Seeing Allah Almighty

Be conscious of Allah, obey Him, uphold your religion for His sake, submit to Him and do deeds only for His sake. For today there are deeds without reckoning and tomorrow there will be reckoning without deeds.

Al Haqqah (69) 18: That Day, you will be exhibited [for judgement]; not hidden among you is anything concealed.

Glancing at Allah the Most High will be the greatest pleasure for the inhabitants of paradise. The inhabitants of paradise upon glancing at Allah forget all other previous pleasures. And just as how knowing, loving and worshipping Allah was the greatest delight in this world, glancing at Allah in the permanent abode, listening to His Words and obtaining His pleasure is the greatest delight of Paradise. As related in the hadeeth of Abee Saeed Al Khudree: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
Allah will say to the inhabitants of Paradise: O inhabitants of Paradise! They will say: O our Lord, we present ourselves and are at Your pleasure, and goodness rests in Your hands. Allah will say, “Are you satisfied?’ They will say, ‘Why shouldn’t we be satisfied, O our Lord as You have given us what You have not given to any of Your created beings?’ He will say, ‘Shall I not give you something better than that?’ They will say, ‘O our Lord! What else could be better than that?’ He will say, ‘I bestow My Pleasure on you and will never be displeased with you ever.’ [Bukhari 6549, Muslim 2829]

Verily there are causes for glancing at Allah and securing His pleasure that a person should strive to do such that they may attain this high station in paradise.

From among the causes for glancing at Allah in Paradise are realization of Iman (faith) and Ihsan (excellence) as is in the Quran:
Yunus (10) 26: For them who have done good is the best [reward] – and extra. No darkness will cover their faces, nor humiliation. Those are companions of Paradise; they will abide therein eternally.

Ihsan (excellence) is the highest levels of Iman (faith) and it is to be watchful of Allah in public and private. And the best reward is Paradise. And even more is glancing at Allah. The Ihsan (excellence) is realized by those with certainty of belief. And the more yaqeen (certainty of belief) that a person has the more chance of seeing their Lord as Allah says of the people of yaqeen (certainty of belief) in the verse:
Al Baqarah (2) 249: But those who were certain that they would meet Allah said, “How many a small company has overcome a large company by permission of Allah. And Allah is with the patient.”

Certainty of meeting one’s Lord is the highest levels of Iman (faith) in the unseen and the genuine feelings of longing for meeting Allah.

From among the ways to grow certainty in the hearts is to think and reflect about His signs in the creation and reflect and ponder on the Quranic verses. Through this, one achieves certainty of belief as mentioned in the Quran.

Ar Rad (13) 2: It is Allah who erected the heavens without pillars that you [can] see; then He established Himself above the Throne and made subject the sun and the moon, each running [its course] for a specified term. He arranges [each] matter; He details the signs that you may, of the meeting with your Lord, be certain.

On the other hand, turning away from Allah and not performing the worship of thinking and reflection is a barrier to obtaining Allah’s pleasure in the final abode:
Ar Room (30) 8: Do they not contemplate within themselves? Allah has not created the heavens and the earth and what is between them except in truth and for a specified term. And indeed, many of the people, in the meeting with their Lord, are disbelievers.

From among the causes for glancing at Allah in Paradise is to be sincere in doing deeds because the major shirk (association with Allah) makes all the deeds of no use. Also, showing off destroys the deeds because it was done for other than Allah as indicated in the hadeeth:
“Allah says: ‘I am the Most Self-Sufficient and I have no need for an associate. Thus he who does an action for someone else’s sake as well as Mine will have that action renounced by Me to him whom he associated with Me.’” [Muslim 2985]

And Allah ordered the one who longs for meeting Him to have sincerity :
Al Kahf (18) 110: So whoever would hope for the meeting with his Lord – let him do righteous work and not associate in the worship of his Lord anyone.

From among the causes for glancing at Allah the Most High in paradise is seeking help through patience and prayer and striving for focus. For the prayer is communication with Allah and the person’s focus in it is a proof of their longing to meet Him. For he loves meeting Allah the Most High and Allah the Most High loves meeting him.

Al Baqarah (2) 45-46: (45) And seek help through patience and prayer, and indeed, it is difficult except for the humbly submissive [to Allah]. (46) Who are certain that they will meet their Lord and that they will return to Him.

Meeting Allah includes glancing at Him. For this reason among the obstacles for glancing at Allah is disbelief and hypocrisy because they deny that there will be a meeting with Allah.

Yunus (10) 45: Those will have lost who denied the meeting with Allah and were not guided.

Al Kahf (18) 105: Those are the ones who disbelieve in the verses of their Lord and in [their] meeting Him, so their deeds have become worthless; and We will not assign to them on the Day of Resurrection any weight [i.e., importance].

From among the causes of glancing at Allah in Paradise is to supplicate for it and seek out the times of acceptance. For a person may ask at the time of accepted supplication and his Lord will facilitate the means for him and give it to him. And it was related that the Prophet ﷺ supplicated to look at his Lord.

Ata bn As-Sa’ib narrated that his father said: “Ammar bin Yasir led us in prayer and he made it brief. Some of the people said to him: ‘You made the prayer brief.’ He said: ‘Nevertheless I still recited supplications that I heard from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ .’ When he got up and left, a man followed him and asked him about that supplication, then he came and told the people.

Oh Muslims: The people of paradise will glance at their Lord every Friday and it is called the day of extra. In addition, the people who safeguarded the Fajr and Asr prayers will exclusively see their Lord in the morning and evening which indicates the great place that these prayers have with our Lord and their importance. In spite of this, many people are heedless of these two prayers.

Jarir bin ‘Abdullah Al-Bajali narrated:
“We were seated with the Prophet ﷺ when he looked towards the moon on the night of a full moon and said: “Indeed you shall be placed before your Lord and you shall see Him as you see this moon. You will see Him without trouble. So if you are able to keep from becoming overwhelmed from prayer before the rising of the sun and before its setting, then do so.” Then he recited: Taha 130: And glorify the praises of your Lord before the setting. [Muslim 633a]

Hafidh Ibn Rajeb said that we were commanded to be diligent in offering these two prayers. They are the prayers of Fajr and Asr. And this is an indication of the great weight of these two prayers. They are the most noble of the five prayers. Glancing at Allah is the best aspect of Paradise and the most noble part of this world is offering these two prayers. Through offering these two prayers one hopes to enter paradise and glancing at Allah as is in the hadeeth:
He who observed the two cool prayers will enter Paradise. [Muslim 635a]

And this is an indication that entering paradise depends on offering the prayers with belief. So whomsoever does not pray will be from the inhabitants of the fire. Allah Almighty said:
Al Mudather (74) 42-43: “What has caused you to enter Hell?” They will say, “We were not of those who prayed”

The people with the highest stations in paradise are those who will glance at their Lord two times (in the morning and evening), whereas the majority of the people of Paradise will glance at their Lord every Friday the day of extra.

So let us be diligent in offering the prayers doing good deeds as much as we can for they are a means to glance at Allah and obtain His pleasure in Paradise. Verily this is the greatest success for those seeking success. And not doing so is the greatest deprivation.

Al Insan (76) 20: And when you look there [in Paradise], you will see pleasure and great dominion.We ask Allah Almighty to make us among those who safeguard the prayers, attain His pleasure and grant us Paradise and the ultimate delight of glancing at Him. Indeed Allah is All Hearing, Answering.

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