..The key to self-transformation (and to actualizing the Divine Attributes as well) is to respond to whatever you are feeling, thinking, and perceiving at this moment, by making the INTENTION to remember Allah with even just a drop of UNCONDITIONAL GRATITUDE.

This means that even if you do not feel grateful and are feeling utterly downtrodden, it means that you call to mind even the faintest hope in the possibility that Allah is the Lord-Sustainer of all worlds (rabb il-'alamin)--including you and your world at this moment--the possibility that beneath the surface (zahir) of your uncomfortable and even relatively hopeless state, as bad as it can get, is an infinite sea of merciful love (rahma) that is closer to you than your jugular vein, a sea that is ready to flood into your heart once you stop closing the door by forgetting to be grateful and by forgetting about this impending blessed flood.


~ 'Abd al-Haqq, from Sufis Without Borders