According to Rahyafte (the missionaries and converts website):Religious scholar and researcher Hojat-ol-Islam Mohammad Ali Khosravi made the remark in the ninth session of a series on “Monotheism in Quran”. Excerpts from his remarks are as follows:
One of the keys to approaching God and achieving eternal felicity is to express appreciation to God. This can uproot many challenges and prepare the ground for attaining further moral virtues.
There are two important points in the story of satan’s being thrown out of heaven after he refused to prostrate himself before Adam. The first one comes when he says: “By Your Glory, I shall seduce all of them (children of Adam) except Your sincere servants among them.” (Surah Sad, verses 82-83) This is because these are true believers whom satan cannot deceive.
Elsewhere, he says many of the deceived individuals are those who do not thank God. “I shall attack them from all directions and You will not find many of them giving You thanks.” (Surah Al-A’raf, verse 17)
These two verses show that the most important virtue of “sincere servants” is that they thank God.
Being sincere means one does not see anything other than God. These people see God’s mercies everywhere and are constantly thanking Him. Growing this sense of thankfulness is essentially important for the growth of spiritual and moral virtues.
Imam Sajjad (AS) says in part of a supplication: “O God! I am incapable of thanking you because every gratitude I express is a tawfiq that I should thank for that too.”
