The Advantages and Benefits of Supplication — Part 4

God runs toward you the moment you start walking. This session opens the fourth benefit of supplication: intimacy with God. Two Arabic words carry the weight of it. Uns is the warmth and familiarity of sitting with someone deeply loved — the opposite of loneliness. Qurb is nearness itself, the fruit of sincerity, remembrance and devotion, and the very reason stated in the intention made before every act of worship: seeking nearness to God. The evening traces this nearness through those who lived it. In Dua Kumayl, Imam Ali, peace be upon him, pleads with a God he already knows intimately. In Munajat al-Muhibbeen, Imam Zayn al-Abedeen asks: "Who has tasted the sweetness of Your love and then desired another in place of You?" And in a hadith qudsi, a narration in which God speaks directly, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, relays: "When My servant draws near to Me by a handspan, I draw near to him by an arm's length… and if he comes to Me walking, I come to him running." The Qur'an removes even the need for an intermediary: "When My servants ask you about Me, indeed I am near" — no command to "say", only a direct answer. What if the point of every ritual you perform was never the ritual, but this? What the evening covers Two words for closeness. Uns, intimate familiarity, and qurb, nearness — both named in the intention before worship. The running God. The hadith qudsi on handspans, arm's lengths, and God's response to a servant who merely walks. Imam Ali's plea in Dua Kumayl. What it sounds like to speak to a God already known, not merely feared. No intermediary needed. Why the verse answers directly, skipping the usual command to "say". Dua as the marrow of worship. The Prophet's description of supplication as the essence, not the supplement, of ritual.

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Sermon: The Advantages and Benefits of Supplication — Part 4

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