everyonecan benefit from it. It is one of the guiding principles of
the life of a believer. Tapping into your inner taqwa can be one of
the most empowering and liberating things you ever do for yourself.
First,lets define it. Then we'll look at some excellent ways of
building it withinyourself insha'Allah.
What is Taqwa?
I define 'taqwa' as 'conscious power'. You may have seen some Quran
translations describe it as 'God-consciousness'. While this is
pointing in the same direction, it alsolacks something. The actual
word 'taqwa' does not contain the concept of 'Allah' within it. If you
want to say 'be consciousof Allah', you say 'itaq Allah' (imperative
tense). In that sense, taqwa is consciousness. The more you are
conscious and aware, the closer you getto Allah. There is another
subtlety in the word 'taqwa'. The Arabic word for 'strength' is
'quwwa', which is contained within'taqwa'. Taqwa means having the
inner strengthto do what you need to do in any given circumstance.
This brings us to my definition. Taqwa is 'conscious power'. The
conscious use of your God-given strength.
So, why build up your taqwa?
How does it enhance your life? Well, first and foremost, the Quran
states that if you have notaqwa, the gates to divine guidance are
closed to you. So are the gates to success in life. And the gates to
Paradise. The opening line of the second Surah of the Quran, Surah
al-Baqara, is a response the prayer in the first Surah, al-Fatiha,
which we recite at least 17 times a day in prayer: "guide us to the
straight path". The response is:
"This is the book withoutdoubt in it is guidance forthose with taqwa".
If you want to access the wisdom and guidance of the Almighty through
theQuran, you need to build up your inner-taqwa. This makes perfect
sense.It takes time, discipline, focus and study to access the
treasures of the Quran. I do my best to short-cut this for you as far
as I can, but in reality you need to build up your taqwa so you can
engage with the Quran yourself.
Taqwa enhances your life. Building your personal level of conscious
power is the most empowering thing you can do. It means building up
your ability to take control of your life. When you have a high level
of conscious power, you can do anything. You simply need to think up a
goal, commit to it, and make ithappen. No wimping out of fear, no
giving in to laziness – those factors won't affect you when you up
enough taqwa.
How To Build Your Taqwa
If we acknowledge that taqwa is your conscious power, building it
becomes easy. Let me give you an example: Have you ever had the
feeling that you 'cant be bothered' praying? Have you ever prayed
anyway? If so, you exercised your taqwa. And I bet you felt a million
times better afterwards. That wasn't by accident. You earned and
deserved the right tofeel good because you exercised your taqwa, and
it grew.
Think of taqwa like a muscle. To grow a muscle, you need to exercise
it. Specifically, you need to lift a weight and take it to the point
of 'momentary muscle failure' – the point at which you exert full
effort but you cannot physically bring the weight all the way up. If
you don't reach that point in your weight training, your muscles just
won't grow. It's the same with taqwa. It requires progressive
training.
To build your personal conscious power, you need to decide to do
something. It could be anything you know you need to do. It could be a
religious or spiritual action like prayer or reading the Quran. Or, it
could be something less glamourous like cleaning your bedroom. Once
you've decided what you need to do and when you need to do it, if you
follow through, you will build your taqwa. If you do not, you'll get a
little bit weaker on the inside.
Instituting 5 daily prayers into the religion of Islam was beyond
genius – it was Divine. If your life feels like it's in amess, pray.
Five times. Ontime. Within a couple of days, I bet you'll feel
differently about your situation.
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