Being close to Allah looks like shortening your recitation of the Quran even when you don’t want to so that you could answer your dad who is asking for your help.

It looks like wishing you had the time to pray sunnah, but not being able to because your newborn needs your immediate attention

It looks like wanting to sit for hours to make a deeply heartfelt duaa but having to rush so you can make your work meeting in time

Being close to God looks like wanting so desperately to fast in Ramadan but not fasting because your doctor (and even the scholar you consulted!) told you not to because it could endanger your health

Our typical image of a “mashaAllah” pious person often looks like someone who spends the day fasting, the night praying, and all the while reading Quran and being secluded in the masjid. That is indeed a great blessing for those who have the time, health and ability to do so.

But a “mashaAllah” pious person is truly also a person who takes care of their life responsibilities, who has wisdom in when to spend time only in personal worship and when to make the intention that their worship is in caring for others because they recognize that “actions are by intention” (bukhari)

The critical factor is that in all they do- from making Iftar to paying the bills to caring for the elderly, from spending hours at work to cramming for exams- they remember it’s for God; that they live for Allah, that the entirety of their life is worship for Allah.

“Say, “Indeed, my prayer, my rites of sacrifice, my living and my dying are for God, Lord of the worlds” (Quran 6:162)

A “MashAllah” pious person looks like you

By Maryam Amir