Posted By Abu Aaishah on Nov 12, 2014 in Education,
Inspiration and Spirituality, Islam | 0 comments
I admit it. I procrastinated for a very long of time to write
this article and I know, a few people might just open this
page in another browser/tab and leave it for days/weeks to
read.
“Uff, there is so less time and I have so much to do, there’s
no time to read this topic. Let me keep it for later. I am not
a bad person. Let’s read it when I am in “realization”
mode”.
Why do we delay connecting with someone?
We judge the limit of delaying things by the consequences
we might end up in. On earth, life and money are the two
most important things in our lives. Spiritual procrastination
which involves loss of afterlife, involves delay in performing
our salah, giving zakah, performing hajj, reading Qur’an, or
even visiting a sick person. They don’t immediately make
you a (worldly) looser, but the benefits these deeds can
fetch you in the afterlife is tremendous.
Lack of taqwa (God consciousness or God fearing) is
probably one of the main reasons to delay our spiritual
obligations. It’s not because you have no time, its not
because you have other ‘important work” to attend to, its
fundamentally because of lack of taqwa.
Taqwa comes from knowing Allah and by continuously
being connected to Him.
Just thinking “Its a heartless world, and a heartless job, I
never knew when my worship became a ritual, the prayers
are there, but swift; the charity goes, but without love; and
seeing the Quran in the masjid everyday, I walk away. What
do I read in it? I know nothing of what I read” is of no use.
We have to realize something is missing in all these acts?
That something is “ Connection ”.
Allah has also given us the free will to strive in
establishing a connection with Him. With all our
shortcomings, let us focus on overcoming the guilt and fear
of our lives in the light of Quran and Sunnah .
Here are some practical tips to help you connect to our
Creator :
1. Confession saves from hiding out of guilt. For any
relationship to sustain, the most important thing is
transparency. Transparency with our Creator (The All
Knower) is inevitable. One way to set things right at the
earliest is to accept our bad deeds, confess our weaknesses
and utter frustration of our inabilities and ask for pardon,
help and good life.
Some verses make it easier to cross the guilt-barrier and
connect to Allah .
“But whoever repents after his wrongdoing and reforms,
indeed, Allah will turn to him in forgiveness. Indeed,
Allah is Forgiving and Merciful. (al-Ma’idah,5:39)
“Have you not considered that Allah knows what is in
the heavens and what is on the earth? There is in no
private conversation three but that He is the fourth of
them, nor are there five but that He is the sixth of them
– and no less than that and no more except that He is
with them [in knowledge] wherever they are. Then He
will inform them of what they did, on the Day of
Resurrection. Indeed Allah is, of all things,
Knowing.” (Mujadilah 58:7)
How Do I Confess?
There is no better approach to confess, other than in our
salah and supplications.
i) Why salah? Because Allah says:
“And seek help through patience and prayer, and
indeed, it is difficult except for the humbly submissive
[to Allah ]” (al-Bakharah, 2:45)
“Indeed, prayer prohibits immorality and wrongdoing,
and the remembrance of Allah is greater. And Allah
knows that which you do.” (al-’Ankabut, 29:45)
When Abu Bakr asked Prophet to teach him a
supplication to invoke Allah in his salah, Prophet
said:
“Say: ‘O Allah, I have wronged myself much, and none
forgives sins except You. So forgive me with
forgiveness from You, and have mercy upon me, indeed,
You are the Forgiving, the Merciful” (Saheeh Al-
Bukharee)
Brothers and sisters, prayer is one of the foundations of our
religion, and only through it, we can purify ourselves. Even
the most sinful and shameless is expected to pray. And
opening up in our dua is crucial because shaytaan wants to
keep us away from Allah . Wandering around with guilt
will not make us hide from Allah . We might not be very
open with our closest friend or sibling, but we have to be
open with Allah , the All-Hearer, because our beloved
Prophet encouraged us to depend upon Him for even
the smallest of things:
“Let one of you ask his Lord for his every need, until he
asks Him for salt, and asks Him for the strap of his
sandal when it breaks.” (Hasan, Jami` at-Tirmidhee)
ii) Supplications:
Indeed, there are many beautiful supplications to memorize
and there are times when supplications are never rejected.
Knowing them has a great advantage. Click here to learn
more.
2. Know Allah to give Him His Right. We humans tend
to make friendship for two reasons: common interests and
benefits. With Allah , it’s unique and different. Our
relation with Him is of a Master and slave; and only He can
make any of us Waliullah (Friend of Allah). Knowing Him is
our duty. It’s a part of our conscience to have the
knowledge of our Creator. This is one of the initial steps a
Muslim should take when he is curious about his purpose of
existence.
How can we know our Creator without being able to see
Him?
It is only by His word, Quran. In many verses of Quran, Allah
revealed many of His attributes, in terms of: where He
is, how He sees, how He Plans, how He creates, whom He
Loves, who He does not love, who pleases Him, who angers
Him, what He wants from us and like wise. A complete
surah (al ikhlas) is dedicated to His attributes.
One advantage of knowing the meaning of Allah’s names in
depth is to strengthen our aqeedah. The more we know
about Allah , the better we understand His Might and
Power, and easier it will be for us to submit and become a
better slave, in sha Allah. He also encourages us to do good
by giving us glimpses of paradise. This eventually creates a
balance of hope and fear which we can utilize whenever
necessary.
In fact, the realization of being disconnected from Allah
is also a blessing from Him. He puts that depressing
feeling of being disconnected in your heart, so you could get
back to Him and not go astray. We shouldn’t forget
that it is Allah who is allowing us to know Him; so we
should keep asking Allah to bless us with knowledge
of all kind and supplicate as the messenger of Allah
taught us to say:
“O Allah! Grant me benefit in what you have taught me,
and teach me useful knowledge and provide me with
knowledge that will benefit me.” (Hasan, an-Nasa’ee,
al-Hakim)
3. Realize the Good Qualities Allah has given you in
order to get closer to Him . Thank Allah for the
good in you. We might have a few good qualities which we
can never compromise upon, whether we are God conscious
or not. Few people don’t perform their five daily salah, but
will never lie; few cannot be unjust; these are nothing but
blessings from Allah . Thus, thanking Allah for the
good qualities is crucial. Attributing the goodness inside us
to Allah and using it to connect to Him is wise.
Allah commands us to acquire few good qualities in
order to be close to Him. Allah says in the Glorious
Qur’an:
“…Be just; that is nearer to righteousness…” (al-
Ma’idah, 5:
Once Allah’s Messenger said to Ashaj Abdul-Qais
: “You possess two qualities that Allah loves. These
are clemency and tolerance.” (Saheeh Muslim)
A man asked the Messenger of Allah : “What quality of
Islam is best?” He said: “To feed (the poor) and to say the
Salam to whomever one knows and whomever one does not
know.” (Saheeh, Sunan an-Nasa’ee)
To be continued…