129 – Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn Abi Hatim al-Azdi narrated to me; Muhammad ibn Haniʼ told me, from one of his companions, who said:

A man asked Abu Hazim, “What does it mean for the eyes to be grateful, Abu Hazim?”
He replied, “When they behold something good you proclaim it, and when they behold something evil you conceal it.”

The man asked, “What is the gratitude of the hands?”
He said, “That you do not take with them what is not rightfully theirs, and that you do not withhold Allah’s due that passes through them.”

He asked, “And what is the gratitude of the stomach?”
He answered, “That its lower part hold food and its upper part hold knowledge.”

He asked, “What is the gratitude of the private parts?”
He replied with the verse, “except with their spouses or those whom their right hands possess, for then they are free from blame; but whoever seeks beyond that—those are the transgressors” (Qur’an 23:6-7).

He asked, “What is the gratitude of the feet?”
He said, “When you see a living person whose state you admire, you use them to emulate his deeds; and when you see a dead person whose fate you dread, you hold them back from his deeds—thus remaining grateful to Allah.

As for one who gives thanks only with his tongue but not with all his limbs, he is like a man who owns a cloak, grasps its edge yet never puts it on; it protects him neither from heat, nor cold, nor snow, nor rain.”