Seeking nearness to Allah through faith in Him and His Messengers.

The Shaykh : The third section is seeking nearness through faith in Him. A person seeks nearness to Allah the Exalted through faith in Him and His Messenger, saying: "O Allah, by my faith in You and in Your Messenger, I ask You for such and such." This is valid and permissible. The evidence for this is the saying of Allah the Exalted: until He said: meaning, "So by the cause of our faith, forgive us." They made faith in Him a means to forgiveness. So they said, "Our Lord, we have heard a caller calling to faith, 'Believe in your Lord,' so we believed. Our Lord, forgive us our sins and expiate for us our misdeeds." So seeking nearness to Allah through faith in Allah and faith in His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and seeking nearness through the love of Allah and the love of His Messenger, this is permissible. Why? Because we understood the evidence, but what is the reasoning? Because faith in Allah is a cause that leads to forgiveness, and the love of Allah and His Messenger is a cause that leads to forgiveness. So it is valid to seek nearness to Allah the Exalted through this. These are four.