Gratitude · a Light

Gratitude shares a root with a beast that thrives on little

The lexicons record an old use of the root sh k r: a she camel called shakur is one that yields plenty of milk on scant fodder, and an animal described with the same word visibly puts on condition from a small ration. The image behind shukr, gratitude, is therefore a return larger than what was given. It is not acknowledgement, it is output. The Qur'an keeps the accounting sense in Surah Ibrahim: if you are grateful I will certainly increase you. Ingratitude in Arabic is kufr, from covering, so the opposite of gratitude in this language is not indifference but concealment of what was received.

Root sh k r, a return larger than the gift

Source · Qur'an 14:7