02. YOUR TRUEST COMPANION

To befriend anyone, there must be a strong attraction. Strong relationships revolve around love. The deeper we go in love, the more we bond with the other.

Recall the feeling of being in love—how that person becomes the center of your attention. All you want is to be in their presence: glued to your phone all day, distracted from all else, and ready to drop anything just to spend time with your beloved. You find yourself constantly thinking about what you love about them, and all the things you want to do for or with them.

You’re completely focused; your attention is fixed toward one direction. The deeper you go, the more you share—and the more intimately you connect with your beloved. The bond strengthens, trust grows, and you do everything in your power not to hurt them, longing to keep the relationship just as it is. You yearn to become one with the other. 

We long for these relationships, hoping they will stay stable and unchanging. But the reality is that this world is constantly changing—everything shifts from moment to moment, beyond our control. And still, the heart yearns for love, trying to fill the void within by clinging to one thing after another, always searching for something lasting. 

If we truly want to know someone, if we are genuinely longing for them, we manage to divert all our attention and focus toward them. We rearrange our priorities to make time for them.  So why can’t we do this with the One who is the Source of Love, the One who created the whole universe with it? You and I are both created with this Love, and our constant seeking to fulfill it is part of our very nature—we often mistake it for other things.

As soon as someone seeks to know God with love, HIS magnetic field unveils—suddenly wide open—attracting those who are searching for HIM. At a time when every aspect of my life was turning upside down, when everything I believed would remain constant was changing, Murshid Kareem (RA) said to me, “Everything in this duniya is constantly changing; nothing remains the same. The only constant is Allah ﷻ and His Rasool ﷺ.”

The problem is that religion has become overly focused on rules and regulations, right and wrong, good and evil. As a result, it has either turned into a taboo or created rigidity among its followers. However, this is the practice where true freedom is found—if done right. We often forget the main purpose of Deen: to divert our attention toward our Creator and build a genuine relationship with HIM. Through this Divine friendship, we can begin to know Allah ﷻ and explore the secrets and mysteries of HIS creation. Yet worship has become something we do while disconnected—out of fear, for the expectation of reward, or for show—making it challenging to cultivate a personal, intimate relationship with God.

As we journey through love, we come to realize that similarity becomes the bridge of closeness. The more we are like the one we love, the more our thoughts, actions, and intentions align with theirs—the nearer we feel to them. Hearts are not drawn to each other by force; they move through resonance, through a natural gravitational pull.

When our inner patterns begin to reflect theirs, we start to experience the very essence of connection.  And through this reflection, we learn that love itself becomes an act of worship.   

Worship, as defined by scholars, is the highest expression of love and devotion. To be a servant (عبد) is considered the highest station (مقام) with Allah ﷻ.  Think of your own relationships—the ones you gravitate toward and feel comfortable in are those based on love. These relationships lift you higher, allow you to feel vulnerable, to be yourself, to share intimately, and remain open and free. You feel liberated. You are genuinely happy to serve the other and to spend your time in these connections. 

In contrast, some relationships are rooted in fear, defined by feelings of force, uneasiness, shame, and discomfort. You may feel ashamed to be vulnerable, afraid of being judged for who you are. In these situations, you don’t want to invest time; instead, you simply try to get through them as quickly as possible, often going through the motions out of fear or guilt. 

So, the question to consider is this:  how can we worship a God we don’t truly know or have made acquaintance with? A God that someone else has painted for us—a God who judges, punishes, and burns? Someone else’s perception will never be enough. As with anything in life, you only truly come to know through experience—you must go through it. 

The distinction between theory and practicality lies in experience. 

It is only when we truly know someone that the bond of love grows, allowing us to feel connected to the person and experience a sense of closeness. Worship without focus becomes redundant; to focus on something, it must first attract your attention and spark your interest. Once interest is established, you begin to know it. This is the fundamental law for understanding anything.

If a scientist wants to discover something, their intense focus (توجه) and contemplation (تفكر) allow them to explore it. They read about it, imagine its possibilities, visualize its potential, experiment with it, and spend time in its discovery. Through focused attention, it reveals its characteristics, and they come to know it. 

When we are deeply in love, the pain of everything fades away. We forget everything and simply long to be in the presence of the person—whether physically or in our thoughts. We long to know everything about them, willing to give up even parts of ourselves—perhaps even fully—to know them more deeply, to be like them, and to be close to them.

