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Romeesa-Chan:
A Muslim’s Obligation of Love for Allah


When we love Allah, that love draws us closer to Him and helps us build a strong relationship that can help us in this life and in the hereafter. As Muslims, our faith requires that our love for Allah and his prophet supersedes any other type of love for any other object or creation. Many scholars agree on the basis of sound ahadith that Allah creates a person (and his heart) in such a way that he has the natural inclination to love Allah. However, as a person’s heart gets corrupted by doubts, desires and other temptations, that love has to be rekindled through faith and knowledge.


Love of Allah requires us to love what Allah loves and to dislike what displeases Him and to further demonstrate that love by following the Quran and the Sunnah. This should be a reminder for those of us who merely provide lip service about their love for Allah and His messenger rather than actualizing that love in real behavioral commitments.

*Let’s review various aspects about the love of Allah and how we can build and nurture that love in our hearts.

~The Obligation to Love Allah

Allah has made His love obligatory on the believers. Many of us find it easy to express that love verbally but unfortunately our actions don’t reflect that love for Him. How can we claim to love Allah when we take what He has revealed lightly, don’t follow His commands, and fail to make our behaviors reflect what pleases Him? Many times we find that love missing from our hearts because our hearts are filled instead with doubts, vain desires, and temptations of temporal life. As Ibn Taymiyyah stated in one of his books (Diseases of the Heart), one of the reasons for this has to do with the lack of right knowledge. To counter doubts, therefore, we need to firm up our beliefs, and we need a better overall spiritual perspective in order to counter desires and temptations. We also need to clear those doubts that hinder the instilling of that love for Allah by learning more and asking questions. Consider one of the ahadiths which shows the prophet getting angry with a group of people for taking a decision that resulted in someone unnecessarily losing his life. On that the prophet said, “Could they not have asked if they didn’t know? Indeed the cure for ignorance is to ask” [Sunan Ibn Majah and classified as Hasan].

When we don’t make that effort and don’t plant that love in our hearts, our actions too come out short and empty and we risk His anger and making our deeds fruitless. Allah says in the Quran:

“That is because they followed that which angered Allah, and hated that which pleased Him. So He made their deeds fruitless” (Surah Muhammad:28).

What do we have to do specifically to love Allah? Take the example of the companions of the prophet who used to say that “We love Allah”. In response to that and to provide them a yardstick to know whether they indeed loved Allah, Allah revealed the following verse:

“Say (O Muhammad SAW to mankind): "If you (really) love Allah then follow me (i.e. accept Islamic Monotheism, follow the Quran and the Sunnah), Allah will love you and forgive you of your sins. And Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful." (Surah Aal-e-Imran:31)

~What pulls us away from loving Allah?

To properly answer this question, we need to search deep within our souls about the motivations that drive our lives and our understanding (explicit or implicit) of the purpose of our lives. That is because the purpose of our life drives our goals, actions, and behaviors in general. For many of us, earning a living tends to be the focal point of our lives, including a total immersion in building our dwellings, families, and so on while neglecting our duty and love for Allah. The time that we spend on various activities reflects our priority and love for each of those activities. For those of us who exhibit that behavior, Allah says the following:

“Say: If it be that your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your mates, or your kindred; the wealth that you have gained; the commerce in which you fear a decline: or the dwellings in which you (seek) delight – are dearer to you than Allah, or His Messenger, or the striving in His cause; then wait until Allah brings about His decision: and Allah guides not the rebellious” (Sura At-Taubah: 24).

We can, therefore, infer that while we do have an obligation to attend to our responsibilities, that should not divert us from building our relationship with Allah. As He says in the Quran:

“Let not your properties or your children divert you from the remembrance of Allah. And whosoever does that, they are the losers” (Al-Munafiqoon 63:9).

~Love of Allah triggers sweetness of faith

The prophet had said as narrated in both Sahih hadith, “Whoever possesses the following three qualities will taste the sweetness (delight) of faith: the one to whom Alláh and His Messenger become dearer than anything else, the one who loves a person and he loves him only for Alláh’s sake, and whoever hates to revert to disbelief, after Alláh has saved him from it, as he hates to be thrown into the Fire."

