By Jannatun Tajrian

If worshipping Allah ﷻ is only to perform the prayers, we should be spending every minute of the day in prayer. Our life’s purpose would be to be in a constant state of prayer without having time for a family, job, relaxation, or maybe even seeking knowledge.

BUT IT IS OUT OF ALLAH’S ﷻ MERCY THAT WORSHIP IS NOT LIMITED TO THE ACT OF PRAYING OR ANY OTHER PILLAR OF ISLAM. WHAT FORM OF WORSHIP, THEN, CAN POSSIBLY BE DONE FOR 24 HOURS CONTINUOUSLY?

When Allah ﷻ first gave Nabi Muhammad ﷺ the command for prayer on Al-Isra’ wal-Mi’raj, He commanded us to pray fifty times daily. This was later reduced to five times a day, out of His ﷻ Mercy. However, the reward for just these five daily prayers was not reduced, SubhanAllah. If we were to pray fifty times a day, we would not have time for anything else other than the complete remembrance of Allah ﷻ.

That is the true purpose of our life. Even though we are only required to pray five times a day, every second of our 24 hours should be in remembrance of Allah ﷻ. Allah ﷻ has given us different forms of worship, all with the same purpose; to turn back to Him, to realise every moment is accomplished with Him, by Him and for Him. Whether we are praying, at work, or simply commuting home, every moment is an opportunity to realise how Allah ﷻ is taking care of our every need without us even asking or being conscious of Him.

WE DID NOT NEED TO BE HERE, NOR DO WE NEED TO CONTINUE BEING ALIVE EVERY SINGLE DAY. ALLAH ﷻ HAS SO MANY SERVANTS AND ANGELS TO WORSHIP HIM, YET HE CHOSE TO CREATE US, AND HE SUSTAINS US WITH EVERY BREATH THAT WE TAKE. IF WE ARE ALIVE NOW, IT IS OUT OF HIS GENEROSITY.

Every day, He gives us a chance to become His Beloved. When we realise this, how can we not want to love Him?

Allah ﷻ tells us He is Al-Hakim; the Most Wise, therefore it must be that every hardship and every test that we face has wisdom in it, even if we don’t see it in the moment.

Trials help us realise that nothing or no one is charge except Allah ﷻ. Everything in this world will one day cease to exist. If we put our trust in such temporarily created things, we will inevitably be disappointed.

Every trial is a reminder to turn back to Allah ﷻ, and to realise that He is the only one who we can depend upon.

Seeking knowledge about Allah ﷻ is a gift. Just as those who have a lot of worldly knowledge in a particular field are given the recognition of being experts, gaining the knowledge of Allah ﷻ leads us to eternal appraisement from Allah ﷻ if we can put that knowledge into practice to strengthen our relationship with Him.

Istighfar is a means of loving Allah ﷻ—we make ourselves confront our faults, which will always be there because we are humans, and seek forgiveness from Allah ﷻ.

We recognise that Allah ﷻ is the only one we can turn to for forgiveness, and it is a mercy that He already tells us we are forgiven no matter what we do, as long as our repentance is sincere.

Saying sorry to Allah ﷻ is saying we want to do better, to be better for Him, and recognising that we cannot do that without Him. This strengthens one’s love and reliance upon Allah ﷻ.

WHEN WE DEVELOP THAT LOVE AND TRUST IN ALLAH ﷻ, WE REALISE THAT HE WHO LOVES US SO MUCH WOULD ONLY COMMAND THAT WHICH IS GOOD FOR US.

Every act of obedience transforms into an act of love. Often, we are told or may even feel that fulfilling the commands required of us as Muslims seems restrictive, but what can possibly be freer than the ability to put Allah ﷻ before anything else?

Along the same line, wearing the hijab can be seen as such a huge honour that Allah ﷻ has bestowed upon us. It is the freedom to choose the pleasure of Allah ﷻ over any societal expectations and to express oneself as unmistakably Muslim.

The hijab acts as a check against ourselves to protect us from people and places that may harm our deen. It lets us connect with other sisters, finding a sense of belonging regardless of which part of the world we are in. It reminds us to be modest in our attire and behaviour so as to present ourselves with absolute dignity and grace. If Allah ﷻ ordained for us to be worthy of so much, how can we think any less of ourselves?

That is not to say that wearing the hijab is easy. We are all at different points of our journey to returning back to Allah ﷻ, and the hijab is also a point on this journey that not all of us may have reached. There will never be a right time to start wearing the hijab, but rather it is something we can continuously strive towards and ask Allah ﷻ to help us with. Making judgements about others serves no purpose and may instead bring people away from the hijab. Instead, we should try our best to support fellow sisters no matter where they are in their journey and provide help with resources and hype whenever we can.