Allah is closer to you than your jugular vein. The fish in the water is constantly asking, “What is water?” and the only time it begins to recognize what water is, is when it’s pulled out of water.
God surrounds us. God is within us. God is closer to us than we can imagine. But somehow, and for some reason, people feel separated from Him. People don’t understand that closeness, and are constantly asking, “Where is He? Who is He? Does He, or She, really exist? Is there a God?” So the question comes up constantly.
Being in this state of not understanding, how do we become close to God? How do we get to know our Creator? What does it take for us to make that breakthrough towards Him and how is it that we can strengthen our faith and become true believers?
The biggest problem that exists in this world towards our understanding of God, and towards our understanding of His qualities, is doubt. Doubt interferes with our ability to set up a determined certitude. Doubt makes us wishy-washy. Doubt hinders our intention. Doubt breaks down our resolve. Doubt takes us to a place where, instead of being centered, we become un-centered; we become without a real understanding of things, so we go back to the lowest common denominator, which is believing in the world. And then we’re stuck with holding onto the illusory nature of things, giving them reality, and repeating over, and over, and over the same mistakes we always make, the same thought patterns we always have, and constantly looking to resolve situations that can’t be resolved.
We have to go away from this track of existence and enter into a track of belief. How do we enter into that track? What is it that has to be done? Well, for starters, if you have a good friend, you spend time with him. If you have a good friend, you spend time with her. If there’s someone you love, you spend time with them. You express their love, you receive their love, and you give them love; it’s a mutual relationship.
Well, Allah is constantly available to give you His love. He’s waiting for you, for you to give Him your love. He is in a constant state of love while our state fluctuates. What is it that we can do in order to stop the fluctuation of our state? What is it that we can do to stop doubt? What is it that we can do to become sincere?
The answer isn’t complicated. The answer is prayer. We have to set up a line of communication with Allah, and that line of communication is called prayer. And one of the things that happens when true prayer occurs, is that thought of the self dissipates, disappears, and thought of our Creator overwhelms us, or the thought of another overwhelms us.
For instance, one of the ways that prayer is done is to act with the qualities of Allah. To be compassionate is to pray, but to be compassionate means that your empathy is now going out towards someone else, and you are helping someone else, which means you’ve given up thought of the self…