This is the concept of Nafi. Fourteen hundred years ago, when our Beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was reflecting on life in Ghar Hira, on Jabal al-Noor, He withdrew from society. He distanced Himself from the chaos and noise, secluding Himself for a specific period with food and drink to sustain Himself during His temporary retreat before returning to engage with the affairs of the world—this was His first Sunnah. It marked the first act of negation in His practice. He negated His entire environment, the practices and traditions of His society and ancestors. He negated His external senses.

In the silence of the cave, with His external eyes—or rather, His external senses—closed, He withdrew and turned inward. He began His journey into Himself. This activated His inner senses, and as He traveled deeper within, He continued to negate everything that was not al-Khaliq—la illaha, la illaha, la illaha (لا إله).

Until, at last, the spectacular experience of Wahi  occurred—“Iqraa!” (Read!). His immediate response was to negate Himself, ”ما أنا بقارئ“ (I will not read).

Again, Jibreel AS said to Him, “Iqraa!” and once more, His reaction was to negate Himself, ”ما أنا بقارئ“ (I will not read). The deeper He went, the more He continued to negate.

He even had to negate Himself for the transfer of “اقرَأ بِاسمِ رَبِّكَ الَّذي خَلَقَ” (Read in the Name of Your Lord Who created) to occur—to realize Allah ﷻ. His negation led Him to cognize Khaliq al-Koun –illa Allah! (الا الله).

It is without a doubt that Rasool ﷺ lived the most honorable life, as the Insaan  with the best character. He is Allah’s Messenger ﷺ, the Waseela  to lead us to Allah ﷻ. La illaha il Allah (لا إله الا الله), Muhammad Rasool Allah (محمد رسول الله). For this reason, we follow His guidance and look to His Seerah  to understand His pattern of thinking that informs His pattern of conduct.

Why is it that we are so focused on the little details of His everyday life, but forget to examine how He came to truly know Allah ﷻ? What was He practicing in that very moment when He cognized the Creator? He is our Beloved Prophet ﷺ, whose task is to lead us to Allah ﷻ.

Regardless of our backgrounds, or the religions into which we were born, Muhammad Rasool Allah ﷺ has been sent as a Mercy for the entire universe (رحمة للعالمين). All the Prophets (AS) came with the same message: the message of monotheism—that there is only One Creator. A single message from the same Source, sent down in succession. And each time it began to deviate among the community of that era, a new Prophet—with the same message—was sent.

The completion of the Knowledge that Allah ﷻ intended for humanity was sealed with Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, who is connected to 124,000 Prophets (AS). He ﷺ is Khatam al-Nabiyyeen, the one who reached al-Maqam al-Adnaa  in an embrace with Allah ﷻ—guiding all of humanity to HIM as the Waseela.

If we follow in His footsteps and adhere to His guidance, wouldn’t we be able to develop a personal, one-on-one conscious relationship with our Creator? Isn’t that the very purpose of every Divine Book sent to us—to explore the possibility for ourselves, to see if it is indeed attainable, without someone dictating that it is out of bounds? Imagine how different life could be if we connected with the Source instead of the resources.

If we reflect on that instance, it becomes clear that while Rasool Allah ﷺ was practicing negation, He was also engaging in what is known as the practice of muraqabah. He withdrew His attention from His external senses and went within Himself to observe and discover Reality. He sat in a quiet, dark cave and delved into the cave of His ribs, exploring the depths of His own heart to find out who makes it beat.

Muraqabah is essentially the practice of concentration—stilling the body and quieting the mind to focus on a single point. Through this singular point of focus and concentration, Allah ﷻ revealed HIMSELF to Rasool Allah ﷺ, allowing Him to cultivate an intimate relationship with HIM—beyond creation.

From this depth of communion, He conversed with Allah ﷻ and received not just what appears to be words of the Holy Quran, but the living experience of Allah’s Command (امر). The Holy Quran is not mere words written in a book; it is a vibration, a frequency of Life. If it existed without the example of Rasool Allah ﷺ—living as a walking embodiment of the Holy Quran— would we ever truly unlock its depths?

