misguided if he lead his life in a state of ungratefulness. Satan
has always acted thus, but in present times Satan will be able to
cause man to deviate on a far greater scale from the path of
gratefulness to God. That is why this evil of the present age has
been termed
dajjaliat
in the hadith.
What is gratefulness? Gratefulness is, in essence, another
name for acknowledgement of God’s blessings. This grateful
behaviour has been desired of man at all times. To show
gratefulness for some blessing received from a benefactor is a
natural human feeling. But acknowledgement always requires a
point of reference, for instance, when you eat anything, your
food is a point of reference for acknowledgement. Then you
call out, “O God, I am grateful to You for giving me food to
eat.”
But anyone who has made a scientific study of the whole
spectrum of the health-giving qualities of the different foods
will be doubly appreciative of any given food item. His feeling
of gratefulness will be far greater in intensity than that of one
who has no specialized knowledge of food, so that when he utters
these words: O God, I am thankful to You for having given me
this food, he will do so in superlative terms. Where the layman
will only be able to savour the taste of the food, the food
specialist will appreciate it on a superior level, based upon his
extensive knowledge of dietetics. If the acknowledgement of
the former is a simple one, the acknowledgement of the latter
will be on a Himalayan scale.
Food for the human being
I
N
PRESENT
TIMES
, food has been the subject of much research.
In the wake of this research, innumerable factors have come to
light, which greatly increase the possibility of the realization of
God. This God realization gives rise to the question of how it
happened that the food requirements of human beings are
abundantly available in the external world well in advance of
their needs and in perfect form. The interface between human
Food for the human being
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