Seeking Nearness to Allah – How?

Human being is in a perpetual state of seeking something. We all feel the need of filling the emptiness inside of us, whether we’re Muslim or non-Muslim.

We’re always looking for something to make us feel home. Some of us use romantic love, some of us use money, power, even food, and others, unfortunately seek to dolloping to doll this feeling of emptiness with drugs or alcohol and even other destructive behaviors.

So why are we created in such a way that we feel a need for something that can’t be filled with material things? This is because we are created as spiritual beings; God created us in such a way to have this feeling, to have this need for something that can’t be filled with material possessions or material things in this world so that we will seek Him out.

In Quranic terms, the word used as waseelah (closeness to God) in surah 3:15

{for the righteous our guidance and nearness to our Lord with rivers flown beneath therein is their eternal home} (3:15)

And this is ultimate goal, why? Because it’s amazing and it’s relaxing and it’s beautiful, yes, but also and more importantly because it’s near to our Lord; we’re going back to our originator.

How?


What Happens When We Rely on God


What Happens When We Rely on God?


But how can we seek this out in this life since we have this need, we have this emptiness that we feel in this life? How can we feel near to God?

Ibn Taymiyah said: “The waseelah (the means by which Allah has asked us to take in order to approach Him) only means that we should perform obligatory and extra works, it means nothing else. Furthermore, what obligatory duties and what extra works we should engage in have been defined by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

Hence, to take the waseelah means nothing but to follow what the Prophet (peace be upon him) has taught.”

To sum up, we don’t need to seek out anything other than what God has sent to us through the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). And the first thing we seek out of course is the obligatory and in this we find fulfillment, we find nearness to God.

And I’d like to think of the five pillars of Islam as the spiritual needs, the needs of the spiritual life just like the needs of physical life of food, clothing, shelter, water and so on.

The five pillars are the basics, the obligatory, they are the five necessaries of the spiritual life.

But many of us even when we do them, we often feel like we don’t have any time to do more, and life has a funny way of creating for us a gradation to be pulled away from actual works.

It is not all about sitting in the masjid and a constant state of fasting; if you have the means and option to do so, don’t waste it.

But most of us have work and family and dirty dishes and life to deal with; some of us struggle to meet the minimum even, but there are few things that we can do that need zero money, only a little of brain power.

Making Du’a


Turn Your Lemon into Lemonade & Calamity into Blessing


Turn Your Lemon into Lemonade & Calamity into Blessing


These are some of things I do in my personal life and I’d like to recommend them for you.

The extra things I do that help me feel closer to Allah. I make du’a all the time inshallah, if I’m frustrated I make du’a, if I submit to Him I make du’a, if I’m hopeless I make du’a, if I’m feeling awesome, I make du’a. If I’m feeling happy, I make du’a… so this makes me feel more way connected to Allah than I ever was before. And I’ve only started doing this within the past couple of months and has created a very big difference in my life.

Seeking Forgiveness


Also seeking forgiveness is something else I do, and I think it’s super important to feel our connection with Allah. When you feel anxious, empty, weird, when you know you’ve done something wrong intentionally, sometimes it happens, we know we’re human, when you feel like you’re on the right way track even, seek forgiveness.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) sought forgiveness numerous times a day, even though he was one of the most perfect human beings.

Refocusing Intention


How to Control Our Love for This Dunya


How to Control Our Love for This Dunya?


Another thing I do is to turn anything into worship simply by refocusing my intentions.

So if work is a drag, you know, you think about why you’re doing it, to provide for your family, this is an act of worship because you’re pleasing your Lord by doing that.

And then it suddenly seems you’re lucky because you’re being rewarded. You’ve to go and pay the bills… Alhamdulillah this is sadaqah (charity) for you and you’re greatly rewarded.

Also housework is the worst but when you refocus your intentions of not just getting it just needs to be done, it also becomes lighter when you know that Allah will be rewarding you for your good intentions in keeping your house a healthy environment for your family to seek Allah’s pleasure.

All of these things if we do them we will feel closer to Allah. You know, if we’re talking to God and asking Him for things, seeking His forgiveness, and even turning everything if we refocus our intentions, we will help but to seeking closeness to Allah and feel fulfilled Insha’Allah.

So now having given you some advice, I’m going to take my own advice and seek nearness to Allah and I hope you all feel fulfilled physically and spiritually in all your days come. Ameen

spoke about seeking nearness to Allah (al-waseelah) and inshallah you can find the link below. In this video, I’d like to discuss some of the obstacles to achieving it, some of the pitfalls we often find ourselves in when we’re coming near or seeking nearness to Allah.

As we learn about waseelah, there is one path to Allah. Allah has sent us prophets to teach us how He would like us come closer to Him.

But there are so many obstacles that we find in our daily lives to achieving this in our purpose in life.

Surround Yourself with Good People


Turn Your Lemon into Lemonade & Calamity into Blessing


Turn Your Lemon into Lemonade & Calamity into Blessing


One among those obstacles is surrounding ourselves with people who don’t remind us of Allah, especially if you’re a westerner living in a western society and you’re surrounded at your work and even maybe your family is non Muslim, you find yourself forgetting about Islam, you’re forgetting about holding firm to the holy rope of Allah.

So the solution to that is not to break off these family ties that are very important, especially your family ties and treating non Muslims well and showing them the good manners of Muslims.

But the answer to this obstacle is also to surround yourself finding people, and surrounding yourself with people who do speak of Allah to you and remind you of Islam and your purpose in this life.

