"But verily, remembrance of Allah is the most important"

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Closeness to Allah

Hadhrat Shaykh Asif Hussain Farooqui

All Praise is for Allah, and peace and blessings of Allah be upon His beloved Messenger Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

It is a great blessing from Allah subhana wa ta'ala that when a person does Allah's dhikr he gets closer to Allah. We should be grateful for this privilege. It is such a great action to do the dhikr of Allah, because as soon a person begins to remember his Lord, he begins to get closer to Him. And there is evidence of this in the Qur'an where Allah says,

Remember me and I will remember you,
be grateful to Me, And reject not
(Surah Al-Baqarah verse152)

What more closeness can there be than that of Allah remembering His servant? This is indeed closeness, where a person remembers Allah and Allah remembers the person. To remember someone is a sign of closeness and love. And this is also the way of the world. For example a person would remember those he loves in many ways, he would keep in touch with those people he loves the most, either by letter or by phone. We only worry about those people about whom we care. When you are away from your friends and family, you tend to contact your parents, more so than people you have less care for.

Now Allah's dhikr is such a link between the Creator and His creation that it makes it easy for a human being to get the attention of the Most High. And the more a person remembers Allah, the more it is that Allah remembers him.

It is stated in a Hadeeth in Bukhari narrated by Abu Hurayrah radhiallah anhu that Allah's Messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said: "Allah the Almighty says, If my servant draws near to Me a hand's span, I draw near to him an arm's length; and if he draws near to Me an arm's length, I draw near to him a fathom's length. And if he comes to Me walking I go to him at speed."

Allah's Mercy envelops the person who turns to Him. Allah subhana wa ta'ala raises the status of a person in accordance with the amount of dhikr, the purer the intention and steadfastness that he has.

As a person continues to remember Allah with sincerity, there eventually comes a time when he becomes a beloved of Allah. It is stated in Hadeeth that when a person becomes a beloved of Allah, then Allah becomes his ears, his tongue, his hands and feet. The meaning of the Hadeeth is that a person begins to live his life for Allah's sake alone and his hands and so on are not used to commit sin. His sole purpose in life is to seek Allah's pleasure. And all this starts from the time when a person begins to remember Allah and do Allah's dhikr.

May Allah give us the tawfeeq (ability) to remember Him, and do His dhikr with sincerity and in abundance.