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Niʿma (Arabic:النعمة, lit. "Divine Bounty") refers to the material and spiritual gifts that God has bestowed upon human beings. Religious texts emphasize their abundance and innumerability, as well as humanity's inability to offer adequate gratitude.

The Qur'an calls believers to remember God's bounties and to avoid ingratitude for bounties (kufrān al-niʿma), which may manifest in the heart, speech, or actions and entails consequences such as the loss of bounties, punishment in the Hereafter, and unanswered supplications.

Bounties are divided into worldly and otherworldly. Examples include creation, guidance, beauty of countenance, and security; among them, the wilaya of the Ahl al-Bayt (a) is recognized as the greatest divine favor. Worldly bounties can serve as a divine test; if not accompanied by gratitude and proper use, they may indicate God's wrath and lead to heedlessness.

Definition and Scope

Ni'ma (bounty) refers to sustenance, wealth, and other provisions that God has granted to human beings.[1] According to Ibn Manzur in Lisan al-arab, a divine bounty is a gift exclusively bestowed by God—such as sight and hearing—which no created being can grant.[2]

Certain Qur'anic verses and narrations highlight the countless nature of bounties[3] and humanity's inability to offer adequate gratitude for them.[4] In the opening line of the first sermon of Nahj al-Balagha, Imam 'Ali (a) declares:

"Praise be to God, whose praise cannot be reached by those who speak, and whose bounties cannot be counted by those who enumerate."[5]

Types and Examples of Divine Bounties

'Allama Tabataba'i, citing Qur'an 16:18, considers the entire order of existence a collection of divine bounties, the full enumeration of which is beyond human capability.[6] In a narration recorded in Amali by Shaykh Tusi, Imam 'Ali (a) mentions life, beauty of countenance, bodily proportion, intellectual capacity, guidance, and the subjugation of the heavens and the earth.[7]

Material and Spiritual Bounties

  • Material: creation, family, security.
  • Spiritual: wilaya and unity.[8]

According to Shia narrations, the wilaya of the Ahl al-Bayt (a) is the greatest divine bounty.[9]

Worldly and Otherworldly Bounties

  • Worldly: the creation of human beings, plants, the earth, and the heavens.
  • Otherworldly: gardens, springs, fruits, and loyal, beautiful spouses in Paradise.[10]

Gratitude and Ingratitude for Divine Bounties

Main article: Ingratitude

The Qur'an calls believers to remember God's bounties with phrases such as "So remember the favors of Allah" and "O you who believe, remember the bounty of Allah upon you."[11] Ingratitude (kufrān al-niʿma) is condemned, while gratitude is strongly emphasized.[12]

According to Nasir Makarim Shirazi, ingratitude appears as disregard in the heart, indifference in speech, and misuse in wrongful paths.[13] Religious texts also mention consequences for ingratitude for bounties, including a lack of recognition of God, loss of bounties, destruction, punishment in the Hereafter, gradual divine retribution (istidraj), the engendering of envy,[14] the closing of paths to goodness,[15] swift worldly punishment,[16] unanswered supplications,[17] and the torment of the grave.[18]

Divine Testing Through Abundance

According to Qur'an 89:15, the abundance of bounties is not necessarily a sign of nearness to God; it may be a means of divine testing.[19] Al-'Allama al-Majlisi, citing a narration from Imam al-Sadiq (a), affirms that possessing faith and religion is a sign of divine favor, whereas wealth and status alone cannot indicate God's satisfaction.[20]

Some Qur'anic verses also suggest that the abundance of bounties for sinners may be a form of gradual punishment (istidraj),[21] and a narration from the sixth Imam (a) indicates that such abundance can lead to neglecting repentance.[22] According to Morteza Motahhari, if abundance is accompanied by gratitude and proper use, it is a sign of divine mercy rather than istidraj.[23]