~Love of Allah can keep us away from sins

Today, when the hearts of most of us are filled with lusts, desires, temptations and fantasies, we need to remind ourselves that it is not possible to have those take room in the same heart where we want to plant our love for Allah. Always ask yourself whether what lives in your heart makes you neglect Allah, and is worth more than the love of Allah? When we start replacing the lusts, desires, and fantasies that live in our heart with Allah’s love, then we will see ourselves regaining that love back from Allah.

Ibn Taymiyyah said, “the more the servant loves his Master, the less will he love other objects and they will decrease in number. The less the servant loves his Master, the more will he love other objects and they will increase in number (Majmu Fatawa [1/94]).

Let’s, therefore, take stock of how much we love this life’s objects versus how much we love Allah and His Prophet.

~Love of Allah stimulates our emotions

The vagaries of this life generate emotions which must be channeled appropriately for us to retain our positive mental states. No matter how we express and channel those emotions to various people in this life, there are emotions trapped in our system that we simply can’t express with an open heart to even the most beloved of His creations. But it is different with our creator. When we do succeed in planting that love for Allah in our hearts and build that relationship, it can make our repressed emotions pour out with a pleasing force. The relationship that we establish with our creator out of that love for Him and His love for us can make us say what is in our hearts, complain about our situations, express profuse apologies, and so on – all without worrying about demeaning ourselves because He is our creator and sustainer who controls everything in this universe. In fact, what we humans go through and what manifests as hidden emotions can come flooding back when we sit in front of our creator with that love for Him.

This can help us in reconciling matters within ourselves and, most important of all, lets Allah respond and listen to us. Thus, the more we love Allah, the better we will be able to engage with Him at this level and the better we will be able to feel and expect his mercy in return.

~When we love Allah, He will put our love in others’ hearts

Many of us spend a lot of our efforts to gain the love and pleasure of others and sometimes we may do that at the expense of disobeying Allah’s commands. We should realize that such tactics are short lived (even if achieved) and earn us nothing but Allah’s displeasure. On the other hand, if we focus on planting Allah’s love, then we will not only get His love but He will instill our love in others’ hearts as well. Allah says in the Quran:

“Verily, those who believe [in the Oneness of Allah and in His Messenger (Muhammad SAW)] and work deeds of righteousness, the Most Gracious (Allah) will bestow love for them (in the hearts of the believers)” (Surah Maryam: 96).

~How do we get love of Allah in our hearts and lives?

Finally, knowing that love for Allah brings about happiness, His pleasure, and keeps us from indulging in temptations, we can focus on factors that increase our love for Allah in our hearts. Ibn Al-Qayyim had indicated 10 such ways to bring about the love of Allah and they are mentioned below:

*Recitation of the Quran with reflection and understanding of its meanings and what is intended by it. This also enables us to know Allah using His own words.

*Optional acts of worship, after the obligatory ones, can get us closer to Him and furthers the love of Allah beyond what is achieved through the sincere worship through obligatory acts.

*Constant remembrance in every circumstance by the tongue, the heart, actions and (one’s) condition (based only on sanctioned forms of remembrance as described in the Quran and Hadith), so that a person’s share of love is in accordance with his share of this remembrance.

*Preferring Allah’s love over your own when desires overcome you and climbing to reach His love, even if the ascent is difficult.

*The heart’s comprehension of His Names and Attributes, witnessing them and having knowledge of them, to immerse himself in the garden of this knowledge and its fundamental pillars. Whoever knows Allah by His Names, Attributes and Actions, will, no doubt, love Him.

*Witnessing His generosity, His benevolence, His favors and blessings, both hidden and open, for these things call to His love.

*The heart’s total defeat and humility in front of Allah, the Most High.

*Being alone at the Time of the Descent of Allah (during Tahajjud) for having private conversations with Him, reciting His Words, investigating the heart, displaying the manners of servitude whilst in front of Him and then to seal all of that with seeking forgiveness and repentance.