There is anonymous quote that says: “A true friend is one who mentions Allah to you in your presence and mentions you to Allah in your absence.” And this is so very true that if you surround yourself of good people and good Muslims who remind you of Allah, they’re truly your friends and when you leave them they won’t backbite you inshallah but they will make to offer you that you stay on the path of seeking nearness to your Creator.

Allah Forgives All Sins


Another obstacle that I’ve often heard from people in life and email, Facebook… everywhere, everywhere I go is that thinking that you have too many sins to seek nearness to Allah.

But it’s almost like saying to you “you’re too dirty to take a shower” there is no such thing. No matter how many sins you’ve done, Allah’s mercy is so much greater from that.

To quote the great and very fictional Star Wars character Admiral Ackbar, “It’s a trap”. This kind of thinking that you have too many sins to seek nearness to Allah is absolutely a trap, it’s a trick of the Satan to make you feel like there is no path for you any more, to cut you off from waseelah, to cut you off from that nearness to Allah that every soul craves.

This is a trick of Satan to keep you away from Allah and keep you on the bad path.

So no matter how many sins you have, seeking nearness to Allah, starting small doesn’t matter, seek repentance.

Understand Allah’s Greatness


Content Though the Heart is Aching – What’s the Secret


Content Though the Heart is Aching - What's the Secret?


Another obstacle to come near to Allah is not understanding Allah’s greatness. Sometimes we find ourselves distracted by the creation, we love our spouses so much, we love our children so much, we love money so much… and there is nothing wrong in that, we can love our spouse, and children, money… but we can’t let it distract us from coming near to Allah.

But simply reminding ourselves that these things are the created things and Allah is the creator so much more, so much greater than that, it will be almost like worshiping a painting of Monet’s but having Monet sitting right next to you and just completely ignoring him. You love his painting so much, you love the created object of his but you don’t pay any attention to him, it almost sounds absurd, but in our daily lives that’s kind of like what we do, and I’m guilty of it too, focusing so much on the creation and not reminding myself of the Creator.

So, one way to avoid this obstacle will be to study the 99 Names of Allah and understand His immense capability, His limitless capacity…and Inshallah, that will bring us near to Him. Just in understanding Him, we’ll be better.

So these are the three things that are often the biggest obstacles to coming near to Allah.

Surrounding ourselves by people who couldn’t remind us of Allah, thinking that we have too many sins to be nearer to Allah, and not understanding Allah’s greatness.

So, Inshallah, I’m going to take this advice and try to apply it more on my own life and I hope it will help you in the future.

I would like to talk about what are some of the signs that we are coming nearer to Allah? What are some signs that we have waseelah?

When we seek nearness to Allah, Allah makes a greater effort to come near to us and we have just to make the effort as the Prophet (peace be upon him) said:

“Allah says: ‘I am just as My slave thinks of Me when he remembers Me.’… ‘He who comes closer to Me one span, I come closer to him a cubit; and he who comes closer to Me a cubit, I come closer to him a fathom; and if he comes to Me walking, I come to him running”. (Al-Bukhari and Muslim)

And a cubit is an ancient measure (from the palm of your hand to the elbow).

So if you want to come near to Allah by a cubit, He will come to you the distance of two arms outstretched.

So all we have to do is just put the effort forward and Allah does the exponentially more to come near to us.

Lot has been recorded in the Hadith about this topic ‘the signs of coming near to Allah’, ‘the signs of nearness to Allah’. We find this also in the Quran.

Allah’s Love for Us

Some of the signs that He’s granted us His love and acceptance on earth. This is also in Sahih Al-Bukhari collection:

“If Allah loves a person, He calls Gabriel saying: ‘Allah loves so and so; O Gabriel, love him.’ Gabriel would love him, and then Gabriel would make an announcement among the residents of the Heaven, ‘Allah loves so-and-so, therefore, you should love him also.’ So, all the residents of the Heavens would love him and then he is granted the pleasure of the people of the earth.”

So Allah tells angel Gabriel that He loves you for example Inshallah or me inshallah, and Gabriel tells the angels in Heaven that this person is beloved by Allah, and they love him and that love extends to the people of the earth and the people of the earth begin to love that person.

So that one sign, when good people start to love you, you wonder: “what’s happened to all these people like me for some reason?” It’s one of the signs that you see your nearness to Allah…

Becoming Nearer to Allah

So what is another sign? Whenever you think about becoming near to someone, you think, you know, your love for them, you remember them often, you’re always thinking about them or talking about them in other company with other people…

The same is true when you’re near to Allah. You remember Allah often, you speak about Him often, you talk about Him as much as you can, and you fell enjoying your worship…

The same is happening in our relationships with human beings when we start to love them and become near to them, we think about them a lot, and we want to do things to please them.

The same happens when you seek nearness to Allah. Alhamdulillah.

Allah Makes Us Better People

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) tells us in another hadith, also in sahih al-Bukhari in Hadith collection:

“If Allah wants to do good to somebody, He afflicts him with trials.” (Al-Bukhari)

and sometimes it sounds hard when you love someone you want them to be confortable and have things easy, but if you look at it in a different perspective, you’ll start to understand.

When you have a student that you see his potential if you’re a teacher… even our parents don’t understand us… when you see a people who has great potential, you want to test them to make them better people, better students to learn more. So this often is an easy process for the student.

The same happens with Allah to His servants. Allah sees good in that servant so He wants to test them and make them better, a better servant, a better slave.

So whenever you know you go through hardship, you’re seeking nearness to Allah through hardship; or even ease can be a test for us as well. Allah is trying to see will it forget about its Lord; will it become ungrateful; or will it drive you even nearer to Allah when faced with these trials, either ease or calamity.

I hope InshAllah that we are all able to taste the sweetness of faith and nearness to Allah.