The Gratitude of Man and the Gratitude of God. Notes on šukr in Traditional Islamic Thoughts

SUMMARY: The present essay is intended as a contribution to the study of gratitude or šukr within the Islamic tradition, beginning with the Koranic use of the root škr (and more particularly its derivative šakūr), examining its explicit implications for early lexicography (IbnManẓūr), noting the presence of these implications in traditional thought (Ibn Abī al–Dunyā and al–Ḫarā’iṭī) and proposing some comparisons with theological speculation (Abū Ḥāmid al–Ġazālī and Ibn Qayyim al–Ǧawziyya). In the light of the sources consulted, gratitude emerges as a crucial ingredient of faith, a cornerstone of a conscientious Islamic ethic, and not least an important linking element between the divine practice and the duties of man, both in terms of the harmony between man’s thankfulness to God and God’s satisfaction with the believer, and in terms of the close connection between the gratitude owed to God and that owed to a brother benefactor. Finally, man is seen as a creature endowed with an awareness whose highest vocation is, precisely, gratitude.