Love for Allah... What are the Parameters?
A Christian, once asked me the concept of loving God Almighty in Islam. For them, God is love, for us, God is loving. Many Muslims are unaware of the intensity of love for Allah that Islam demands. In the 24 th verse of Surah Toubah , Allah mentions the different types of love found in the hearts of people. The love in this verse is divided into three categories.
1. Love for people that include our love towards our fathers, sons, brothers, spouses and relatives.
2. Love towards materialism which includes your wealth that your have earned, the business that your fear an incline and the dwellings that delights us.
3. Love towards Allah, His messenger and working hard in the way of Allah to establish Touhid.
The last category supersedes the previous two. It is a part of the constitution of Islam and it should be unconditional.
The first two categories are tests and it should never over take the last category. Here is the testimonial ; Beautified in the eyes of men is the love of things they covet: women and sons: heaped up hoards of gold and silver : Branded horses (include branded cars, race bikes....): Cattle and well tilled land. (Surah Al e Imran, ch 3, verse 14).
The parameter to gauge our love towards Allah is mentioned in Surah Al e Imran ch. 3, verse 31. Say: if you love Allah follow me (The messenger, peace be upon him). Now the test is not hidden. Unlike school examinations, the questions are not hidden. What one has to prove himself to judge his claim is to list the number of commandments of Allah's Messenger that are fardh, and one implements them. Like a chartered accountant, make a balance sheet of your actions and put it into two columns. One, that which we as Muslims are supposed to do and the other which are not doing. Subtract the latter from the former and that will give a faint idea of where one stands.
My slave continues to come closer to me through his voluntary deeds until I love him ….. (Sahih Al Bukhari). I have noticed many Muslims taking sunnah lightly . Deeds like getting up for Tahajjud, and repenting for your sins, giving charity more than zakah are the one which leads you ahead in leaps and bounds.
Some of us focus too much on voluntary deeds but over look significant obligatory commands. You will also find many among young men and women who are very good when it comes to display of Islam but when it comes to dealing with their own parents their Taqwa slides down. Owais Qarni could not get the privilege to meet the Prophet (pbuh) because he had to serve his ailing old mother. Not because he loved his mother more but he was commanded by the Prophet (pbuh) himself. Abdullah bin Amr bin al As said : The beauty of a person’s religious understanding lies in the fact that he is able to differentiate not only between the good and the evil but also between the bad and the worse as well as between the good and the better and the best.
How much each worshipper loves Allah will be graded by Allah Himself. He has not given any right to any human or any of his creation to share the intensity of love towards Him. Only He knows. That is what Touhid, the Islamic Monotheism is all about.
Author: Nisaar Nadiadwala writes and speaks about socio- educational issues from Islamic perspective. He can be reached at nisaar_yusuf@yahoo.com
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