All night a man called “Allah” until his lips were bleeding. The devil approached the man, vulnerable in his disappointment, and said, “How come you’ve been calling Allah all night yet never heard Allah say “Here I am!” The man suddenly felt abandoned. He went to sleep that night upset and depressed. In his dream he met Abraham who asked him, “Why are you regretting praying to Allah?” The man said, ““I called and called, but Allah never replied.” Abraham then explained, Allah has said: “Your calling of my name is My reply. Your longing for Me is My message to you. All my attempts to reach you are reflected in your attempts to reach me.”
In the silence surrounding every call of “Allah”, waits a thousand replies of “Here I am.”
اللهم ما بنا من نعمة فمنك Oh Allah, you are certainly the source of every favour that covers us.
Don’t interpret the silence of God as the indifference of God to your calls and plight! You need to understand that the mere thought and motivation to pray/repent to God is God’s invitation to you to come to Him. When you sin, don’t think for a second that “God is angry at me right now, let me just repent tomorrow, because if I repent right now I won’t seem genuine.” That thought is the whisper of shaytan! Don’t think of God as an angry parent who needs to calm down before you go to Him to repent, but rather, as a Lord who is forever looking for excuses to forgive and shower blessings upon His creations. So for so long as your conscious pulls you and reminds you of Him, be sure that He is inviting you and looking forward to your reuniting with Him. Despite how many times you fall, slip up, break your vow and promises to Him, return to Him once again. He likes it that way - even if we humans don’t treat others with the same compassion.
“Among Your greatest favors to us is the recurrence of Your remembrance across our tongues, and Your permission to supplicate to You, declare You exalted, and call You holy!”
- Mafatih al-Jinan, The 15 Whispered Prayers, “The Whispered Prayer of the Rememberers”.
اگر بنده فراری من میدانست چقدر مشتاق اوهستم، ازشوق جان میداد If my servant who is running away from me knew how much I long for him, he would die from knowing that. - Hadith Qudsi
Time is among the most important and valuable treasures that we have. The opportunity to do a certain act may not rise more than once or twice in a lifetime. If we miss the deadline/opportunity, sometimes the chance of even accomplishing that achievement vanishes.
One of the opportunities that are described by the Ahlul-Bayt that we need to cherish is winter. The Prophet says: Winter/fall is the spring of a believer. Imam Sadiq explains that winter is considered to be an opportunity for a believer because of the length of the nights - it provides an opportunity for a believer to get into the habit of worshipping Allah during the nighttime. If you wanted to pray Salat al-Layl during the summer, you had to wake up at 3am, but now that it’s winter, and Fajr is at 6am~, you can wake up at 5:45 and take 20 minutes to pray Salat al-Layl. Now, we are provided with 3-4 months to pray in this manner and get into the habit of praying Salat al-layl and see the results and sweetness and effects that praying Salat al-layl will have. And once you have tasted the sweetness of praying Salat al-Layl and it’s benefit, you won’t mind waking up much earlier during Summer to speak with your Lord. It is mentioned in ahadith: The honour of a believer is his nightly prayers (Salat al-layl). Start of slowly and at your own pace. Begin with reciting Salat al-Layl 3 times a week, then four, then five, then six, then seven. Plan to sleep at a time you can wake up 20 minutes prior to Fajr. Try your best to abstain from sin throughout the day so you are endowed with the tawfiq of being among those who wake up during the middle of the night and engage in conversation with their Lord.
It would be very regretful if we wake up from our grave on the day of judgement and see how much we could’ve benefitted from these 20 minutes of Salat al-Layl that aren’t even hard to do, yet we missed them.
Spiritual ambitions, similar to ambitions in all other fields (education, career, family), are only attained through planning and hardwork. We cannot expect to wake up one day and attain a high degree of spirituality and nearness to God. We have to take it as seriously as our academics and professional career.
grateful to Allah for the Imam of our time. shukria ya Khuda. shukria. may we continue to remember the Holy Imam every waking moment. may our relationship with him grow and be a source of happiness and comfort for our lonely Imam.
“🍁 Make a small contribution to your next life every day. Two units of prayer, a good word, a small charity, basically anything that will benefit you beyond your existence in this world.”
