If someone says to you: "I will be here whenever you need me", what do you think it means?
For most of us, it might feel like a promise, a reassurance that the person will match our expectations and be what we need them to be. But the thing is: their presence and response will depend on how we see them. If we trust them, we will feel secure and loved. If we doubt them, we might find ourselves second-guessing everything they do.
"I am as My servant thinks I am. I am with him when he remembers Me".
This is what Allah ﷻ says to us. In a longer version of the hadith, He ﷻ says:
I am just as My servant thinks I am (i.e. I am able to do for him what he thinks I can do for him) and I am with him if He remembers Me. If he remembers Me in himself, I too, remember him in Myself; and if he remembers Me in a group of people, I remember him in a group that is better than they.
[Sahih al-Bukhari 7405]
It is as if Allah ﷻ is saying to us, “the way you believe in Me, that is the way you will find Me”. If we believe He is kind, forgiving, and ready to help, that is exactly how we will experience Him. If we think of Him as distant or harsh, then our relationship with Him might feel that way too.
Think about trust and expectations in a friendship. If we expect our friend to be supportive and we reach out when we are in need, chances are they will meet our expectation because that is how we view them. But if we approach them thinking "they probably don’t care", we might not even give them the chance to prove otherwise.
Even if we are struggling to have a positive perception of Allah ﷻ, this hadith isn’t meant to scare us. It is normal to have moments of uncertainty, but those moments are opportunities, not obstacles. They allow us to turn to Allah ﷻ with honesty and vulnerability, saying "I’m struggling, but I’m here and I want to know You better".
Surprisingly, having the whispers of doubt or intrusive thoughts are a sign of faith if we managed to resist it. This is mentioned in various narrations:
Abu Hurairah said that some of the companions of God’s messenger came to the Prophet ﷺ to consult him saying, “We have thoughts which none of us dare to talk about.” He said, “Have you experienced that?” and when they replied that they had, he said, “That is clear faith.”
[Mishkat al-Masabih 64]
The Prophet ﷺ reassured them that merely having such thoughts without acting on or believing in them does not harm their faith. Instead, the fact that they were distressed by these thoughts and resisted them shows their strong belief.
Having faith is like training a muscle
The more we focus on Allah ﷻ, His love, His forgiveness, His wisdom, the more our heart will naturally start to expect good from Him. And as our perception shifts, so will our experiences. Just like wearing colored glasses. The world has not changed, but what we see is shaped by the lens we are looking through.
So, what thoughts of Allah ﷻ do we carry in our heart? That answer will decide how we feel about everything else.
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