praising God

How can I praise God? The one who speaks in the Quran.

Lets back up. Do I want to experience life and the world in such a way that it makes me praise whoever who made it and gave it to me and who is doing it (because i see things can’t make themselves and can’t keep themselves ‘made’ if you know what i mean..so if they are made, which to me they seem to be, they are also being made..that is a no-brainer). If so, what I ask this maker is the path to such a state of thanksgiving?

One of them I think is indicated here:

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي أَنزَلَ عَلَى عَبْدِهِ الْكِتَابَ وَلَمْ يَجْعَل لَّهُ عِوَجَا

ALL PRAISE is due to God, who has bestowed. this divine writ from on high upon His servant, and has not allowed any deviousness to obscure its meaning

If you don’t just repeat what you read but take it as pointing to something you did not know but need to – a claim which you will either find true or false – you may notice that NOT finding the book (anything tangible you reflect on to understand the meaning it indicates..and so this Arabic text, the Quran is one such book) to be clear and instead finding it obscure in meaning is one obstacle to a state where one can honestly thank and praies God

Revelation as a set of claims or as some holy, celebrated and revered book, beautiful and miraculous book etc. is not enough. Revelation should indicate clear and understandable meanings and that is what a created being like me, someone depending on his maker to reveal the meaning of things to him (an abd) needs and wants. And I say this verse is true. And it reminds me that no matter how many twisted reasons I suggest to myself or others suggest to me in order to convince me that I cant or should not try to find a clear meaning in order to come to a state where I can be happy and satisfied with existence in a way that my response to it would be “all praise and adoration is God’s”. There is a link between a clear meaning and the ability to praise of God for a creature like me. To claim that I can praise God or I should be able to, without addressing the obscurities of meaning in revelation and trying to overcome them seems not possible – both in the verse and in my own experience.