A quick lesson from Mo Salah that will enrich your life

Have you ever encountered someone who pesters you with phone calls requesting you to fulfil his needs but when you’ve granted the request he forgets to say thanks? Twenty-four hours later, you probably called the person to confirm he got the transfer because you’re worried that the money might have been trapped in one of […]

Have you ever encountered someone who pesters you with phone calls requesting you to fulfil his needs but when you’ve granted the request he forgets to say thanks?

Twenty-four hours later, you probably called the person to confirm he got the transfer because you’re worried that the money might have been trapped in one of the banking cracks only for him to tell you that he was just about to call you. 

“Yes, I received it yesterday,” he says, “I tried to call you to express my appreciation but the service wasn’t good.”

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You want to tell him, “you couldn’t connect to give gratitude, but you could call many times to submit your request.” But you decided to leave him alone. 

It might have happened to you or you may even be that “ingrate” if you’re not careful. 

A few days before Sallah, someone gave me a ram for Eid’s sacrifice. I wanted to say thank you to her immediately but I got distracted until some hours later. The lady didn’t mind but I still feel bad for not showing gratitude immediately. 

Well,  that’s what Mo Salah, a football player with Liverpool FC, has to teach us about gratitude: it’s something to be done immediately. 

Whenever he scores a goal, he prostrates to thank God for his favours. And his teammates have understood this routine during goal celebrations so they stand back to allow him to perform this ritual. 

How will that change your life?

Let’s look at it from two perspectives: the professional achievements of Mo Salah himself and the promise of science. 

Mo’s Success 

When you are grateful, you’re likely to get more. In the case of Salah, it’s more goals. Accordingly, he holds so many records; including the highest scoring African player in the Premier League; ahead of legends like Didier Drogba. 

He’s also the first Liverpool player to score in 10 consecutive matches. Last season (2021/2022), he capped his remarkable career with the goal of the season. 

Planet Football “rounded up 11 of the most impressive stats from Salah’s time in the Premier League so far.”

One, Mo Salah “netted 32 league goals in 2017-18, beating Cristiano Ronaldo’s record for most goals in a 38-game Premier League season. [Two], having scored in 24 of his 38 league appearances in 2017-18, the Egypt international holds the record for most games scored in during a Premier League season. [Third], his 32 goals in 2017-18 saw him become the first player to outscore three Premier League teams in a league season.” This means that one player scored more than three entire teams. 

Here are more individual achievements of Salah:

“[Four], he scored 25 left-footed goals in the Premier League in 2017-18, the most by any player in a single campaign in the competition’s history [and five], Liverpool’s No.11 won three Premier League Player of the Month awards in 2017-18, no player has ever won that many in a single season.”

Here are the most amazing ones: 

Six, “he holds the record for most consecutive winning appearances in the Premier League after recording 33 straight victories from March 2019 to February 2020.”

And “in September 2020, he overtook Wayne Rooney‘s record of 34 consecutive Premier League wins when scoring.”

Eight, “after scoring against Norwich City in August 2021, he became the first player to score on the opening day of five consecutive Premier League seasons. [Nine], in October 2021, the forward became the first opposition player to score a Premier League hat-trick against Manchester United at Old Trafford.”

Finally, “he scored two goals against United at Anfield in April 2022 and became the first player to score five goals against the Red Devils in a Premier League season.”

The 11th individual feat is the one I started with, that of being the highest scoring African player in Premier League history. 

Salah was grateful and he got more and more goals. That’s the promise of God. “If you are grateful, I will give you more and more.”

But if you think the example of Salah is too random to make a convincing argument, read what empirical evidence shows. 

Science Validates

The benefits of gratitude are well known in psychology through the works of Robert Emmons and many others. 

 Science promises at least seven things if you’re grateful. You get more friends, better sleep, fewer aches and pains, resilience, better emotional health (happier), more confidence and more empathy. 

In sum, giving gratitude is a selfish thing. Because when you’re grateful, you become better emotionally and physically and you earn more. By selfish, I mean you’re doing it for yourself. If you give gratitude, you benefit, not someone else. 

In other words, a gratitude attitude changes your life forever. It’s the promise of Qur’an 14 verse seven.

PS: Alhamdulillah

PPS: Thank you very much for reading this.