{"id":1884,"date":"2011-12-03T16:05:03","date_gmt":"2011-12-03T16:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/wp3\/?p=1884"},"modified":"2011-12-03T16:05:03","modified_gmt":"2011-12-03T16:05:03","slug":"going-back-to-allah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sunnionline.us\/english\/2011\/12\/03\/1884\/","title":{"rendered":"Going Back to Allah"},"content":{"rendered":"

It creeps up on you, sometimes, knowing that you\u2019ve changed. You didn\u2019t realize, you still don\u2019t know, how it happened. And the scary thing is that the change was a fundamental part of you. It was all of who you thought you were. It was your destination and your journey. But you lost it.
Now, you feel distant from God, who was at one point your only purpose.
The loss of connection to God is the scariest thing that can happen to a person. You can remember what it felt like to go to sleep remembering God and to wake up thinking of Him. He was your best friend. You remember how you molded your character to be something that He loves. You remember when every cell of your body was energized, ready to work hard for His sake. And most of all, you remember the tranquility. You didn\u2019t worry. You knew Al-Wakeel (the Trustee) would take care of you.
But right now, you\u2019re in such a different place. You don\u2019t even recognize yourself anymore. You want to be in that place you were before so much, and you want to know how you didn\u2019t even notice the gradual fall.
Can you even go back?<\/p>\n

Remember Prophet Jonah<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ask the one who was trapped in the belly of a whale.
Ask him how he felt about that fall from grace. The guilt, the humility, the longing that can all be summed up in the phrase he repeated over and over:
{There is no deity except You; exalted are You. Indeed, I have been of the wrongdoers.} (Al-Anbiya’ 21: 87)
And what was the result? God tells us:
{And had he not been of those who exalt Allah, he would have remained inside its belly until the Day they are resurrected.} (As-Saffat 37: 143-4)
So Prophet Yunus (Jonah) (peace be upon him), the companion of the whale, was saved. He was saved because he turned to God and never gave up. We can remain in darkness, if we choose to. It is those, and only those, who believe that there is no way back who never return.
To those who may say: \u201cI used to be religious,\u201d or even: \u201cI was never religious\u201d, there is always a way back. When the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) tells us:
\u201cAllah is happier about the repentance of one His slaves, than one of you would be about finding your camel which had strayed away from you in the middle of the desert,\u201d (Agreed upon).
Prophet Muhammad is also talking to those of us who have strayed. Repentance is to return. It is not simply to repent after committing a hideous sin, although that is a big part of it. He is also talking to those of us who wonder if we can ever recover or achieve that zeal and energy and purpose. We need to return.

Don’t Give Up<\/strong><\/p>\n

So don\u2019t give up. Don\u2019t give in to that feeling that tells you to do the bare minimum. God would not create you to be a useless addition to this world. You can be something special\u2014something special to Him\u2014if you don\u2019t give up, if you take that step. Why are we reminded by the Prophet in so many sayings that God accepts the servant who returns? Why are we told when we come one step closer to God, He comes to us at speed? It is to remind us that God wants us to reach our potential, to take that first step despite the fact that the first step might be the hardest.
If you haven\u2019t woken up for fajr (the pre-dawn prayer) for years, set five alarms today. Make a sincere du`a\u2019 (supplication) to God before you sleep. Do it over and over again. Seek forgiveness and plead with Him to let you pray. You will not be disappointed. If you once had a big dream for your community but were dejected by people telling you to \u201cbe real,\u201d pick up where you left off. Even if they are right and you never make it, because your intention was for Him, you already made it. Any achievement in this worldly life is temporary, but: {\u2026 indeed, the home of the Hereafter \u2013 that is the [eternal] life, if only they knew.} (Al-Ankabut 29: 64)
Don\u2019t give in:
{\u2026 Despair not of relief from Allah. Indeed, no one despairs of relief from Allah except the disbelieving people.} (Yusuf 12: 87)

Source: OnIslam<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It creeps up on you, sometimes, knowing that you\u2019ve changed. You didn\u2019t realize, you still don\u2019t know, how it happened. And the scary thing is that the change was a fundamental part of you. It was all of who you thought you were. It was your destination and your journey. But you lost it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c42-articles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGoing Back to Allah - SunniOnline<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sunnionline.us\/english\/2011\/12\/03\/1884\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Going Back to Allah - SunniOnline\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It creeps up on you, sometimes, knowing that you\u2019ve changed. You didn\u2019t realize, you still don\u2019t know, how it happened. 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