Everyone Has Their Own Experience

Knowing God through Our Own Experiences

“Is He [not best] who responds to the desperate one when he calls upon Him?”

Throughout history, countless prayers have been answered for those who turned to God. Mere coincidence cannot explain these prompt responses. They are also matters of personal experience: who among us has never raised a hand to heaven, calling on our Creator to release us from trouble or anguish? When our request is sincere, the divine response comes quickly. Through this, our hearts recognise the existence of a God who hears His servants and answers their pleas:

Is He [not better] Who responds to the distressed when he calls out to Him, and Who relieves suffering, and Who makes you successors[19] on earth? Is there any god besides Allah? Little is it that you take heed![19] One generation after another generation.Quran — Surah An-Naml (27:62)Source : QuranEnc.com — English Translation - Rowwad Translation Center — v1.0.19

God’s response to our prayers sometimes takes a spectacular, even miraculous form. Many accounts and testimonies attest to this. “In its news bulletin at 2:45 p.m. on 10 January 1965, Damascus Radio reported the following from the Journal of Medical Research, published in England: ‘A young man had suffered from a chronic illness for thirteen years. No medical intervention had brought relief. Finally, one last doctor visited him and, after examining him, concluded that there was no hope of recovery. Despairing, the patient asked: “No hope, doctor?” The doctor confirmed his diagnosis and replied, without much conviction: “There is one chance left: pray to the One in heaven! Call upon Him!” For the first time, the young man who had suffered for thirteen years raised his hands to heaven and prayed to God. A week later, the doctor returned and was astonished to find him completely recovered, cured of an illness doctors had been unable to treat!’” Said Hawwa, God, Exalted Be He—Magnified Be His Greatness. Another example is Salat al-Istisqa, the prayer for rain, which Muslims perform during drought to ask God to send rain. From the Prophet’s time to the present, this prayer has often received a divine response. Sometimes the response was immediate, with rain falling while the believers were still praying.
Neither time nor space would allow us to recount even a thousandth of these testimonies. We simply conclude that knowing God’s existence through answered prayers is a form of subjective evidence: evidence of the heart that supports the evidence of reason. Believers and atheists alike should therefore consider it.

The One Who Intervenes between a Person and Their Heart

Another argument concerns us all. Have we never left home intending to do something for which we had prepared carefully and devoted every effort, only to abandon it at the last moment? It is as though a mysterious force directs us towards a different choice, one we had neither considered nor spent long nights preparing for. Later, we realise that the good lay in what we actually did, rather than in what we missed.
Who diverted us from our initial decision? Who brought us the opposite of what we wanted? God did: the One in whose “Hand” lie creation and command, and who “intervenes between a man and his heart”.

The Protector

Have we, or someone we know, not suffered at least once a misfortune from which it seemed no living being could rescue us, because everyone was too powerless to help? Perhaps others even wished us harm and laid treacherous traps for us. After we have despaired of human help and lost all hope, a glimmer suddenly appears. Hope flashes in our hearts and serenity fills us with peace, though we do not know its source. Hours, days or months later, despair dissolves and darkness recedes. New hopes pass before our eyes, driving away the forces of despair. The light of victory replaces the darkness of defeat, and behind it we discern a Power that has turned the course of our lives.
We then find ourselves full of compassion for our enemy, the person whose injustice weighed upon us and who, in the recent or distant past, caused us despair and sorrow. Who changed and reversed the situation while we remained completely helpless and our enemies had the power and means to harm us? Who granted us victory? Who restores life, strength and dignity? Who renews lost hope and brings security back into our lives?
Let us acknowledge it without delay: “It is God, exalted be He!”
God, exalted be He, says:

Is Allah not sufficient for His slave? Yet they frighten you with those [whom they worship] besides Him. Whoever Allah causes to stray, there is none to guide him.And whoever Allah guides, none can lead him astray. Is not Allah All-Mighty, Capable of Retribution?Quran — Surah Az-Zumar (39:36–37)Source : QuranEnc.com — English Translation - Rowwad Translation Center — v1.0.19