I read a beautiful article by Mohamed Abdel Quddous titled boldly: “God Is My Friend.”
I smiled as I read it, because the phrase — despite its simplicity — opens a wide door for reflection on the nature of the relationship between the human being and his Lord.
Perhaps part of its boldness carries something of the spirit of his father, the great writer Ihsan Abdel Quddous, who possessed the rare ability to express profound ideas in language close to the heart.
But when I reconsidered the idea, I found myself leaning toward another expression, one closer to my inner feeling:
God… my Beloved.
Not love in the human sense, for there is nothing like unto Him, and no human relationship can be a measure for the relationship between the Creator and the created.
Yet the word love here is not merely an emotional metaphor, but a description of an existential state a person experiences when he realizes that the universe is not a cold or hostile place, but a space filled with meaning.
In his long journey between questioning and wonder, the human being is always searching for meaning.
Science explains phenomena, and philosophy analyzes ideas, but the heart continues to look for something else — for a presence that gives reassurance.
And from here, the relationship begins.
Not a relationship of fear, nor a relationship of constant asking, but a relationship of closeness.
Mohamed Abdel Quddous writes in his article that if you take one step toward God, He comes toward you with many more.
This simple phrase summarizes a deep idea in the spiritual experience:
that the relationship with God is not a matter of distance, but a matter of awareness.
God is not far so that we must move closer to Him,
nor absent so that we must search for Him,
but present in the depth of the human experience itself.
When a person contemplates the universe,
when he stands before its astonishing order,
when he feels that subtle tremor before beauty, truth, or mercy…
he is, in fact, touching the trace of the divine presence in existence.
For this reason, I do not see the relationship with God as merely rituals,
nor as fear of punishment,
nor as desire for reward.
At its essence, worship is a state of love and awareness.
Love that makes a person feel gratitude for his very existence.
And awareness that makes him realize that his life is not an accidental moment in a blind universe, but a small chapter in a greater story.
In human friendships, we may fear revealing our weakness.
But with God, the matter is completely different.
He knows your weakness before you admit it.
He knows your confusion before you speak it.
He knows what lies deep within you even when you yourself do not know how to express it.
Not because He is a friend in the human sense,
but because He is closer to your awareness than your own awareness.
Perhaps the most beautiful thing about this relationship is that it needs no intermediaries.
A person stands before God as he is:
with his weakness, his confusion, his dreams, and his mistakes.
And in that moment, everything else falls away —
positions, titles, power, wealth.
Only the human remains…
and God in His majesty.
In the Beautiful Names of God there are deep signs pointing to this relationship, as Mohamed Abdel Quddous writes:
The Loving (Al-Wadud)… The Gentle (Al-Latif)… The Near (Al-Qareeb).
They are not merely names we memorize,
but keys to understanding the human experience with existence.
When life becomes tight, he feels His gentleness.
When he errs, he finds the door of His mercy.
When he gets lost among the questions of the mind, his heart guides him back to Him.
That is why I say it without hesitation:
God is not only my Creator…
He is also the Presence that I love.
In a world filled with noise and distraction, the moment of clarity with God remains the moment in which a person regains his inner balance.
A moment in which he realizes that his journey in this universe is not without meaning,
and that behind this vast existence there is one truth embracing everything.
And in that quiet moment,
when thought becomes still and noise falls silent,
a person discovers that the most beautiful thing in faith is neither fear nor hope…
but that deep tranquility that makes the heart whisper:
O Lord… how beautiful it is for a human being to be in the presence of Your love.
