Bismillahir Rahmaanir Rahiim 

One of the things that I forget to do is to give thanks and express gratitude. I created a group blog sometime ago for the purpose of Muslims discussing how we are grateful to Allah, but authors rarely update it, including myself. With the American celebration of Thanksgiving coming next week, this has been on my mind. Thanksgiving is my favorite non-Muslim holiday, but I still have a troubled relationship with it.

As a Native American, I am appalled at the phony story of Thanksgiving that is still taught to schoolchildren; that the “Indians” welcomed and helped the Pilgrims and then shared a lovely harvest feast as friends. The true history is that there was never any pretense at friendship, and whatever “peaceful relations” may have appeared to exist were at the point of a muzzle and very short-lived. When I think about Thanksgiving as a holiday in that context, honoring a great historical untruth that denies the real foundations of how this country came to be, I am sickened.

I do, however, feel that it is extremely important to consider all of our blessings and to take time to express our gratitude for them. It seems to me, both as a human and in accordance with Islamic values, that this should be done every day, rather than setting aside one day a year for it. In fact, it could be argued that expressing our gratitude to our Creator is one of the purposes of the five daily prayers (salat). That said, I do not object to taking a day to actively meditate on all that we have to be thankful for, to share with family, and to create a celebration around the ideal of being grateful.

When I take my “spiritual reckoning”, gratitude is one area where I fall short consistently. It’s not that I’m not consciously aware of the matter, but, as with many of my flaws, I fail to stop and DO something about it. I look at Thanksgiving as yet another chance to take stock of my “Thankfulness Meter” and recommit to keeping it up everyday. If I can get past the Turkey and the football game to something deeper, more emotional, about this holiday, it could serve as a catalyst for real inner change. If for just one day I could truly concentrate on all that I am thankful for, and express it freely, then could I not also remember those things on subsequent days and continue to express the gratitude?