are grateful, I will give you more; and if you are ungrateful My chastisement is truly severe” (14:7). “Eat of the good things that We have provided you with, and give thanks to Allāh if He it is Whom you serve” (2:172). “If you are ungrateful, then surely Allāh is above need of you. And he likes not ungratefulness in His servants. And if you are grateful, He likes it in you” (39:7). One was required to be grateful to fellow-men as well. The Holy Prophet said: “Whoever is not thankful to men is not thankful to Allāh”. Thankfulness to men meant repaying their kindness: “Is the reward of goodness aught but goodness?” (55:60).
The high morals depicted in the Holy Qur’ān were the morals of the Holy Prophet, and it was in this shape that he wanted to mould the character of his followers. Even a cursory glance at the lives of his Companions and his first four successors, who were the rulers of a vast empire, would show that the Holy Prophet achieved a mighty success in this respect. One of the many descriptions of the high moral plane on which the Holy Prophet’s Companions stood occurs in the Holy Qur’ān as follows: “And the servants of the Beneficent God are they who walk on the earth in humility, and when the ignorant address them, they say, Peace! And they who pass the night prostrating themselves before their Lord and standing … And they who, when they spend, are neither extravagant nor parsimonious, and the just mean is ever between these. And they who call not upon another god with Allāh and slay not the soul which Allāh has forbidden except in the cause of justice, nor commit fornication … And they who witness no falsehood, and when they pass by what is vain, they pass by nobly. And they who, when reminded of the messages of their Lord, fall not down thereat deaf and blind. And they who say, our Lord, grant us in our wives and our offspring the joy of our eyes, and make us leaders for those who guard against evil. These are rewarded with high places because they are patient, and are met therein with greetings and salutation” (25:63-75).
Good morals and good manners are, according to the Holy Qur’ān and Ḥadīth, the real test of a man’s excellence. “...Surely the noblest of you with Allāh is the most dutiful of you...” (49:13). The Holy