Currently, we are living in a time in which many people are deviating away from their initial faith. Although they may have their own justification, they also may lack in some basic knowledge. For example, many feel that God has stopped talking to them, or has stopped answering their prayers, and therefore don’t feel the need to practice a faith. Some ignorant Muslims also believe that God has already spoken in the past through prophets and the revelation of the Quran, and therefore feel that there is no need for Him to continue.

But in reality, does God still talk?

In fact God has always and will always make Himself reachable to His servants through different means of communication. Allah does speak to us, but one should not take the term talking literally. He does not have a tongue like ours, and unlike us He does not have a mouth to speak with. He Himself is vastly different from us, so He speaks without any need for a mouth or tongue.

Before we get into our own contemporary case, let us have a quick historical survey on the way He communicated with outstanding personalities like prophets. He communicated with them either through direct speech, like in the case of Moses (peace be upon him). Moses received the Torah directly from God. Despite conversing with God, the Qur'an states that Moses was unable to see God and for these feats Moses is revered in Islam as “Kalimullah”, meaning the one who talked with God.

The Quran also mentions this in chapter An-Nissa, verse 165: “and Allah spoke to Moses particularly”

God also communicated with prophets through indirect speech or revelation, like in the case of our Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w). The Quran says:

“And We have revealed unto thee the Book comprising the truth and fulfilling that which was revealed before it in the Book, and as a guardian over it” (5:49).

In the context of our humble human level, although we are not angels or prophets, yet, in His wisdom, God does not keep Himself distant from us, but He makes Himself easy to reach, and makes communication with Him accessible through a variety of ways that Islam has fully described to us.

Now clearly, God isn’t a text or email away, but praying and reading the Quran are two ways of opening a dialogue with the Almighty. It says in the Islamic tradition that if you want to talk to God, pray/supplicate to Him and if you want God to talk to you, open up the Holy Quran, and God won’t stop talking to you.

In normal protocols, it is the role of the one in the greater position to end the dialogue and terminate the meeting, right?. But in God's protocol, out of His infinite mercy and compassion to His servants, He leaves it to us to decide when to end up the dialogue and terminate our meeting with Him, We have the choice to decide when to finish up the prayers or stop reading the Quran. If one wants to continue staying in His Holy presence even for days and nights one will never be dismissed.

Take reciting Surah Al-Fatihah as an example. It is not meant to be a monotonous monologue by the believer who recites it, but Allah has made it a warm, loving conversation between Him and the worshipper.

Contemplate the Prophet's saying: "The Prayer is the Miraj of the Believer ." "Miraj" is the magnificent journey in which the Prophet Muhammad was invited to meet God — without seeing Him — and have the honor of approaching His Holy Throne. This journey is considered the best manifestation of God's close communication.

It was a privilege that God only gave to the noblest of the nobles among the human race. But because God is the Most Merciful, He doesn't want to deprive His sincere worshippers from this privilege of close contact with Him. Thus He decrees that the possibility of this interaction between Him and the worshipper, which happens during Prayers, becomes exactly like the interaction that happened between Him and His Prophet Muhammad(s.a.w) during the Night Journey.

Another way of contacting God in Islam is duaa (supplication or invocation). God says in the Quran: “And when My servants ask thee about Me, say: ‘I am near. I answer the prayer of the supplicant when he prays to Me.” (Al-Baqarah 187)

The Prophet(s.a.w) has given us many tips of recommended times during which the communication between the believer and his Lord becomes closer and therefore his supplication becomes more powerful.

The Holy Prophet(s.aw) says:
"The nearest a Muslim is to his Lord is while he is in prostration. So, make duaa in it." (Muslim)

Prophets teach that communication with God can be developed by persistent meditation and prayer whilst living a life of moral discipline including truthfulness, honesty and humility and distancing oneself from those worldly pursuits that interfere with such discipline. This we are taught creates the required ‘instrument’, the mind-set that is fertile to receive communication from God. Without the required instrument, a radio receiver, we cannot access the frequencies that abound our room and we tend to think of the room as empty. Without the required instrument to communicate with God, the desired mind-set, we tend to think that God may not exist.
Communication with God takes different procedures from one religion to another. In Christianity, for example, it is imperative to reach God through a cleric mediator or a go-between of the holy order.

