Fajr Thoughts: Juz 6
Only for His pleasure - Let's Aim to Please our Rabb
In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful
يٰأَيُّهَا الَّذينَ ءامَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَابتَغوا إِلَيهِ الوَسيلَةَ وَجٰهِدوا فى سَبيلِهِ لَعَلَّكُم تُفلِحونَ ٣٥
O you who have believed, fear Allah and seek the means [of nearness] to Him and strive in His cause that you may succeed. [Qur’an 5:35]
How do we nurture relationships with people that we like? We do stuff they like, then do a few or lot of extras, then we buy gifts and help out anyway they want or need, etc. Point is, we put in the work. Like I just found out a dear one loves amala and I thought, it would be nice to get her to try other amala vendors. Maybe throw an amala showcase or tea party with a side of amala. You catch my drift?
We are living on His earth. We are eating the food that He gave us. We are able to wear clean clothes and have sustenance and provision because of Him. So shouldn’t He deserve our love more than human beings who cannot provide us anything? Shouldn’t we then strive to come closer to Allah and please Him as an expression of our gratitude?
Prophet salAllahu aalyhi wa sallam said, “Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said, ‘My servant doesn’t come closer to me with anything more dear to Me than what I have made obligatory. My servant keeps coming closer to me with more voluntary deeds until I love him…..’“
Also, to fear Allah ﷻ here is not in a way that you want to avoid him but in a way that you want to avoid anything He does not love.
Seek nearness to him by obeying him
In Surah Al-Imran, "If you love Allah ﷻ then follow me (Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and Allah ﷻ will love you. Ah! to be among those Allah loves. O Allah make us among them.
It is so noteworthy that the Islamic approach makes use of all aspects of human character. It addresses the innermost soul of man and touches on his inner motives as it motivates man to obey.
Maybe you want to revive a sunnah just as a means of attaining nearness to him or maybe you want to improve your voluntary acts of worship - Salah, Saum (maybe there is something else that you need to give up other than food, drink and intimacy? maybe foul speech?) or maybe you want to pick up some more Nawafils? Or maybe you want to start to win against your nafs and pray Fajr on time? What are you going to start to do, solely for Him?
May Allah ﷻ grant us consistency in our acts of Ibadah. May He accept all the acts of Ibadah we do for His sake this blessed month. Amin!
So I prepared a small guidebook to help anyone who wants to make tadabbur one small part of their day. It has one ayah from each juz, and personal reflection questions. Allow the Qur'an transform you.