The Experience of God

When anyone does something to earn God’s pleasure, in the course of his tasks, he has such experiences as if he were meeting with God. At that time, he feels as if he is seeing God.

According to a tradition of the Prophet Muhammad: “God will say on the Day of Judgement, ‘Son of Adam, I was sick but you did not visit me.’ He will reply: ‘My God, How could I have visited you when You are the Lord of the World?’ Thereupon God will say: ‘Did you not know that one of My servants was sick, and you did not visit him? If you had visited him you would have found Me there.’” (Sahih Muslim, Hadith No. 2569)

From this tradition, we learn that when anyone does something to earn God’s pleasure, in the course of his tasks, he has such experiences as if he were meeting with God. At that time, he feels as if he is seeing God.

A visit to a patient which is not done to seek God’s pleasure, but for some worldly purposes, does not engender godly feelings. Another kind of visit to a patient is one when a servant of God is greatly perturbed to hear about the sick man and is reminded of God’s command to be merciful to others so that He will be merciful to man on the Day of Judgement. With the sincere feeling of pleasing God, he goes to see the sick man and prays for him and helps him in whatever way he can. In this way, the believer experiences God in this world as well as in the next. The only difference is that, in this world, this is an indirect experience, while in the Hereafter, it will be in perfect form and a direct experience.