The Holy Quran was revealed not merely as words for us to read and memorize, but as experiential Formulas of Creation—translating the Pattern of Thinking (طراز فكر) of Allah ﷻ, revealed and transferred to Rasool Allah ﷺ.  The Holy Quran is the transfer of Noor upon Noor (نور على نور)—a continuous transmission of Divine Light.  Allah ﷻ says in al-Quran al-Kareem:

(قَد جاءَكُم مِنَ اللَّهِ نورٌ وَكِتابٌ مُبينٌ‏)

There has come to you from Allah a Divine Light and Book clear.

[Al-Mā’idah: 15]

Allah ﷻ tells us that this Holy Quran and Divine Noor are clear, manifest—and can be seen. Revealed to Rasool Allah ﷺ to pass on to His Ummah  as an inheritance, it holds the secrets of creation as well as the Knowledge of Allah ﷻ and HIS Irfan. As Khatam al-Nabiyyeen, He opens the way and leads humanity—with the Knowledge of Siraat al-Mustaqeem—to follow the Path to the Creator.

This Guidance and Knowledge is not meant for another time or space—time and space must be negated too. It is meant for the here and now. We cannot assume that we will only come to truly know our Creator after physical death or upon leaving this earth—that is a limiting belief, and, in truth, a form of ignorance. Rasool Allah ﷺ was sent to reveal to us Allah ﷻ’s Ayat. To truly comprehend this, we must be purified of all misconceptions, misinterpretations, doubts, and the negative thinking patterns that lead to negative patterns of conduct—patterns we’ve inherited and adopted.

It is not a purification that is meant only for the physical aspect of life, as we often base much of the Sharia’ah  on these days. Rather, the Sharia’ah serves to purify the body and mind, preparing us to enter the realm of the Soul and encounter our True Selves. Sharia’ah is not merely about halal and haram, nor is it simply a system of reward or punishment by Allah ﷻ. Instead, it cleanses our energy, making us lighter, bringing us closer to Reality—and ultimately, to Allah ﷻ.

Allah ﷻ mentions in al-Quran al-Kareem:

(‏لَقَد خَلَقنَا الإِنسانَ في أَحسَنِ تَقويمٍ ۝ ثُمَّ رَدَدناهُ أَسفَلَ سافِلينَ‏)

We created the human being in the best state.
Then we reduced him to the lowest of lows.

[At-Tīn: 4-5]

These Ayat illustrate two distinct states of Insaan. The first—Ahsan Taqweem—is your True Self in its original form as Allah ﷻ intended. The second is the result of disobedience. When we align our thoughts and actions with what Allah ﷻ loves—and in the way HE loves—it purifies the body and mind, protecting us from overthinking, stress, and doubt.

When we align ourselves with what Allah ﷻ loves, we enter a safe zone and elevate our vibrations—allowing the mind to be in a state of sukoon—clear and receptive to deeper realities. But when we act contrary to what Allah ﷻ loves, it scatters our thoughts, lowering our vibrations and energies, making it difficult to access higher or deeper zones of Reality. We remain on the surface, trapped in shakk, and this doubt creates distance between us and Allah ﷻ. 

However, when we practice the way of Rasool Allah ﷺ, there is nothing to doubt. We enter the domain of Yaqeen, which allows us to experience firsthand what it means to be close to Allah ﷻ.

Let’s illustrate with an example: suppose I steal or lie today. Immediately, guilt surfaces and doubt creeps in. I overthink the situation—trying to come up with a cover-up story that I must keep revisiting just to remember. Inevitably, my energy drains, my focus scatters, and my conscience (ضمير)… keeps tugging at me. 

When I go against Sharia’ah, I’m left uneasy, in a state of guilt and doubt, which creates distance between Allah ﷻ and myself, hindering my closeness to HIM. 

Now, suppose today I tell the truth—even if it is very difficult. Later, when I rest my head on my pillow, my conscience is clear and I remain in a peaceful state of mind. Even if it was painful, I spoke honestly; there’s nothing to hide. I am at peace with my choice of action, and so my mind is at ease—no worry, no restless looping thoughts. My energy is stable, neutral, and centered; I can focus without anything clouding my thoughts or conscience.

Therefore, yes—Sharia’ah is designed to maintain order in society. But for the seeker on the spiritual path, striving for Allah ﷻ‘s Irfan, it becomes clear that Sharia’ah is the very foundation: clearing the way, purifying the nafs, and preparing us to enter higher states and realms of Reality.

With prayers 🤍