My name is Theresa Corbin, I’m going to talk a little bit about seeking closeness to God.

Human being is in perpetual state of seeking something. We all feel the need of feeling our emptiness inside of us, whether we’re Muslim or non-Muslim.

We’re always looking for something to make us feel home. Some of us use romantic love, some of us use money, power, even food, and others, unfortunately seek to dolloping to doll this feeling of emptiness with drugs or alcohol even other destructive behaviors.

So why are we created in such a way that we feel a need of something that can’t be filled with material things? This is because we are created as spiritual beings; God created us in such a way that to have this feeling, to have this need for something that can’t be filled with material possessions or material things in this world so that we will seek Him out.

In chronic terms, the word used as waseelah (closeness to God) in surah 3:15 {for the righteous our guidance and nearness to our Lord with rivers flown beneath therein is their eternal home}

And this is ultimate goal, why? Because it’s amazing and it’s relaxing and it’s beautiful, yes, but also and more importantly because it’s near to our Lord; we’re going back to our originator.

But how can we seek this out in this life since we have this need, we have this emptiness that we feel in this life? How can we feel near to God?

Ibn Taymiyah said: “The waseelah (the means by which Allah has asked us to take it to approach Him only means that we should perform obligatory and extra works, it means nothing else. Furthermore what obligatory duties and what extra works we should engage in has been defined by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

Hence, to take the waseelah means nothing but to follow what the Prophet (peace be upon him) has taught.”

To sum up, we don’t need to seek out anything other than what God has sent to us through the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). And the first thing we seek out of course is the obligatory and in this we find fulfilled, we find nearness to God.

And I’d like to think of the five pillars of Islam as the spiritual needs, the needs of the spiritual life just like the needs of physical life of food, clothing, shelter, water and so on.

The five pillars are the basic, the obligatory, are the five necessaries of the spiritual life.

But many of us even we do them, we often feel like we don’t have any time to do more and life has funny way of creating for us a gradation of pulled away from actual works.

It not all about sitting in masjid and constant state of fasting; if you have the means and option to do so, don’t waste it.

But most of us have work and family and daily dishes and life to content with; some of us struggle to meet the minimum even but there are few things that we can do that cause zero money, only a little of brain power.

Making Du’a

These are some of things I do in my personal life and I’d like to recommend them for you.

The extra things I do that help me feel closer to Allah (God), I make du’a all the time inshallah, if I’m in frustrate I make du’a, if I submit to Him I make du’a, if I’m hopeless I make du’a, if I’m feeling awesome I make du’a, if I’m feeling happy, I make du’a… so this made me feel more way connected to Allah than I ever was before and I’ve only started doing this within a past couple of months and has created a very big difference in my life.

Seeking Forgiveness

Also seeking forgiveness is something else I do, and I think it’s super important to feel our connection with Allah. When you feel anxious, empty, weird, when you know you’ve done something in wrong intentionally, sometimes it happens, we know we’re human, when you feel like you’re on right way track even, seek forgiveness.

Prophet (peace be upon him) sought forgiveness numerous times a day, even though he was one of the most perfect human beings.

Refocusing Intention

Another thing I do is to turn anything into worship simply by refocusing my intentions.

So if work is a drag, you know, you think about why you’re doing it to provide for your family, this is an act of worship because you’re pleasing your Lord by doing that.

And then it suddenly seems you’re lucky because you’re being rewarded. You’ve to go and pay the bills… Alhamdulillah this is sadaqah (charity) for you and you’re greatly rewarded.

And so the housework is the worst but when you refocus your intentions of not just getting it just needs to be done, it also becomes lighter when you know that Allah will be rewarding you for your good intentions in your keeping house health environment for family to seek Allah’s pleasure.

All of these things if we do them we can’t remove to help be feel closer to Allah, you know, if we’re talking to God and asking Him for things, seeking His forgiveness, and even turning everything if we refocus our intentions, we will help but to seeking closeness to Allah and feel fulfilled Insha’Allah.

It’s not having giving you some advice, I’m going to take my own advice and seek nearness to Allah and I hope you all feel fulfilled physically and spiritually in all your days come. Ameen.

Read Part 2.