*Sitting with the truthful lovers (of Allah) and gathering the good fruits (arising) from their speech, just as one picks out the best of fruits; however, you do not speak except when the benefit of the speech prevails and when you know that there is a betterment for you and benefit for others in it.

*Keeping distant from everything that comes between the heart and between Allah, the Mighty and the Majestic.

~Parting Words

As we strive to build Allah’s love in our hearts and have that love push out the vain desires that tend to influence our lives, remember the extent of Allah’s love for us. Umar ibn al-Khattaab said: “Some prisoners were brought to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and there was a woman among the prisoners who was searching (for her child). When she found her child she embraced him and put him to her breast. The Messenger of Allah said to us, ‘Do you think that this woman would throw her child in the fire?’ We said, ‘No, by Allah, not if she is able not to.’ The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said, ‘Allah is more merciful to His slaves than this woman is to her child.’” (Agreed upon. Al-Bukhaari, 5653; Muslim, 6912.)

Finally, ensure that you are always reciting the following Dua –


"O Allah, I ask for Your love, and the love of those persons who love You and love of actions that bring me closer to Your love" [Bukhari, confirmed by Albani].

– End

source: http://www.iqrasense.com/allah/a-muslims-obligation-of-love-for-allah.html

Shoshou..Mony:
One of the most inspiring, loving and beautiful lesson I ever read.

This is a wonderful lesson and I hope we do follow and consider what's written.

True happiness comes from following Allah's path, or else we wouldn't be getting thousands of converts to Islam every year. If those people were happy with their lives, they would never come to Islam but in the end..they do, which just proves the inner peace and eternal happiness humans feel from understanding, knowing and following Islam.

Whoever knows Allah by His Names, Attributes and Actions, will, no doubt, love Him.

^Very true. =]

Jazka Allah khair for sharing this with us Rom. +rep. It was indeed worth reading and worth my time.
May Allah grant you paradise inshAllah for all the good you share with us. =]

GossipGirl:
Really impressive, MashAllah. =]

However, wouldn't it be better to keep all the islamic articles to a specific thread ? I'd go fer the Ramadan Thread.

MKh:
MASHAALLAH really good knowledge u have there which is worth sharing with all the people we know and i sure will do so.

Also I have something to share:-

In a TV interview with the Egyptian Geologist Dr. Zaghloul Annajar, the anchor asked him about the verse:

"The Hour has drawn near,and the moon has been cleft asunder (the people of Makkah requested Prophet Muhammad [PBUH] to show them a miracle, so he showed them the splitting of the moon)." (Quran 54:1) whether it contains any Quranic scientific astounding facts?

Dr. Zaghloul answered saying that he has a story to tell about this verse.

He started explaining that at a time he delivered a lecture at Cardiff University in the West of Britain. The attendees included both Muslims and non-Muslims. A vital dialogue was taking place around scientific facts included in the Noble Quran. During the course of the lecture, a Muslim young man stood asking me, Sir Do you see in the Saying of Al Haq Tabarak wa Ta`ala (Allah the Truth) may He be Exalted - and he referred to the above mentioned verse - any indication to the scientific facts included in the Quran? Dr. Najjar answered: No because scientific astounding discoveries are interpreted through science whereas a miracle is something supernatural, which may not be interpreted through the usual. The splitting of the moon is a miracle, which happened to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in order to prove his prophecy. Tangible miracles are only a testimony of truth for those who witnessed it. It is only that the incident was mentioned in Quran and Prophet's Sunnah that made us believe other wise we Muslims of this era would have never believed in it. In addition that we know for sure that Allah is most capable of anything. At that point Dr. Zaghloul narrated the story of moon splitting as included in Sunnah books.

