The Road To Allah

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum

Dear Friends

I pray that you are well.

In a hadith Qudsi, Allah has said:

Whosoever shows enmity to a wali (friend) of Mine, then I have declared war against him. And My servant does not draw near to Me with anything more loved to Me than the religious duties I have obligated upon him. And My servant continues to draw near to me with nawafil (supererogatory) deeds until I love him. When I love him, I am his hearing with which he hears, and his sight with which he sees, and his hand with which he strikes, and his foot with which he walks. Were he to ask [something] of Me, I would surely give it to him; and were he to seek refuge with Me, I would surely grant him refuge.

[Bukhari]

The path to Allah is knowledge, practice and state. This hadith tells us if we want to acquire this high rank of being a friend of Allah, then learn what Allah has obligated upon us and practice it. There is no way to bypass this. There is nothing else you can do that will take you to Allah more than this distance of doing what is obligatory. You can give charity until you are left with nothing, you can pray until your legs break, but you are going aimlessly if you don't know your obligatory duties, or if you know them but you don't practice them. For example, neglecting one's duties towards one's parents or towards one's child(ren).

Many of us (adults) know we have to be dutiful and kind to our parents, but how many of us can say we are respectful, humble and merciful towards our parents, or how many of us even call or visit our parents or invite them to eat with us regularly? How many single mothers out there are without any financial support from the father of their children and live on welfare?

If you want to take the road to Allah, it is one road. It is the road of the obligatory. Everything that Allah makes obligatory on us, are His favorite actions and those are what He wants us to do. It is not that Allah wants to make our life difficult but because Allah wants us to enter Paradise.

By the very fact that Allah commands us to pray five times a day, fast in Ramadhan, give zakat, perform hajj (when able) and fulfill the rights of others, is in effect Allah orders us to enter Paradise.

Ibn Ata'ila said, "Allah, He obliged on you to enter Paradise."

So, the most important thing we should be doing is to learn what is obligatory, then do them properly. Then comes the recommended. It does not mean that we wait until we have done all the obligatory before we do the recommended, but the obligatory is the basis. Without it, we are not going anywhere. The flourishing of a person's religious life is by doing more and more what is recommended. For example, giving extra charity, performing extra prayers, be of good character with people, and doing as many good deeds that Allah loves.

The 40 hadiths collection of Imam Nawawi show us the principal acts that Allah loves. So it behooves everyone to learn these and start putting them into practice.

May Allah grant us tawfiq (success). Ameen.

Please don't forget us in yoru night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.

And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam