How do I reconnect with Allah when my heart feels empty?
Assalamu alaikum. I’m not sure how to explain this well, but maybe someone else has felt the same. I grew up really close to Allah - praying on time, doing tahajjud often, talking to Allah through the day, and not being able to sleep without prayer. Faith was a big part of who I was. A few years of my life were really hard, but I still held on and felt those struggles drew me nearer to Allah. That gave me a lot of peace. A few months ago something changed. I was working toward something I’d asked Allah for for years, kept making dua and hoping He’d make it easy, but it didn’t happen. After that rejection I tried to increase my ibadah like before, but my heart felt different, like a switch turned off. I slowly became inconsistent with salah and now sometimes I stop praying altogether. When I do force myself to pray it doesn’t bring that calm I used to feel - my heart feels empty and I even find myself questioning everything, including the religion. I don’t understand why and I feel like I lost a huge part of myself. I don’t even feel guilty about sins the way I used to, and that scares me because I don’t want to be this person. Right now I feel like a robot with no purpose. I miss the closeness to Allah so much and I’m honestly sad and confused about how I got here. Has anyone else experienced this? How did you find your way back to faith and feeling connected again?