NEARNESS TO ALLAH IS THE ONLY KEY

NEARNESS TO ALLAH IS THE ONLY KEY

 The Great Reformer said:

"You should remember that it is only when a man abandons negligence and evil deeds that his prayer is accepted by God. The closer he is to God the more he will have his prayers accepted.

That is why God says:  

Wa'izaa sa-alaka 'ibaadee 'annee fa-innee qareeb...

"And when My servants ask you about Me, say: I am near. I answer the prayer of the supplicant when he prays to Me. So they should hearken to Me and believe in Me, that they may follow the right way''.

At another place He says:  

Wa anna lahomut-tana awasho mim-makanim-ba'eed

''how should I accept the prayer of the person who is far away from Me".

This is a lesson through an instance from the law of nature. 

It does not really mean that God cannot hear (from distance). He (God) is fully aware of the intentions that are hidden in the heart and even the intentions that have not taken any shape as yet. Here, actually the attention of man has been invited to the nearness of God. He has been told that just as a voice that comes from far off cannot be heard, so also a person who is negligent and engrossed in the evil deeds, goes away from God. The farther away he goes, the greater is the distance and the thickness of the curtain between him and the acceptance of his prayers.

As I have just said that although God is the knower of the Unseen, this is the law of nature that man cannot achieve anything without Taqwa (the fear of God, righteousness and piety).

At times the ignorant person becomes an atheist simply because of the non-acceptance of the prayer. The Bukhari (a Book of Hadith) contains a Hadith which says that the believer attains to the nearness of God through Nawafil (optional good actions or supererogatory prayers)''.

(Malfuzat Vol. II, pp. 198)