Have you ever seen Allah? And if not, how often do you get to talk to Him?
Every day we open our eyes and take in the world around us. The beauty of creation,
the faces we love, the blessings we sometimes forget. Sight is a powerful sense. People say
seeing is believing, right? But have you ever seen Allah? And if you've never seen Him, how do you achieve nearness to Him?
Abu Yazid al-Bustami says, "I saw my Lord in a dream. And I said, 'Ya Rabb, kaifa tariqo
ilayk?' How do I get close to you, O my Lord? And my Lord responded, 'Utruk nafsak wa ta'al.'
Leave yourself behind and come closer." Imam Ahmad (رحمه الله) also says, "I saw my Lord
in a dream and I said, O my Lord, how is it possible to achieve closeness to you? And
He replied, 'Ya Ahmad bi kalami,' O Ahmad by my words, meaning the recitation of the Qur'an. I said, and O my Lord, when we recite with understanding or even without understanding?
And Allah (عز وجل) responded, with or without understanding, meaning the Qur'an is blessed and it's of course better to read with tafsir and comprehension. But even the very recital
of the word of Allah is of the best ways to get close to Him. Ibn al-Jawzi (رحمه الله) mentions that Yahya al-Bakka (رحمه الله) saw his Lord in a dream and he said, "Ya Rabb,
kam ad'uuka wa la tujeebunee? O my Lord, how long have I been calling upon you and you haven't answered me?" And Allah responded to him and said, "Ya Yahya inni uhibbu an asma'a
sawtak." O Yahya, I love to hear your voice. The Prophet (ﷺ) said
that ihsan or excellence is that you worship Allah as if you can see Him. And if you can't see Him, then you know He sees you. But what does that practically mean? There's one narration
which the Prophet (ﷺ) elaborated. Mu'adh (رضي الله عنه) says, I went to the Prophet (ﷺ) and I said, "Ya Rasulullah, awsini, O Messenger of Allah, give me advice." And the Prophet (ﷺ) said,
"I advise you, worship Allah as if you can see Him and count yourself amongst the already dead and remember Allah near every stone and every tree. And if you commit a sin, then
do a good deed in its place. A secret deed for a secret deed and a public deed for a public deed." I want you to think about what the connection would be between worshiping
Allah as if you can see Him and already counting yourself from the dead. And one of the wisdoms of that is that you now see reality for what it truly is. And there is nothing more real
than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Himself. Now there are these dreams narrated from the Prophet (ﷺ) and the righteous predecessors where they would say, I saw Allah and we know these to be truthful people. Imam Abu Hanifa (رحمه الله) was recorded to have
experienced this multiple times. So this is an established phenomenon, but the sight of Allah in a dream is rare. It's a unique experience for the soul and a vision of the
heart that is real yet is nothing like actually seeing Allah in the hereafter, which is the true gift that we all long for. It's something that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gifted a few
of the pious predecessors and not something we should get too caught up in. So why even mention it? Because if you pay attention, even in those few dreams that we have, the emphasis even in those dreams is that you connect to Allah through His words of the
Qur'an and through your words in du'a. That's the point. You don't have to see Allah here. You're actually engaging with Allah already directly multiple times a day. And some people
talk about Allah, but they don't talk to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Some people know about Allah, but they don't know Allah. And understanding that direct engagement of the soul can be
profoundly life-changing. And of course, anyone who feels that direct connection with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala always wants more. And that's why Musa (عليه السلام) wanted to see
Him in this dunya, but he was unable to. But what did Allah honor him with? Allah still honored him with being Kaleemullah, the one who Allah spoke directly to.
وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي فَإِنِّي قَرِيبٌ When My servant asks you about Me, I am close. Before you got here, Allah spoke to you directly
and said, أَلَسْتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ Am I not your Lord? The next time you will be asked in the grave, من ربك? Who is your Lord? You have all this time to get to
know Him between the two questions. Will you be ready to answer it? The believer in theory would have spoken to Allah more than anyone else in their lives if you just took
their salah alone. And Allah directly responds to you every single time you pray and you recite Surat al-Fatiha. If you don't pray a single sunnah a day, you're still going
to have that conversation with Allah at least 17 times directly. And that doesn't even include the rest of your salah or the du'as that you make throughout the day. Prayer
is the ascent of the believer. Just as Allah took the Prophet (ﷺ) in body and soul on a journey to Him and legislated to him the salah directly, Allah has given you your salah to
where your soul ascends to Him and you speak directly to Him. And the Prophet (ﷺ) said that the closest that a slave is to Allah is in his sujood, is in his prostration. I
remember asking a brother who recently embraced Islam, what's the most beautiful part of Islam to you? So he just said, man, Allah is just so accessible. I never knew what being able
to talk directly to God could be like for me. And what does the Prophet (ﷺ) say? Allah says,
I am with my slave as soon as he remembers me and his lips move saying my name. You won't mention Allah without Him mentioning you. Your soul longs for Him at all times, even
when you sleep. Imam al-Bayhaqi mentions a narration that's attributed to Abu Darda' (رضي الله عنه). And there's almost an identical statement to Abdullah ibn Amr (رضي الله عنه). That the soul of the believer is brought to the throne of Allah when he sleeps. And if
he slept in a state of tahara, a state of purity, his soul is allowed to make sajda to Allah. And subhanAllah, we know the sunnah is to do wudu' before we sleep and that the
angels make du'a for us throughout the night if we do. So even when you sleep, you're brought near. And if your last deed before sleep was a good deed, being wudu', then that is going
to be the way that it experiences its entire night. And the degree to which that soul longs for Him subhanahu wa ta'ala affects how quickly and how deeply you encounter Him subhanahu
wa ta'ala from the moment that you enter into the barzakh. Is anyone already seeing Allah? Again, there's nothing like the vision of the hereafter. There's this beautiful narration of Jabir (رضي الله عنه) where he says that the Prophet (ﷺ) came
to me after my father was martyred in Uhud. And he said, "Ya Jabir, ma li araka munkasiran? Oh Jabir, why do I see you broken hearted?" So I said, "Ya Rasulullah, my father's been
killed and he left behind all these dependents, all these family members and all these debts." And the Prophet (ﷺ), he said to him, "Shall I not tell you something
to comfort you? Ma kallamAllahu ahadan qat illa min warai hijab. Allah has not spoken
to anyone before except from behind a veil. Wa kallamAllahu abaka kifahan. But Allah spoke to your father directly. And he said, 'Ya abdi tamanna alayya u'teek.' Oh my slave, ask something
from me and I will give it to you. And he said, 'Ya Rabb, tuhyini fa uqtalu feeka thaniyan.' Oh my Lord, bring me back to life so that I may be killed in your cause again. And Allah
responds and says, 'Innahu sabaqa minni annahum ilayha la yarji'oon.' But I've already decreed that no one will return back to that life. So he said in that case, 'Ya Rabb, fa abligh
man warai.' My Lord, then convey the news to those whom I have left behind." And that is when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed the verse about the shuhada, that they are ahya,
that they are alive and that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is indeed taking care of them. So just think about it. All he would want after that beautiful moment is to come back
and sacrifice his life for Allah again. Imagine that longing and think of the martyrs of Gaza and Yemen and all over the Muslim world who now experience Allah's closeness, not only
wanting to see him, but to continue striving for him, sacrificing for him over and over again. And remember Imam Ahmad (رحمه الله) and those many dreams of the Prophet (ﷺ) when he was being tortured? After he dies, one of his students says, "I
saw Imam Ahmad in a dream. So I said to him, 'Ya Aba Abdillah, what has your Lord done for you?' And Imam Ahmad responded, 'He has forgiven me. He said to me, Ya Ahmad, you
received 60 lashes for my sake.' And I said, 'Yes, my Lord.' He said, 'Now my face appears to you. So look at it as you please.'" SubhanAllah, you see the direct connection between bitter
sacrifice for Allah when you can't see him and then the sweetness of seeing him there. Now it may take some time before you get to see him directly subhanahu wa ta'ala. And
we know that the ultimate sight of him is reserved for Jannah. But in the meantime, you see his signs. And when you die, you see another set of signs made now visible to you
and peeling one more layer between you and him. When we die, the believers see angels of mercy. The disbelievers see angels of punishment. The shuhada see Jannah right away from the
first strike. But if you're a believer, you'll get your own version of al-Isra wal-Mi'raj at that time. As Imam al-Dahhak narrated, when the soul of the believing servant is
taken, it is ascended to the heavens and those who are nearest to Allah accompany it. And they say, "Ya Rabb, abduka fulan," oh Lord, this is your servant so and so, even though
Allah knows better than them. And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sends down a sealed certificate, that assures him safety from the punishment of Allah. And then he goes on to say that
this is the meaning of Allah's words, كَلَّا إِنَّ كِتَابَ الْأَبْرَارِ لَفِي عِلِّيِّينَ وَمَا أَدْرَاكَ مَا عِلِّيُّونَ كِتَابٌ مَرْقُومٌ يَشْهَدُهُ الْمُقَرَّبُونَ
That verily the record of the righteous is in 'illiyyin, the highest of places. And what can make you know what 'illiyyin is? It's a written record, witnessed by those brought
near to Allah. Question is, can you see Allah now through his signs and verses? And what is that doing for you? Or are you waiting for the universe
to consume you to the point where you will only see clearly when it's too late to act? If you want that gift to behold him on that day with your own two eyes, do you recognize
that Allah has already given you direct access to him in this life? Will you wait to see him there? Or will you sharpen your vision here while you continue to seek that closeness
to him? لَقَدْ كُنْتَ فِي غَفْلَةٍ مِّنْ هَٰذَا فَكَشَفْنَا عَنْكَ غِطَاءَكَ فَبَصَرُكَ الْيَوْمَ حَدِيدٌ You were indeed heedless in regards to this,
so we removed from you that cover, and now your vision is sharp. But you're already dead. Were you ever really alive in the first place?
