Closeness to Allah Through Obligations and Good Character

Occasion: Transcript of a khatira delivered on September 21, 2026 Source: Transcript of a recorded khatira by Dr. Ahmed AbouSeif, watch the original video on YouTube

Last time we cut a piece of one of the ayat, and we can take another part of an ayah in the same way: the ayah in which Allah tells us to fear Him as He should be feared, and to look for the best way to draw closer to Him.^[1]

Where the Prophet stands, and where we stand

Some people said this was about people like the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. We believe in the position of the Prophet ﷺ as Allah Himself described it: that he is a human being like us, receiving the message from Allah and delivering it to us. We will all meet Allah together on the Day of Resurrection to be questioned. The Prophet ﷺ also has another position in the hereafter, when we speak of the intercession; there he will be given his place. Other than that, we need to show Allah our identity: what are you doing here, and what legacy will you leave behind?

For this reason, when people describe the way to achieve a goal, the common agreement among them is righteousness, good action, doing something more beneficial for the things around you, not only for people but for everything around you, something you leave behind, which people will see and feel.

Different talents, one rule

The talents of people differ. I can sit for an hour to teach or to talk to people. Someone else can open the Mushaf and read for the same hour. Someone can stand in prayer for that hour. Someone can spend more time fasting, which I cannot do. Some people stay up in the night until the beginning of the day, praying and reading and making du‘a. Each one of us is different, but we need to remember together the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ in which Allah says that you will never come closer to Him through anything more than what He has already asked of you.^[2]

Once you have the things Allah asked of you, the obligations, you will be questioned about them, and they are the most important thing in our life. But there are other things Allah asked of us that are not mentioned among the five pillars of Islam. Take how you deal with your parents, a humble example. Is it an obligation or a voluntary act? What do you think? It is obligatory, without any doubt. I could add it to the five pillars and have six.

Struggling in the way of Allah

Allah mentioned in this ayah that jihad is not only fighting.^[3] We have a different kind of struggle when people come together to show Islamophobia or to attack the Muslim community. What kind of struggle do we have, and how do we defend ourselves? Especially when we come to the level of spreading the word of Allah, how are we struggling with all of that? To make a long story short, you need to think deeply about your own way.

What differs is character

There is something common to everyone in the whole community. Every single person in the Muslim community is required to pray five times a day. Every single person fasts in Ramadan. Every single person who has the chance to perform Hajj goes. The difference is in manners and ethics. This is our way of reaching our standing with Allah: how you treat people, how we deal with them, how you conduct your transactions.

As I mentioned at the beginning, some of us will come with one thing and some with another; some of us will come with helping people and giving advice, standing next to each other. And once you begin to fast more, you need patience. Maybe you will be successful one time; may Allah make all of us among the successful, and may Allah accept from all of us.

--- ^[1]: Editor's note: The speaker does not name the ayah in this transcript; it appears to allude to the command to fear Allah as He should be feared. The wording was not completed here. The video's title mentions duʿā, but the transcript as preserved does not develop that theme. ^[2]: Editor's note: Rendered as the speaker paraphrased it, without a source; it appears to allude to the well-known hadith qudsi on drawing near through the obligations (narrated by al-Bukhari), but the speaker's exact wording is unclear. ^[3]: Editor's note: The speaker does not name the ayah; the transcript is unclear here.