“My servant continues to draw near to Me with supererogatory works until I love him.” O Allah, we ask You for Your bounty.

Voluntary acts bring a person closer to Allah and complete the obligatory ones. When someone multiplies his voluntary deeds while also performing the prescribed duties, he wins Allah’s love, and Allah then loves him. Once He loves him, the reality is as Allah says: “I become his hearing with which he hears, his sight with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes, and his foot with which he walks.”

That is, Allah steers him aright in these four faculties. As for his hearing, He guides him so that he hears only what pleases Allah. The same with his sight: he looks only at what Allah loves, never at anything forbidden or with a forbidden gaze. Concerning his hand, he uses it only for deeds that please Allah, for Allah directs him. And his foot: he walks only toward what pleases Allah, for Allah guides him, so he strives only for what is good. This is the meaning of His words: “I become his hearing with which he hears, his sight with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes, and his foot with which he walks.”

The meaning is certainly not that Allah literally becomes the hearing, sight, hand, or foot—far exalted is He above such a notion. These are organs belonging to a created being and can never be the Creator Himself. Moreover, in the same hadith He says: “If he asks of Me, I will surely give him, and if he seeks refuge in Me, I will surely grant him refuge.” In this He affirms one who asks and One who is asked, one who seeks refuge and the One in whom refuge is sought—two distinct beings. Thus the meaning is that Allah grants the servant success in his hearing, sight, actions, and movements.

The statement in this sacred hadith, “If he asks of Me, I will surely give him,” proves that this friend of Allah, who has drawn near to Him first through the obligations and then