Maʿrifa al-Niʿma
Definition
Maʿrifa al-niʿma — the recognition of blessing — is the cognitive foundation of shukr. Al-Ghazali argues that most ingratitude stems not from a bad heart but from a blind one: people are surrounded by divine gifts so constant and so pervasive that they have become invisible. The breath in the lungs, the sight in the eyes, the safety of the home, the food on the table — each of these is a continuous miracle requiring an unbroken chain of divine sustenance. The practice of maʿrifa al-niʿma involves training the eye to see what has always been there — to recover the astonishment that the world's constancy has lulled to sleep. Without this recognition, shukr cannot begin.
As understood in the classical tradition of Imam al-Ghazali and the scholars of his school.
Appears in
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