He said, Sunnah books tell that five years before the immigration of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) from Mecca to Medina, a group of people from the tribe of Quraish came challenging him saying: Oh Muhammad if you were really a Prophet and a Messenger bring to us a miracle to establish this fact. So he asked them what do you want? They said in an effort to complicate matters for him: split the moon for us. The Messenger of ALLAH (PBUH) stood supplicating to Allah to support him and grant him victory in this hard situation. Allah may He be Exalted inspired him to sign towards the moon with his finger. Immediately, the moon cleft into two parts standing far from each other for several hours then cling back together. The pagans started claiming: Oh Muhammad (PBUH) practiced witchcraft on us.

At this point some of the wise men explained that magic would only affect the attendees whereas it can not maintain influence on everybody in general. They waited for travelers who were coming back from their journeys. The pagans harried up to the borders of Mecca in anticipation to meet the travelers. When the first arrivals appeared, they asked them did you see anything extraordinary happened to the moon? The travelers answered yes on the night (X) we saw the moon splitting into two parts which remained asunder for sometime then reattached. Upon this statement, a number of the group believed while the rest remained pagans. Therefore, the verse explains "The Hour has drawn near, and the moon has been cleft asunder (the people of Makkah requested Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to show them a miracle, so he showed them the splitting of the moon). * And if they see a sign, they turn away, and say: This is continuous magic. *They belied the Verses of Allah - this Quran), and followed their own lusts. And every matter will be settled according to the kind of deeds: good deeds will take their doers to Paradise and similarly evil deeds will take their doers to Hell." (Quran 54:1-3) until the end of the verses which were revealed in this regard.

Dr. Najjar continued that at this point a British Muslim young man introduced himself as Daoud Moussa Peetcock head of the British Islamic Party. He carried on saying sir if you allow me I would like to add on this issue? I said please do. He explained saying: At the time when I was searching in religions (before he embraced Islam), a Muslim student gave me as a present the translation of the meaning of Quran. I thanked him and took it home. The first Surat I came across when I opened the book, it was Chapter of the Moon I read "has drawn near, and the moon has been cleft asunder". I said to myself, is this statement logical? Is it possible for the moon to split and then reattach what kind of power may cause this? The man explained that this verse made me reluctant to continue reading. I became busy with my life,yet ALLAH of course Knows how sincere I was about finding the truth.

So,one day ALLAH made me sit to watch TV. It was a talk show between a British commentator and three American astronautics specialists. The show host was blaming the scientists for spending thriftily over space trips at a time when earth is suffering hunger,poverty, diseases and backwardness. He was telling them, it would have been more feasible to allocate this kind of money for reconstruction of earth. To this argument, the three men answered defending their position that such technology is widely applied in many wakes of life such as medicine, industry and agriculture. They added that the money is never wasted but it rather supported the development of highly advanced technology.

During their dialogue, they mentioned the trip in which a man landed on the moon surface as it consumes the the largest cost which comes to more than US $100.000.000.000. The British TV anchor screamed saying what kind of thrift is this? A hundred thousand million dollars just to plant the American flag on the moon surface? They answered no; the objective was not to plant the American flag but rather to study the interior composition of the moon. We actually came to a finding that would cost us double folds of this amount for people to believe and yet they will never believe. The show host inquired what is this fact? They replied: One day this moon was split and then reattached. The show host again probed: how did you realize that? The scientists responded about finding a belt of transformed rocks cutting the moon from its surface to core and then to the surface again. The stated saying: we consulted with earth scientists and geologists who explained that such phenomenon would never occur unless this moon one day split and then reattached.

The British Muslim man said: I jumped out of my chair saying ALLAH (SWT) forced the Americans to spend more than a hundred billion dollars to prove to Muslims a a miracle that took place 1400 years ago for Mohamed (PBUH)? This religion must be the truth. He added: I went back to the Quran and recited Surat Al Qamar, which was my gate for accepting Islam.

Take care my friends.

Romeesa-Chan:
@Mony- JazakAllah khair fer reading. (:


@GG- Thank you. (:

Hmmm, I dunno. :-\

ps - the way yuh write. . . um. . . reminds me of Crooked. :o


@Mkh- JazakAllah khair fer sharing such a great story.

There is also a book on the miracle of splitting of moon.

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