Semester A 17/18, 15th December 2017
Many people speak about Allah loving his slave but not many talk about how the slave should love Allah. Now we may ask; how do we measure our love for Allah? Many people say we can measure our love to Allah through how much we love the Quran. This is a valid response but is it a true measure of your love of Allah? No, indeed, your love of Allah SWT is measured by your obedience to the Quran.
What is love itself? The Prophet (SAW) would stand up in prayer all night until his feet would swell up and when asked why he would do this, he would reply: “Should I not be a thankful slave?” This shows how the Prophet (SAW) would pray to Allah for no other reason than for the sake of Allah and nothing else.
We experience love in many ways and the first and most intense of those ways is – The love a man has for his wife. The second is – the love a mother has for her child. Finally, the third type of love is – the love that anyone has for anything or anyone other than Allah.
There are many different branches of love:
- When one does a mistake in front of the person that they love, they feel embarrassed. So surely, our love to Allah is much greater than love for others so we should seek forgiveness for our sins with a sense of embarrassment.
- Those who you love, you love every part of them, even their flaws. Yet, with Allah, we know he has no flaws. Therefore, He is surely most deserving of your love
- When you are away from your beloved for a long time, you become depressed and this is why Allah says in the Quran: “Whoever turns away from my remembrance, for him is a depressed life.” We can only find true love with Allah.
- Allah has created amongst you pairs so that you can find tranquillity and has placed between you affection and mercy. So, when you love your spouse, you find tranquillity with them. Do we find tranquillity when we converse with Allah who is most deserving of our love?
- Silent communication: when we are down and feeling low, we remember Allah in our heart and we liven up.
- A person complements and praises the loved one. So how much do we really love Allah if we do not even praise Him.
The strongest branch of love is yearning to be with the ones we love. Love is connected to value and value is connected to uniqueness. With Allah, there is nothing compared to him, he is the truly unique so he is the one who should be loved the most. This yearning lead to wanting to see the one we love with our eyes. This is why we are perplexed by Allah as we are amazed by him and yet we do not see Him. This induces a burning desire to meet Allah. When we worship Allah properly, we can reach a stage where we worship Allah as if we can see him.
- Don’t devote your love to anyone other than Allah as we know love is blind but love for Allah brings you clarity.
- When you are presented with an option, choose Allah over your desires. The one who gives up something for the sake of Allah will be rewarded with something better.
- Remember Allah in all your actions so that we can truly benefit from them.