Allahﷻ said in the Hadith Qudsi: On the authority of Abu Hurairah (R) who said that Rasoolullahﷺ said: Allahﷻ  said: Whosoever shows enmity to someone devoted to Me, (my Wali) I shall be at war with him. My slave draws not near to Me with anything more loved by Me than the religious duties I have enjoined upon him, and My slave continues to draw near to Me with supererogatory (Nafl) works so that I love him. When I love him, I am his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes and his foot with which he walks. Were he to ask [something] of Me, I would surely give it to him, and were he to ask Me for refuge, I would surely grant it to him. I do not hesitate about anything as much as I hesitate about [seizing] the soul of My faithful slave: he hates death and I hate hurting him.

Allahﷻ said in another Hadith Qudsi: Narrated Abu Huraira (R) Rasoolullahﷺ said, “Allahﷻ says: ‘I am just as My slave thinks I am, (I am able to do for him what he thinks I can do for him) and I am with him if He remembers Me. If he remembers Me in himself, I too, remember him in Myself; and if he remembers Me in a group of people, I remember him in a group that is better than they; and if he comes one span nearer to Me, I go one cubit nearer to him; and if he comes one cubit nearer to Me, I go a distance of two outstretched arms nearer to him; and if he comes to Me walking, I go to him running.'

Therefore, if we want Allahﷻ to approach us, we need to approach Him first. So, who has the key to be close to Allahﷻ? We have the key. What is this arrogance that we don't submit to Allahﷻ? Allahﷻ has relieved us of most of the effort. He is saying, “If you want me to remember you, remember Me. I am at your service. If you want me to approach you an arm's length, approach me an inch. If you want me to approach you by multiple arm's lengths, approach me by one arm's length. If you want me to run to you, I will run. Just walk in my direction and I will come running to you. So, the key is in whose hand? Our’s.

If we want to meet someone powerful to help us in some worldly matter, we must first ask for an appointment, right? You can't just walk in. Either they accept or reject the request. If they accept, then they decide the following: Boundaries, Time, and Place of the meeting.

1. Boundary: What will be the boundaries of the discussion. You may want to tell them your life story, but they are not interested in listening to it. You may want some monetary or other kind of help, but they, not you, decide how much they will give you. Will you get their full attention? Usually, no.

2. Time – How much time do they have for you? They decide that, not you. They are the ones who will end the meeting. Not you. After 2 minutes, the man of high status will stand up which means your meeting has ended, even if your matter is not resolved or you have not been able to say all that you had planned to say. That doesn’t matter. If he decides it is over, your meeting is over, and you got whatever you got. This is how humans rule over other humans. This is the dynamic of our world. Big fish eat small fish.

3. Place – You must go to wherever they want to you go if you want to meet them. And you must go at the time that is convenient for them. There are plenty of instances of the high and mighty among humans who take pride in having meetings in the middle of the night. One of the billionaires in India, G.D. Birla whenever he traveled, used to have a relay of senior managers from whichever company he was visiting, on call in the lobby of wherever he was staying, 24x7. I asked one of them who considered it a great honor to be on call, the reason for this. He said in a hushed tone, “In case he needs something.” I said to him, “He has a phone next to his bed.