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Five Ways to Improve Your Spiritual State

Five ways to improve your spiritual state

Boost Your Imaan

Five ways to improve your spiritual state

How can we increase in our spiritual state? What are the keys to finding tranquility? What strengthens imaan? Here are five steps which will bring you closer to Allah when you carry them out with sincerity:

  • You must always be aware that Allah is watching you, in the open and even more so in secret. This is one of the levels of Ihsan; worshipping Allah as if you see Him, for if you do not see Him, He sees you.
  • Your attitude towards your Lord must always be balanced between fear and hope, which for the Muslims are like the two wings of a bird. Turn to Allah wholeheartedly and let your heart be filled with love for Him, your tongue with remembrance of Him (dhikr).
  • Always call upon Allah Almighty in everything, to Him belongs the kingdom of the Heavens and Earth, He is the Generous Lord, ask and keep asking as He is rich and you are poor. If you were to ask, ask Him to bless you and grant you understanding in the beneficial knowledge, for this would be the best of things. If you are sincere towards Allah, He will support you and help you, and will cause you to gain the level of the righteous people.
  • Seek knowledge, as it cultivates humility and humbleness.  Knowledge grants one the ability to know about Allah, and then grow love for Allah and His Messenger.
  • Increase your obedience. And then the icing on the cake is adding additional voluntary good deeds.

Allah Almighty said in the Qur’an:

If you love Allah, Follow Me (Prophet (peace be on him)); Allah will love you and forgive you your sins. Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.

[Al-Imran 3:31]

Your love should be for your creator and this love must be transmitted into actions. In the Qur’an it is mentioned:

‘Those who believe and do good deeds’.

[Al-Ma’ida 5:54]

If you claim to love Allah, then you cannot disobey Him. The lover is always in the service of his beloved, so when Allah Almighty calls upon you, say:

‘We hear and we obey’ (2:285)

You are His servant and instead of struggling against what He wants, if you respond by hearing (for not everyone hears Allah’s call) and obeying (not everyone who hears obeys His call) this means you are the true servants of Ar-Rahman rather than the servants of your desires.

This relationship of love between man and his Creator is reciprocal, and the intensity of a people’s love for God is indicative of God’s love for them, as indicated by the following verse:

God will bring a people whom He loves and who love Him.

[Al-Ma’ida: 5:54]

This love stands for a spiritual relationship between Allah Almighty and God-loving people, who are ever-aware of the beneficence and mercy of their Lord. There is no clearer indication of the great status attained by the believer who draws closer to Allah by performing nafil (optional) deeds than this hadith:

My servant continues to draw near to Me with optional works so that I will love him. When I love him, I am his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, 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 ask Me for refuge, I would surely grant him it.

[Bukhari]

You can be obeying Allah out of the fear of punishment, or you can obey Allah due to love of Allah, and the lover is in always in the service of the beloved.

This is a series compiled by Abu Shama following lectures on ‘The Manners and Etiquette of the Teacher and the Students’. The course was based on a book written by Shaykh al-Islam, Badr al-Din Ibn Jama’ah and conveyed to us by our Shaykh Haytham Tamim.

Qadi al-Qudat, Shaykh al-Islam, Badr al-Din Ibn Jama’ah was born in 639 AH (1241 AD). Originally from Syria and later moved to Egypt. He was educated at Hama, achieved excellence in religious studies and jurisprudence, and became a leading promoter of the Shafi’i Fiqh. Eventually, he attained the high status of Shaykh al-Islam and held the high position of Chief Justice. Imam al-Dhahabi has observed that Qadi Ibn Jama’ah was well versed both in prose and poetry, and had left abundant notes on Fiqh, Hadith, Usul al-Fiqh, and Tarikh(History). He commanded respect and influence, and had a large number of students and followers. He died at Cairo in the year 733 A.H. (1332 A.D.), aged 94, and was buried by the side of the great Imam Shafi’i.

 His book on the subject of Adab al-Alim wal-Mutaalim

It was in the year 672 AH (1273 AD) that Ibn Jama’ah completed this book as a guide for both students and teachers to help improve quality of their academic life and work.

Suggested Books:

Ibn Jama’ah – Etitquettes of Seeking Knowledge

Abd Al Barr – Jami’ Bayan Al Ilm

Al Khateeb Al Baghdadi – Al Jami’ li Akhlaq Al Rawi

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Abu Shama has a background in engineering, IT and management consultancy, and reinvented himself as a life coach, writer and secondary school teacher. In addition to his special interest in spirituality, he shares his son’s love of dinosaurs and Lamborghinis. He has published two uniquely beautiful books, The Blue Moon and Yunus and the Whale and has many others in the pipline mashallah.