For instance, in Catholicism, the confession should be made at the hand of a priest and one cannot be entitled a Christian unless one is baptized at the hand of a cleric, and so on. But in Islam, the situation is very different. No one is authorized to mediate between God and His servants. It is enough for any wrong doer to stand alone asking Allah's forgiveness and be sure Allah will respond. Allah says in His Book:

“And those who, when they commit a foul deed or wrong themselves, remember Allah and implore forgiveness for their sins — and who can forgive sins except Allah?” (Aal `Imran 2:135)

Now coming back to the question of "Have we stopped listening?" I would say have we listened to what He spoke to us through His prophets in a large number of books? The prophets were sent for the Guidance of the people. But people did not listen so He sent the prophet Mohammad(s.a.w) and the Last Book wherein He says:
This day I have perfected for you your faith, and completed My blessing upon you, and have accepted for you Al-Islam as religion. (Quran Al-Maidah 5:3)

It is imperative for the people to listen to Him and not think that He has stopped speaking to us anymore. Even now he is talking to us through Quran but we are not listening.

However, His communication does not stop there. Allah the All-Knowing and bestower of all dreams has so fashioned the human brain and has so invested it with the spiritual faculties that it can see some true dreams and can receive some true revelations. But these dreams and revelations are not an indication of any spiritual rank or greatness, but are only a sample of the way through which progress could be made

In Islam, dreams have been given a noticeable significance. From time immemorial dreams have been considered a special means of conveyance of the divine message and commands to His creatures through which he imparts knowledge and wisdom to them. Obviously, the mother of Moses and the mother of Jesus were both women, and as our opponents also believe they were not prophets. Yet, they were favoured with Divine revelation.

It was through a dream that Abraham, the progenitor of prophets, made his determination of sacrificing his eldest son Ismail and who in turn, gladly accepted the Divine command and prepared himself to be sacrificed at the hand of his own father. The whole life of Joseph or Hazrat Yousef revolves round the dreams and their interpretations. The call to prayer or the Azaan, has its inception through a dream aswell. It was on account of a dream that the Holy Prophet of Islam (s.aw.) undertook the hazardous march to Hudaiybiyya with 1400 of his faithful disciples.

Now, how can we distinguish a dream arising purely from subconscious mind versus a revelation? It will have to be based on the judgment as to whether the subconscious could host the information revealed in the dream or not. If the information is altogether new and novel and there is no reason to believe that a certain person’s subconscious possessed that knowledge then the most reasonable explanation is to give credit to All Knowing Allah for that particular piece of information.

So, is revelation only confined to a particular land? Well, Prior to the advent of Islam, God Almighty had been raising His warners separately among the different peoples in different lands. Some of these later assumed the very wrong notion that only they were the chosen people of God, and that the guidance that had come for them was not meant for any other people and that they alone were the chosen people of God. They even claimed that in the future, God will only raise messengers from among them and not from other people. Those who believe in the Vedas in India very firmly adhered to this idea, and claim that only their country was the chosen land. On the other hand, the Jews claim that only they are the chosen race and Palestine the only chosen land.

It is only in Islam that each and every Prophet is looked upon with love and reverence, and all are believed to be true messengers of God. Prophets used to come to the people of every land until the time came when the whole human race was to live as one large single brotherhood. Means of communication have become easier and it has become possible for the whole human race to live as one large family. God Almighty, therefore, decided to raise His most noble messenger, (s.a.w) who was commanded to teach the universal message – Islam. It is for this reason that Islam does not close the delicious essence of revelation into a stoppered phial. As this is the most sweet and most congenial nectar, all people must enjoy this great blessing of God Almighty.

Similarly, the question if Revelation is only confined to a Particular Language also arises. According to the faith preached by the Vedas, the word of God should only be revealed in Sanskrit. They claim that at the beginning of each cycle of existence, Ishwar or God speaks and gives directions for the new cycle, and He only speaks in the Sanskrit language because no other language is worthy of this distinction. The Jews have their own views and maintain that God speaks only in the language of the Children of Israel.
In contrast to the this, Islam declares that God is Omnipotent. All the languages originate from Him and He is fully conversant with all of them. 'Undoubtedly Allah knows all the languages'. (Bukhari).

Islam teaches that every people had their prophet and everyone of them had been given the teachings in their own language. Therefore, revelation is not confined to any single language or any single people. Messages came to every people in their own language.

Finally, coming back to this vast question of whether God is still taking, there is a copious amount of ways God is still communicating to us, and vice versa. As mentioned before, he is always reachable, and again, you do not need to be a prophet or someone of high status to experience this communication, whether it be through a revelation or dream.
Mainstream Islam doesn't always believe that revelation can still happen after Muhammad(s.a.w), but the Ahmadiyya community believe differently. We believe that when God talks to you, it is a blessing not just to the recipient, but to mankind generally. So to believe that revelation has come to an end would imply that Man has lost favour with God, as he no longer wishes to guide and help us. That is not to say that God will reveal new laws or anything of that nature. The Quran was the final law that God bestowed upon man, and any subsequent revelations from God have obviously come to explain the Quran, and they do not add to the Quran, nor abrogate the Quran. So, Inshallah, we will all try to strengthen our relationship with god by increasing our communication with the Almighty Allah.