accept it partially; they accept only what they feel like, what
their nafs (lower self ) allows them to accept in the worship
of Allah . If it’s easy on their nafs, they do it; and if it’s not
easy on their nafs, they leave it. Allah demands from all
of us that we completely enter into this din (religion). The
submission should be one hundred percent. Allah says:
ً َّ ٓ َ ۡ ّ ۡ ُ ُ ف
ادخل ۡوا ِ� السل کفة
ِ ِ
“Enter Islam completely” (2:208)
They should have total submission. There are some people
who are given tawfeeq (ability) by Allah , and so they enter
the submission of Allah as much as they can. They try their
very best, at least they struggle. They don’t have this thing in
their hearts that, ‘I’m going to disobey Allah .’ They slip,
being human beings, but at the same time they have this
thing in their heart that they want to submit completely. They
try and go against their nafs, but because they are humans,
Shayṭan (Satan) comes and whispers. They sometimes go off
track but they realize right away that they have committed a
mistake and do tawbah (repentance), and then come back on
track.
Gaining Closeness to Allah I
Allah says that the criteria to be close to Him is not
about the quantity of amaal (actions) you do. The criteria is
something else; the criteria is the acceptance of those amaal.
It might be that there is a person who does all these things
that I mentioned, but if they are not accepted by Allah ,
then everything he does is going to waste. There is absolutely
no value – getting up for tahajjud (voluntary night prayer),
praying one third of the night, and doing all of these tasbihat
(praises of Allah ) and muraqabah (remembrance of the
heart). If that is not accepted by Allah , then it’s all going
to be a waste. So the word that’s used for acceptance is called
qubul.
ۡ
ّٰ ُ َ َ
اِ نَّ�ا َي َتق َّبل الل ِمن ال َّت ِق ۡ ي نَ
� ُ َ ُ
“Allah only accepts from the people of Taqwa (who
leave sins)” (5:27)