Is God within us or far from us?

Both. God is nearer to a person than anything else, and yet He is far from the one who does not notice His nearness and acts against Him as if He were not there.

The idea that God dwells in the innermost part of a person is found in many religions. The Holy Qur’an says the same thing very clearly. God is nearer to us than our own jugular vein. He stands between a person and his heart. Wherever we turn, He is there. He is the light of the heavens and the earth, and there is no place where He is not.

This nearness has a serious side. God is already present before we act, at the moment a decision first takes shape within us. So whoever does wrong does it in His presence. That is exactly why a person is responsible for what he does.

And yet the same God can be very far away. Whoever does not notice His presence lives as though He did not exist. The more someone forgets God, the further He moves away for that person. He is right there, yet He is treated as if He were infinitely distant. This is the real difficulty for many people today.

It is like a person sitting in the same room whom we simply ignore. He is close, and still there is no relationship. Only when we turn towards him does the closeness come alive. The hadith above shows that whoever comes even a little closer to God finds Him coming much closer in return.

So the answer is not either or. In His being God is far above anything we can imagine, and at the same time He is very near to each one of us. Whether we feel that nearness depends on whether we are aware of Him.