CLOSER TO GOD

When you pray, pray as if you are seeing God.

For though you see Him not, He is seeing you."

Obviously, our worship will be at its best when performed with that feeling. Praying means striving for excellence in achieving piety, through an overwhelming feeling of closeness to God.

For anyone seeking spiritual purification, this is the goal.

But the joy of the person who says he has achieved closeness to God in his prayers is incomplete.
While it is great that he feel that way while praying, but, does he have the same feelings when he is dealing with others?

Does he feel closeness to God in his relations with spouse and children? In relations with friends and relatives? In all social relations?
Social relations and dealings with others is also a religious issue.
You must become a good human being before you can ever become close to God.

This message destroys a disastrous and tragic misconception that reduces Religion to only the performance of the ritual acts of worship---the pillars---thus robbing it of much of the rest of the building.
A very important and integral section of that building deals with our social relations. It is concerned with how we behave in the family. How we interact with relatives, friends, neighbors, colleagues, and all the rest of humanity.
The cornerstone of every religious teaching states that we do not cause anyone any hurt through our words or actions.
A person who, through his intentional or careless actions or words inflicts unjustified pain on others is not worthy of being called close to God.

A small example of how not to hurt a person and still be honest to yourself:
Whenever you see someone commit a wrong that needed to be corrected in public for the education of others, you should mention it in general terms, not naming the person who did it. You have therefore not only overcome the temptation to compromise on the issue of right and wrong to avoid hurt feelings but also fought against the temptation to correct the wrong with total disregard to the fact that one might be insulting or injuring the other person.
While we may see these extreme attitudes in people who seem to be poles apart in terms of their practice of religion, both stem from the same narrow vision of religion that holds our dealings with others as worldly affairs, outside the realm of religion!

It is good to remember that rligion is a way of life. We must submit our whole life, not a small subset of our choosing, to the commands of our God.
Our commitment to religion must not only be life-long but also life-wide.