The way to become closer to Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala) is to practice Islam in the way that it has been established for us. Allah Almighty says in the Qur’an:
“This day have I perfected for you your religion and completed My favour on you and chosen for you Islam as a religion.”
(Qur’an: 5:3).
We do this by performing the obligatory actions such as prayer and fasting, giving in charity and pilgrimage. Also by the supererogatory (non obligatory) prayers, good deeds and remembrance of Allah.
In a famous Hadith e Qudsi, Allah says:
“Whosoever shows enmity to someone devoted to Me, I shall be at war with him. My servant draws not near to Me with anything more loved by Me than the religious duties I have enjoined upon him, and My servant continues to draw near to Me with supererogatory works so that I shall 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 him it. I do not hesitate about anything as much as I hesitate about [seizing] the soul of My faithful servant: he hates death and I hate hurting him.”
[Bukhari]
REMEMBERING ALLAH:
“So remember Me; I will remember you. Be thankful to Me, and never ungrateful.”
(Qur’an 2:152)
In another Hadith e Qudsi, Allah says:
“I am as My servant thinks I am. I am with him when he makes mention of Me. If he makes mention of Me to himself, I make mention of him to Myself; and if he makes mention of Me in an assembly, I make mention of him in an assembly better than it. And if he draws near to Me an arm’s length, I draw near to him a fathom’s length. And if he comes to Me walking, I go to him at speed.”
[Bukhari]
The Prophet (SallAllahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) said that Allah has angels roaming the roads to find the people of dhikr, i.e. those who say La Ilaha Illallah and similar expressions in remembrance of Allah, and when they find a group of people reciting dhikr, they call each other and encompass them in layers until the first heaven.
[Bukhari, Muslim]
The Prophet (SallAllahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) also said:
“When any group of men remember Allah, angels surround them and mercy covers them, tranquillity descends upon them, and Allah mentions them to those who are with Him.”
[Muslim, Tirmidhi, Ahmad, Ibn Majah]
Prophet Muhammad (SallAllahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) went out to a circle of his Companions and asked:
“What made you sit here?”
They said:
‘We are sitting here in order to remember Allah and to glorify Him because He guided us to the path of Islam and he conferred favours upon us.’
Thereupon he adjured them by Allah and asked if that was the only purpose of their sitting there. They said:
‘By Allah, we are sitting here for this purpose only.’
At this the Prophet (SallAllahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) said:
“I am not asking you to take an oath because of any misapprehension against you, but only because Jibraeel (angel Gabriel) came to me and informed me that Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, was telling the angels that He is proud of you!”
[Muslim, Ahmad, Tirmidhi]
SubhanAllah! Masha Allah! Alhamdulillah!