Allah (swt) says: “…then verily, He knows the secret and that which is yet more hidden.” (Ta-Ha 20:7)
A secret is something inside of you that at least you yourself are aware of. But there are things inside of you that even you are not aware of: things in your subconscious and things that are deeply embedded in your early memory which are still impacting the way you speak, the way you act, the way you behave… but you are not even aware of them.
Sometimes people have very aggressive behaviour, or they say a lot of sarcastic and indecent things. When they go to therapy and talk to a psychiatrist, they dig deep into the untapped recesses of their minds and discover: “There are things in my past that I didn’t even realize were there; they are more hidden than a secret I am keeping; they are impacting the way I behave.”
In other words, you are discovering more about yourself. Allah (swt) says that there are things you are consciously hiding but He knows about it; moreover, He knows you better than you even know yourself. A psychiatrist can pull out only some small droplets of those memories to make you become better aware of yourself, and Allah (swt) is saying that He knows you better than you know yourself.
Now, what is the point in knowing this?
The point is: when you get to know Allah (swt) and when you start remembering Him (swt), He (swt) makes you more aware of yourself than you have ever been. He starts to open up to you your own consciousness – the things that are deep inside you which you were not aware of. As Allah (swt) starts making you aware of them, you become a better and healthier human being; you are able to combat some of the bad behaviour and emotional stress that you have. Some people get really nervous, and others get very scared; yet others get really angry, and they do not know why they react this way.
The spiritual closeness to Allah (swt) starts unravelling those things – they give you more and more confidence, and more and more clarity. It’s beautiful that Allah (swt) mentions this. There is one famous saying: “The one who got to know his Master actually truly got to know himself.”
The Quran says: “And be not like those who forgot Allah (i.e. became disobedient to Allah) and He caused them to forget their ownselves, (let them to forget to do righteous deeds)…” (Al-Hashr 59:19)
Now, what is the opposite? If someone forgets Allah (swt), He (swt) makes them forget who they really are – the truth about themselves. However, if people remember Allah (swt), He (swt) makes them truly aware of themselves. One of the incredible benefits of our closeness to Allah (swt) is actually our own awareness of self – it alleviates us from sadness and negative emotions in life and saves us from a lot of trouble in all of our relationships, even the one we have with our own selves.
Transcribed by Hira Naqi Khan
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