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Have you ever been around people who grumble and are disgruntled about everything?

Have you ever been around someone who finds negativity in everything?

When they go to the John Smith's Bay, they complain about the sand; when they go to North Shore, they complain about the rocks!

They never have a positive word to say about anything or anybody.

How does being around complaining or negative people make you feel?

They make me feel depressed and very drained! I want to get from them as quickly as possible.

They are not good for man or beast in my opinion.

I wonder what makes people see the glass as half empty rather than half full.

The culprit to me is ungratefulness. These people are ungrateful and therefore tend to see the negative side of things rather than the positive. The lyrics of the popular song, "Everything is beautiful in its own way, like the starry summer's night or snow filled winter's day."

That's my philosophy. I tend to live by "it's all good" as every bump is a boast.

Mistakes and bad times give us an opportunity to learn and build character, don't you think?

As a Muslim, I know that I must be grateful to Allah for everything, the good, the bad and the ugly. I seek His help and mercy in the things that I may view as not being so good and give Him thanks and praise for the things I view as good.

I know that I could never count my blessings and I bet if you tried to number God's blessings, you could never count them either. Despite this fact, most people fail to give thanks for any of the blessings they have.

The reason for this is related in the Qur'an: Satan, who pledged to misguide people from God's way, said that his ultimate aim is to make people be ungrateful to God.

Satan's defiant statements to God emphasize the importance of giving thanks to God: 'Then I will come at them, from in front of them behind them, from their right and from their left. You will not find most of them thankful.'

(God) said, 'Get out of it, reviled and driven out. As for those of them (mankind) who follow you, I, will fill up Hell with every one of you.' (Surat Al-A'raf 7:17-18).

When we are ungrateful we are fulfilling Satan's plan - let's stray and stay away from that!

In being grateful, God in His mercy gives us blessings.

Isn't that marvellous; God is so merciful that when we show gratefulness He rewards us with blessings! And couldn't we all use a dose of blessings?

Severe punishment

God grants more to those who give thanks, this is because God rewards those whom are sincerely thankful and contended with what has been bestowed upon them.

In the Qur'an God says: "And when your Lord announced: "If you are grateful, I will certainly give you increase, but if you are ungrateful, My punishment is severe."(Surat Ibrahim 14:7).

Ungrateful people will only see the imperfections and faults even in the most beautiful environment, and because of their negativity, they will be unhappy and discontented and if you observe, these people seem to draw negativity and bad events in their lives.

On the other hand, positive and grateful people always seem to attract God's bounties and blessings, so in essence it is one's own attitude that brings about positive or negative forces.

If one has a sincere and grateful outlook, God's displays His blessings upon them - it seems to be all relative to me.

It should be also noted that truly grateful people remain grateful to God even under harshest conditions.

Believers, who are able to perceive the good aspect of every event and situation, see goodness in this too.

For example, God states that He will test people with fear, hunger and loss of wealth or life. In such a situation, believers rejoice and feel grateful, hoping that God will reward them with the gifts of paradise in return for the steadfastness they displayed in this test.

They know that God does not impose on anyone more than he can bear. The steadfastness and submission of such awareness lead them to patience and gratitude.

Therefore, it is an obvious attribute of believers to show unwavering dedication and submission and God promises to expand His blessings on His grateful servants both in the life of this world and in the hereafter.

So Bermuda, chin up, we have a beautiful island - the landscape, the people, our friends and family. Let us not be among the ungrateful. Ameen.[[In-content Ad]]

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