To truly know Allah and to know how you see, understand and relate to Allah, you must know yourself intimately. They are connected. The more awareness you have about your nafs and your inner world, the more you will see how your nafs shapes your understanding of Allah. And that is why our righteous predecessors told us: The key to knowing Allah is to know oneself.

It might not be something that immediately makes sense- how are the two even connected? but they are. Time and time again, both my personal and professional experience have taught me that for us to truly know Allah we must know ourselves.

Let me give an example.

Let's say you are struggling financially (many of us can relate to having experienced financial struggles at one point in our life).

The financial struggles might lead you to start questioning: why is Allah testing me? why won't Allah give me more money? why does my money keep on just finishing? And now you are feeling frustrated with Allah SWT- questioning if Allah really even cares about you.

But if you and I were to have a conversation and we slowed it down to help you better understand what is happening, you might realize your frustration is first directed at yourself and your financial situation. Your frustration along with anger and embarrassment that you are struggling with debt is really the starting point. And then at one point it gets directed towards Allah SWT where you start seeing Allah as not helping you.

Your frustration with your situation negatively impacted how you saw Allah- but if you took the time to see what is happening in your inner world you would realize that is where your attention needs to go first. And from there you can take targeted action. The reality might be that you might need to start taking the time to understand your own finances even while learning to trust that Allah will provide for you as He is Ar-Razaaq.

(This example also underscores another key aspect of understanding your relationship with Allah: that your lived experience impacts your relationship with Allah. You can read more about that here).

The bottom line is this: if you want to get closer to Allah SWT, if you want to build a deeper relationship with Allah SWT you need to know yourself by building your self-awareness.

That's why one of the key things I help you with through my courses, offers, 1.1 coaching, etc., is to build your self-awareness.

Because that's the first step. Self-awareness is the stepping stone to beginning to understanding yourself and your inner world more so you can understand how you see Allah.

And the more you understand your inner world, you will begin to see how Allah is actually on your side- this has been the outcome for me in my journey.

And don't we all want that? Don't we want to know deep in our bones that Allah SWT is with us every step of the way, even when things are tough?

When it comes to knowing who you are, there is so much to say: the power of self-awareness, knowing our nafs, the veils over our heart, how our fitrah's inclination to know Allah and be with Allah is always trying to come through and more.

I will share more with time on all of these topics- not only what I have learned but what I am continuing to learn.

I have to be honest: while I have grown so much over the years and learned so much about this topic, I would never fool myself and say I know all of it.

This guidance is from Allah alone and I know my journey to Allah is until I meet Him. I will continue learning and growing as I am on this journey.

But I would like to also share with you what I have learned so you too can feel those deep transformational shifts as you embark on your own journey of understanding your relationship with Allah.

Be well and many duas,

Amna K.

PS: Check out the free resources if you want to get to know your inner world more.