Taqwa (Consciousness) And Ihsaan (Perfection)

How to increase in love of Allah ﷻ?

Love and emotional attachment with someone increases the more we associate with them. Same rule applies to our relationship with Allah ﷻ.  Taqwa is a mindset best translated as 'consciousness of Allah ﷻ', that assists in realizing that Allah ﷻ is watching us. Allah mentions taqwa throughout the Quran advising the believers to adopt, so they realize its importance in maintaining relationship with Him. Such as: "Remain, then, conscious of God (fattaqqu) as best you can, and listen [to Him], and pay heed. And spend in charity for the good of your own selves: for, such as from their own greed are saved, it is they, they that shall attain to a happy state!"[1] Once someone asked Prophet Muhammad ﷺ about the concept of ihsaan (perfection, excellence), to which he replied: “ihsaan is to worship Allah as if you see Him, and if you do not achieve this state of devotion, then (take it for granted that) Allah sees you.”[2] A believers consciousness of Allah begins with taqwa (consciousness) and gradually increases to a state of perfection called ihsaan (perfection, excellence). If we can maintain taqwa in our minds throughout each day before doing any action whether in private or public, we can, by the mercy of Allah ﷻ, reach the stage of ihsaan, which helps us to build and strengthen our relationship with Him.

There is this famous story about a Sheikh who had many students but he favored and gave special attention to one of them. Someone inquired of him that why he paid special attention to this one. To answer the questioner Sheikh informed him to observe the response of all the students when he instructs them to do a certain task. The Sheikh gave a date fruit to each student and told them to hide it some place where no one could see it or would know of it. They all went different directions to hide their fruit and hid them in secret places which only they knew and only they could find. All of them did what the Sheikh said except for that one student who held back with the fruit in his hand and did not leave. After all students returned the Sheikh asked that one student as to why he did not do as told, to which he replied “You said to hide it somewhere no one can see but that’s impossible because there is Allah ﷻ who knows and sees everything.”[3] If we can build up on our sense of taqwa (consciousness) then we may gradually reach a stage of ihsaan (perfection, excellence) like this student where we will notice our personal relationship with our Lord is like a “trustworthy handhold that will never break.”[4]

References:
[1] Al Quran 64:16
[2] Sahih Al Bukhari - Vol. 6, Book 60, Hadith 300
[3] Heard the story during a lecture in a masjid.
[4] Al Quran 2:256