Mujeeb Jaihoon contrasts the comfort in a close relationship with the Divine and the heartache that comes from feeling distant from God.
The journey of a believer is a story of love and longing. It’s a path marked not by rigid rules, but by the heart’s desire for an intimate, personal relationship with the Almighty. In this eager quest, the soul’s deepest desire is for closeness to the Divine. A true lover can never fathom a day of separation from the Beloved. The greatest punishment he or she can endure is distance from their Lord. Indeed, love is all closeness, and hate is distance.
Think about it. When you love someone, you want to be near them. You cherish their presence, and every moment spent with them fills you with peace and joy. This is the very essence of the believer’s relationship with God. This sense of being “with” God, is the truest solace and the deepest joy a person can experience. It’s what makes the heart feel at home, even in the midst of a restless world.
The challenge, of course, is that we often create distance ourselves. We get so caught up in the noise of daily life—our worries, our desires, our frustrations—that we build a wall between ourselves and the Divine. This is where the other half of the truth comes in: hate is distance. When we harbor anger, resentment, or jealousy, we are, in essence, creating a void in our hearts. This void isn’t just a separation from others; it’s a separation from the Divine presence that resides within us. The more we allow such negativity to take root, the further we drift from the love that is meant to be our anchor.
Spirituality isn’t something you earn through a checklist of rituals. It’s a journey of the heart, an ongoing process of removing the veils we place between ourselves and the Beloved. Every act of kindness, every moment of gratitude, every sincere prayer—these are not just good deeds. They are conscious efforts to tear down those walls. They are gestures of love that bring us one step closer to the One who is already closer to us than our own heartbeat.
This love-filled relationship frees us from a life lived in fear. This longing encourages us to surrender our worries and trust completely in God’s plan for us, a beautiful state of submission and trust.
In the end, there must be simply no room for anything else. Neither for anger, malice, nor hate. It’s a state of pure spiritual harmony, where every breath is an infinite dance between surrender and devotion.
Sep 10 2025