Notes

  1. ↑ Ibn Fāris. Muʿjam maqāyīs al-lugha, vol. 5, p. 446.
  2. ↑ Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab, vol. 12, p. 580.
  3. ↑ Ṭūsī, al-Amālī, p. 492.
  4. ↑ Miṣbāḥ Yazdī, Sajjādahā-yi sulūk, vol. 1, p. 412-435.
  5. ↑ Sayyid Raḍī, Nahj al-balāgha, p. 39.
  6. ↑ Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzān, vol. 12, p. 60.
  7. ↑ Ṭūsī, al-Amālī, p. 492.
  8. ↑ Muṣṭafawīzāda, Barrasī-yi wāzha-yi niʿmat az manẓar-i taʾwīl dar Qurʾān wa riwāyāt-i maʿṣūmīn (a), p. 35.
  9. ↑ Majlisī, Biḥār al-anwār, vol. 24, p. 48; Makārim Shīrāzī, Payām-i Qurʾān, vol. 6, p. 387.
  10. ↑ Makārim Shīrāzī, Tafsīr-i nimūna, vol. 23, p. 91.
  11. ↑ Qur'an 7:74; Qur'an 33:9.
  12. ↑ See: Qur'an 1:152; Qur'an 14:7; Qur'an 27:40; Qur'an 34:15-17; Qur'an 31:12; Qur'an 16: 112.
  13. ↑ Makārim Shīrāzī, Akhlāq dar Qurʾān, p. 60.
  14. ↑ Mansūb bi Imām Ṣādiq (a). Miṣbāḥ al-Sharīʿa, p. 104.
  15. ↑ Kulaynī, al-Kāfī, vol. 47, p. 33.
  16. ↑ Mufīd, al-Amālī, p. 237; Ṭūsī, al-Amālī, p. 450.
  17. ↑ Laythī al-Wasīṭī, ʿUyūn al-ḥikam wa l-mawāʿiz, p. 524.
  18. ↑ Ṣadūq, ʿIlal al-sharāʾiʿ, vol. 1, p. 309.
  19. ↑ Makārim Shīrāzī, Tafsīr-i nimūna, vol. 26, p. 461.
  20. ↑ Majlisī, Biḥār al-anwār, vol. 65, p. 202.
  21. ↑ Maʿmūrī, Barrasī-yi sunnat-i istidrāj, p. 105.
  22. ↑ Kulaynī, al-Kāfī, vol. 2, p. 452.
  23. ↑ Muṭahharī, Majmuʿa āthar, vol. 27, p. 626.

References

  • Ibn Fāris. Muʿjam maqāyīs al-lugha. Edited by ʿAbd al-Salām Muḥammad Hārūn. Qom: Maktab al-Aʿlām al-Islāmī, 1404 AH.
  • Ibn Manẓūr, Muḥammad b. Mukarram. Lisān al-ʿArab. Qom: Nashr Adab Al-Ḥawza, 1405 AH.
  • Kulaynī, Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb al-. Al-Kāfī. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyya, 1407 AH.
  • Laythī al-Wasīṭī, ʿAlī b. Muḥammad al-. ʿUyūn al-ḥikam wa l-mawāʿiz. Edited by Ḥusayn Ḥasanī Bīrjandī. Qom: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 1376 Sh.
  • Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir al-. Biḥār al-anwār al-jāmiʿa li-durar akhbār al-aʾimmat al-aṭhār. Beirut: Muʾassisat al-Wafāʾ, 1404 AH.
  • Mansūb bi Imām Ṣādiq (a). Miṣbāḥ al-Sharīʿa. Beirut: Intishārāt-i Aʿlamī, 1400 AH.
  • Miṣbāḥ Yazdī, Muḥammad Taqī. Sajjādahā-yi sulūk; sharḥ-i munājāthā-yi Imām Sajjād (a). Qom: Intishārāt-i Muʾassisa-yi Āmūzishī wa Pazhūhishī-yi Imām Khomeinī, 1390 Sh.
  • Muṣṭafawīzāda, Sayyid Muḥsin. Barrasī-yi wāzha-yi niʿmat az manẓar-i taʾwīl dar Qurʾān wa riwāyāt-i maʿṣūmīn (a). Tehran: Dānishgāh-i Āzād-i Islāmī, 1392 Sh.
  • Muṭahharī, Murtaḍā. Majmuʿa āthar. 14th edition. Tehran: Ṣadrā, 1390 Sh.
  • Maʿmūrī, ʿAlī. Barrasī-yi sunnat-i istidrāj dar Qurʾān wa mīrāth-i tafsīrī. Journal of Muṭālaʿāt-i Qurʾān wa Ḥadīth. No 1. (1386 Sh).
  • Mufīd, Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-. Al-Amālī. Edited by Edited by ʿAlī Akbar Ghaffārī and Ḥusayn Ustādwalī. Qom: Kungira-yi Shaykh Mufīd,1413 AH.
  • Makārim Shīrāzī, Nāṣir. Akhlāq dar Qurʾān. Qom: Muʾassisa-yi Imām ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (a), 1378 Sh.
  • Makārim Shīrāzī, Nāṣir. Payām-i Qurʾān. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, 1381 Sh.
  • Makārim Shīrāzī, Nāṣir. Tafsīr-i nimūna. Edited by A group of authors. 32th edition. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, 1374 Sh.
  • Sayyid Raḍī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn. Nahj al-balāgha. Edited by Ṣubḥī Ṣaliḥ. Qom: Markaz al-Buhūth al-Islāmīyya,
  • Ṣadūq, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-. ʿIlal al-sharāʾiʿ. Qom: Intishārāt-i Dāwarī, 1385 Sh.
  • Ṭūsī, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-. Al-Amālī. Qom: Dār al-Thiqāfa, 1414 AH.
  • Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusayn al-. Al-Mīzān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān. Qom: Daftar-i Intishārāt-i Islāmī, 1417 AH.
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