hard despite my heart not feeling it). After this, I began to feel joy in worship.”^[1]

Increase in your nafl acts of worship

Dear Islamic brothers! If we want to acquire joy in our worship, we should begin performing lots of nafl (voluntary) deeds alongside our farḍ. For example, we can offer nafl ṣalāh, keep nafl fasts and give nafl charity. With the blessings of this, we will find untold joy in our worship ان شآء اللہ.

Allāh Almighty says in a hadith qudsī: “A person gains closeness to Me through voluntary acts till I love him.”^[2]

سُبْحٰنَ اللہ By performing an abundance of nafl acts, a person becomes beloved to Allāh Almighty, and it goes without saying: whoever Allāh Almighty loves will have their heart always focused and inclined towards Him. Whoever has their heart focused upon Allāh Almighty will find the joy in their worship they were looking for ان شآء اللہ.

How to discover joy in worship

The jurist Abū Layth Samarqandī رَحْمَةُ الـلّٰـهِ عَلَيْه writes:

A person cannot acquire joy in worship until he does these four things: begins worship with good intentions; he was granted the ability to worship, so he should be mindful of this bounty of Allah Almighty; worship with fear of Allāh in his heart; and remain sincere from beginning to end.

Whoever begins worship with good intentions knows the ability to perform good deeds is from Allāh Almighty alone, and when