Intimacy with God (uns billah)

الأنس بالله

Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy speaks of the heart's intimacy with God, which he says shows both among people and in solitude. Whoever finds it in both is beloved to God, and whoever lacks it in both is deprived of it.

Depth

At a glance

Region
Global / Diaspora
Review

Spirituality and Sufism

Summary

Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy speaks of the heart's intimacy with God, and says that it shows both among people and in solitude. 1

Losing intimacy among people

The Sheikh describes a person who lost his intimacy with God among people but found it in his solitude (needs_source: the phrasing of this description is garbled in the transcript). 1

Intimacy in both settings

The Sheikh says that whoever finds intimacy with God both among people and in solitude is beloved to God, and whoever lacks it in both is deprived of it (needs_source: the wording for the second case is unclear in the transcript). 2 3

God's remembrance and a saying of Rabi'a

The Sheikh says that God fills hearts with His remembrance, and he quotes a saying of Rabi'a on intimacy with God, whose text is not reproduced here. 4 3

People and things also explored

Prophetic adab (proper conduct)· Akhi Baba (title of the guild shaykh and tanners' head)· The angelic and the satanic inspiration (lamma)· Asking people for help (al-masala)· The soul (nafs) and the spirit (ruh)· Tabattul (withdrawal from the world)· Certainty and its degrees (yaqin)· Righteousness (birr)

Sources

  1. Assabile archive of Omar Abdelkafy's lectures (audio and video) , Sharh Ketab Al Fawaed, episode 2, at 01:09:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  2. Assabile archive of Omar Abdelkafy's lectures (audio and video) , Sharh Ketab Al Fawaed, episode 2, at 01:15:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  3. Assabile archive of Omar Abdelkafy's lectures (audio and video) , Sharh Ketab Al Fawaed, episode 2, at 01:16:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  4. Assabile archive of Omar Abdelkafy's lectures (audio and video) , Sharh Ketab Al Fawaed, episode 2, at 01:10:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Intimacy with God (uns billah)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/al-uns-bi-allah/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-25.

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Ideas

Beliefs, concepts, sciences and schools, explained in plain words.
Related

Prophetic adab (proper conduct)

The body of proper conduct the believer is commanded in his words, deeds and relations with God and His servants; from the formula 'whoever believes in God and the Last Day' in Abu Hurayra's hadith Ibn Rajab derives that these traits are of the traits of iman and that deeds enter into iman, dividing the hadith's three commands into what belongs to God's rights — speaking good or keeping silent — and what belongs to His servants' rights — honouring the neighbour, withholding harm from him and honouring the guest; he transmits Aswad ibn Asram's report of the Prophet's counsel 'do not say with your tongue except what is good and do not extend your hand except to good', and that the tongue's uprightness is of the traits of iman; Abu Amr ibn al-Salah reports from Abu Muhammad ibn Abi Zayd, the Maliki imam of his time, that the conduct of goodness and all its reins branch from four hadiths: speaking good or keeping silent, leaving what does not concern one, 'do not become angry', and loving for one's brother what one loves for oneself.