything we have lost. Practicing shukr in spite of this reality can be a radical act that rewires how we approach climate action. Many of us living in Canada have access to clean water, protected provincial parks, and locally-grown produce. Despite the concerning state of our climate, expressing shukr can be a strong grounding force when we feel despair. It encourages us to look for the good—not simply that which can benefit us, but that which can be the foundation of our hope in making a change. 

Many academics who study climate action have written about the power of hope in keeping us motivated toward tangible action. Elin Kelsey writes that hope is not something to be given, taken away, or “externally produced.” Its growth and direction can be supported, but “it is intimately tied to one’s personal sense of meaning”.7 Binding our hope for a better future to our faith teachings is about as personal as it can get. This is in no way an encouragement to merely accept what is left after developers and logging companies leave. If practices of gratitude are taught without explicitly laying out responsibilities and expected action, we run the risk of passively accepting the status quo rather than actively participating in climate action. To do that, we must believe that we can make a change. We must ask: if there is still good left, how can we cultivate that? How can we ensure the good reaches more people? 

Using shukr to push climate action forward

The Quran teaches us that God created this world in a perfect balance and human arrogance has thrown us off course: “He has raised up the sky. He has set the balance so that you may not exceed in the balance.8 Weigh with justice and do not fall short in the balance”. However j`ust as humankind has contributed to creating an imbalance, we can also participate in getting back on track. This is a belief that is shared across many traditions, including Indigenous knowledge systems. As Stó:lo9 writer Lee Maracle reminds us in an author’s note to her novel Bobbi Lee: Indian Rebel, “Creation is not passive. The birth, rebirth process of the earth, her storms, eruptions, tidal waves, floods, droughts and the coming of periodic ice ages attest to a total lack of passivity”.10 This sentiment includes human beings. While we know the path we take is determined by our Creator, we must protect ourselves from becoming passive and take action to protect our planet while we can. 

So how can practicing shukr help us get there? To practice shukr is to bear witness to the abundance God has given us and to hold ourselves accountable for treating the earth with care. In this way, shukr can be a powerful way of grounding our actions in intention, as action without intention risks recreating the problems that got us here to begin with. Muscogee poet Joy Harjo provides one example of this that connects back to the natural world in her poem “For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet:” “Take a breath offered by friendly winds. They travel the earth gathering essences of plants to clean. / Give back with gratitude”.11 This expression of gratitude for the natural world may seem intangible, but if we prioritize grounding ourselves in our gratitude for the life it provides us, we are more likely to take tangible steps to protect it.

One example is reducing our individual consumption. Today, almost any desire can be fulfilled without even leaving your home. Many of those desires are fleeting and inspired by shocks to our system from marketing campaigns. Unlearning this takes practice because we need to slow down to differentiate between what we need and want. We are taught that the earth was given to us as an amana, or trust, but it is easy to forget that responsibility when we are surrounded by distractions. Practicing shukr will not make people suddenly happy with less than they had before, but intentionally acknowledging what you have can lead to wanting less. 

Finally, drawing divine gratitude into all facets of our lives can transform us into better community members and inspire collective care. Understanding that there is no limit to God’s generosity can encourage us to ensure that good things are enjoyed by many people instead of amassing large quantities for ourselves. In a world overrun by capitalism and individualism, it is a beautiful act to care for others and offer services for the greater good even if they do not directly benefit you. I have seen a change in myself by practicing this. Gratitude for a garden harvest has expanded my love of sharing food with people. Gratitude for a morning spent outside has helped me develop empathy for people who lash out with negative emotions. Gratitude for friends who care about the land we live on feeds my inspiration. This entanglement between land, community, and intention is essential to climate action work because to make big changes we have to start right where we are.

  1.  Ṣaḥīh Muslim, no. 2820. ↩︎
  2.  (Abdel Haleem, 2004, 14:7) ↩︎
  3.  (Khalil, 2016) ↩︎
  4.  (Khalil, 2016, p. 165) ↩︎
  5.  (Khalil, 2016) ↩︎
  6.  (Khalil, 2016) ↩︎
  7.  (Kelsey, 2016, p. 29) ↩︎
  8.  (Abdel Haleem, 2004, 55:7-9) ↩︎
  9.  The Stó:lō First Nation is also known as “the People of the River.” The area now known as the Fraser Valley in British Columbia is their ancestral unceded land. ↩︎
  10.  (Maracle, 1990, p. 8) ↩︎
  11.  (Harjo, 2015, p. 4) ↩︎

References:

Harjo, J. (2015). For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in its Human Feet. In 

Conflict Resolutions for Holy Beings (p. 4). W. W. Norton & Company. 

The Quran. (Abdel Haleem, M.A.S., Trans.) (2004). Oxford University Press.

Kelsey, E. (2016). Propagating collective hope in the midst of environmental doom and gloom. 

Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 21, 23-40. https://cjee.lakeheadu.ca/article/view/1415

Khalil, A. (2016). The Embodiment of Gratitude (Shukr) in Sufi Ethics. Studia Islamica, 111(2), 

159–178. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26378306

Lee Maracle. (1990). Bobbi Lee Indian Rebel. Women’s Press.

Maryam Gamar is a TV news producer whose work has appeared in Vox and CBC News. She completed her undergraduate degree at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in Doha, Qatar where she developed her interests in storytelling as a teaching tool. She is currently pursuing a Masters of Education in Sustainability at the University of British Columbia, where she is delving into how to encourage climate action by integrating Muslim and Indigenous ways of knowing into adult education.