Is the distance between them becoming shorter...

Is the distance between them becoming shorter; to that point at which distance vanishes, and, in the Qur'anic expression, "meeting with the Lord" (liqa'u'r-rabb) takes place? Or, if all these expressions are figurative expressions, then what is `approaching near to' Allah? Of course, Allah has no nearness or distance.

Nearness to Allah is exactly like closeness to someone of social eminence; that is to say, Allah acquires satisfaction from His slave, and, in the end, His grace and favor is returned and it increases. Of course, another question then arises, and that is: what is Allah's satisfaction? Allah is not a locus of events such that He could be dissatisfied with someone, and later become satisfied, or be satisfied with someone and then become dissatisfied.

Inevitably the answer comes that the expressions `satisfaction' and 'dissatisfaction' are also figurative expressions, the object of works for Divine mercy and favor which come in the form of obedience and devotion and nothing else. So what is this mercy and favor? Here there are different reasoning’s. Some divide mercies and favors generally into spiritual and material.

Spiritual blessings, for example, wisdom and the joy acquired through it, and material blessings[^1], for example, the Garden of Paradise, the maidens and palaces (of Paradise).

Others, even though they acknowledge spiritual mercies, also reject them, and confine the favors and positions of men in nearness to Allah to the Garden, the physical paradises, the maidens and palaces, apples and pears." The result of the argument of the latter group is that the meaning of `the friends (wali) of Allah' becoming closer to the Being of Oneness is that he has the right to more maidens, palaces, apples, pears, garden and orchard than another person.

The meaning of what the deniers of true nearness say is that, the result of devotion and worship is not that there is a difference in the relation of Allah to His slave (as the supporters of real nearness also acknowledge in this matter), and not that there is a difference in the relation of the slave to Allah. From the point of view of nearness and distance the foremost individuals of the human world, the Prophet, and the most wretched of them, such as Pharaoh or Abu Jahl[^2] are equal.

The truth of the matter is that this confusion originates from a kind of materialistic thinking about Allah and man, especially about man.