Ten Steps to Allah. Step 3: Neediness
As we get closer to Ramadan, focusing on what we are seeking through our devotions is ever more crucial. The ultimate aim of any Muslim is to gain the closeness of Allah Most High. Shaykh Faraz Rabbani gives us clear guidelines with 10 key steps on the path to Allah Most High elucidating for us how to get closer to Allah.
The third step after leaving whim and having sincere intentions is to realize your utter neediness to Allah. When we turn to God, we can’t be truly sincere without realizing our neediness. Our neediness to Allah is existential—and is our true freedom.
Step 3: Neediness
A critical quality that is the basis of our slavehood to Allah is to acquire true neediness for Allah.
You cannot have sincerity without being truly needy for Allah. Allah Most High tells us in the Qur’an, “O People, you are the ones who are in absolute need of Allah and Allah is free of all need and worthy of all praise.” [Qur’an, 35:15]
Our existential reality is that Allah has created us and Allah is sustaining us every moment. We do not just need Allah when we are weak, when we are sick, when we are out of a job, when we have a fear, when things are difficult. Our need for Allah is not accidental, it is essential to us.
How do we express this? When you pray, pray out of need. When you make dhikr, make dhikr out of need. When you make dua, make dua out of need, when you give in charity, give in charity out of need. You are in desperate need of Allah. That is your DNA—your desperate need for Allah.
May Allah grant that we recognize that need. When we realize our need for Allah, that’s when we realize that we are truly free of any other need. That is why our beloved Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said that wealth is not through having a lot of possessions; the only wealth is the wealth of self. When you realize that you have no need but for Allah, then are you truly enriched.
May Allah grant us that wealth and make us express our neediness for Him in all our states and circumstances.
The episode can be found on this link Ramadan 2020 Reminders | Episode 22: Ten Steps to Allah – 03 – Neediness | Shaykh Faraz Rabbani – YouTube
About the Author
Shaykh Faraz Rabbani spent ten years studying with some of the leading scholars of recent times, first in Damascus, and then in Amman, Jordan. His teachers include the foremost theologian of recent times in Damascus, the late Shaykh Adib al-Kallas (may Allah have mercy on him), as well as his student Shaykh Hassan al-Hindi, one of the leading Hanafi fuqaha of the present age.
He returned to Canada in 2007, where he founded SeekersGuidance in order to meet the urgent need to spread Islamic knowledge–both online and on the ground–in a reliable, relevant, inspiring, and accessible manner. He is the author of Absolute Essentials of Islam: Faith, Prayer, and the Path of Salvation According to the Hanafi School (White Thread Press, 2004.) Since 2011, Shaykh Faraz has been named one of the 500 most influential Muslims by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center.
