Any praise which is uttered anywhere belongs to God

In Tafsir Kabir, volume one, in the description of الحمد لله it is narrated from the Prophet (s):

اِنّهُ قال: اِذا أنْعَمَ اللهُ على عبدهِ نِعْمَهَ، فيقول العْبدُ: الحمدُ لله؛ فَيَقُولُ الله تعالى: انْظُُروا إلى عَبْدي أعطيتُه ما لا قدر لَهُ، فاعطاني ما لا قيمَةَ لَهُ.

When God bestows a favor and grace upon His servant and he says الحمد لله, God will say: look at my servant, I gave him a cheap thing but he gave Me as a gift something of utmost value.[1]

The explanation for this excellent narration is the following: when God performs a favor towards us, it is not strange for Him; rather, He has done it out of His Generosity, such as to feed a hungry man, to dress a naked one, to give water to the thirsty one and other assets which are given us out of His Benevolence.

But when a servant of God says الحمد لله it means: any praise which is uttered anywhere belongs to God, and all the possible praise which are not even uttered belongs to God as well. In the expression الحمد لله there are all the praises done by earth and the skies dwellers and by the residents of the paradise.

But the word الحمد لله also includes all the praises which will be used to worship God by all men and other creatures for ever and ever.

There is a delicate point here to discuss. The assets and affluence given by God to us are finite, but the content of the expression الحمد لله is infinite.

It is clear that when a finite amount is deduced from infinite, the infinite will continue to be infinite. The content of this narration is in fact the following: it is as if God wanted to say: My servant, when you say الحمد لله for a favor by Me, what you have done is an eternal worship; and an eternal worship inevitably deserves an eternal range of favors. Thus the servant deserves an eternal prosperity. Therefore, any God – believer who utters the expression الحمد لله will deserve eternal prosperity.