love for Allah
Mankind has been created with the natural ability to love other creations. The ability to love is in us. Whether it is his own ego that he loves, or another person or another creation or Allah that he loves, these are all evidences of our ability to love. The question is how we can ensure that our love is not directed wrongly. How do we ensure that our love does not contradict the shariha of Islam. How can we ensure that our love does not incur the wrath of Allah?
We are commanded to worship Allah. But what does
‘worship’ mean? Does worship mean performing our prayers, paying our zakat or making the Hajj? Are these worship or are these just ACTS of worship? We think that just because we have fasted, we pray, we have done the hajj, we have ‘worshipped’ Allah. But is this so? Does Allah need our prayer? Does Allah need our sacrifice? Does Allah need our Zakat?
Rasulullah (peace be upon him) one night woke up for tahajjud prayers and his wife, Aisha called him back. The Prophet then said to her: “O Aisha, leave me one minute to worship my Lord because my heart is attached to Allah”.
How many of us feel this way? The true believer is the one whose heart throbs with love for his Creator. His love for Allah will strengthen his iman. A person who loves Allah will find the sweetness of the iman. This has been explained by Rasulullah (peace be upon him) in his hadith:
ثَلاَثَةٌ مَنْ كُنَّ فِيْهِ وَجَدَ حَلاَوَةَ اْلإِيْمَانِ : أَنْ يَكُوْنَ اللَّهُ وَرَسُوْلُهُ أَحَبَّ إِلَيْهِ مِمَّا سِوَاهُمَا ...
Meaning: There are three things which when it is there in a person, he will feel the sweetness of iman, that is, Allah and his Messenger must be more loved by him than anything else …..
From this hadtih, we can see how love for Allah is one of the signs of a person’s iman. In fact, love for Allah is one of the conditions of iman. This is further reinforced by the hadith of Rasulullah (peace be upon him) narrated by Bukhari and Muslim from Anas ibn Malik:
لاَ يُؤْمِنُ أَحَدُكُمْ حَتَّى يَكُوْنَ اللَّهُ وَرَسُوْلُهُ أَحَبَّ إِلَيْهِ مِمَّا سِوَاهُمَا
Meaning : You do not have faith until Allah and His Messenger is more loved than anything else.
We cannot attain this level of love by just sitting around. It cannot be attained without us knowing the thing that we are to love. Thus. It is important that we know Allah s.w.t. We have to know our Creator. We have to know His attributes, His characteristics. We have to know and see His perfection.
Look at the things that lie around us. Look at the billions of creations around us. Creations that live on this earth from the bacteria to the enormous elephants. Aren’t these the proof we need that show Allah’s greatness? Aren’t these evidences enough to move our hearts? Aren’t these evidences enough to shake our hearts with fear of the Creator? Aren’t these evidences enough to fill your heart with gratitude to Him and with Love to worship Him?
If that seed of love for Allah is planted in our hearts. We will find our hearts immediately directed to Him, to want to do things for the love of Him. He will feel close to Allah. We will feel embarrassed and afraid to disobey Him. He will feel happy doing things that receive Allah’s favours. When these feelings being to appear in a person, for sure, he has started loving Allah. And that is when he starts finding the sweetness of having pure faith. He will find the sweetness of Islam.
To love Allah, we must also love His Messenger, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), a creation so loved by Allah that he is called Habibullah, ie, the one loved by Allah. Our love for Rasulullah is proof of our love for Allah s.w.t. Allah says in Ali-Imran ayat 31:
قُلْ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللَّهَ فَاتَّبِعُونِي يُحْبِبْكُمُ اللَّهُ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ وَاللَّهُ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ
Say: If you love Allah, then follow me and Allah will love you and will forgive you your sins. And Allah is most forgiving and most loving.
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