My Sufi master used to teach that the best way to express gratitude for a gift is to use it well. For example, if someone were to give you an automobile, it would be extremely ungrateful to let that car sit and rust in the garage, or to drive it without maintaining it until it broke down. To be grateful for the gift of a car means to use it well and maintain it conscientiously.
To be grateful for the gift of intelligence is to develop your intelligence by ongoing study, to use your intelligence to help others, and to seek to understand God's creation and God's Truth. To be grateful for the gift of material abundance is to share your wealth with those in need.
Be generous with your other gifts as well. For example, you have been given the gift of time; be generous and spend time with the lonely. You have been given a heart; give compassion to the heartbroken. Make a list of all you have to be grateful for, and then make a second list of all the ways you can express your gratitude.
— Robert Frager, The Wisdom of Islam