I go to him at speed

I am as My servant thinks I am.

I am with him when he makes mention of Me.

If he makes mention of Me to himself,

I make mention of him to Myself;

and if he makes mention of Me in an assembly,

I make mention of him in an assembly better than it.

And if he draws near to Me an arm’s length,

I draw near to him a fathom’s length.

And if he comes to Me walking,

I go to him at speed.

~ The Prophet Muhammad (Hadith Qudsi)

The first time I ever heard this verse was when I was in my mother’s bedroom back home in Malaysia three years ago. There is a mosque just down the hill from my family home and I grew up listening to the Azan, the Islamic call to prayer recited by the muezzin five times a day. I listened as the familiar, melodious lilting prayer chanted in Arabic over the loudspeaker echoed to the skies at twilight.

The Imam then taught from the Quran. He had a kind, elderly voice which reverberated over the quiet town the age old message from Allah to man. That if I take one step towards God, He runs towards me! And right there where I was, those words reached out and embraced me.

Spoken since time immemorial, the message of the Universe, the Great Spirit, the Source and Life has remained unchanged. Sometimes it just takes a literal voice from the sky to remind us of such a gift.

God waits in eager anticipation of me.

*This photo was taken by my husband one evening in late summer when we lived in Afghanistan (2007-2009). This shot is of our son who was two at that time playing at the feet of one of his favourite companions, our house guard Sardar. 

Category : Afghanistan, Favourite quotes, Uncategorized
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