Love of and for Allah SWT

What is Love?

Love is the attraction that 2 human beings feel for each other. In Arabic, love is called "Muhabbat". Muhabbat comes from "habba" that means "seed". This is because muhabbat is like a seed that is planted in the heart of a human being,if they nurture the actions that lead to that love then that seed sprouts into a plant that eventually dominates the human being and that is actually the power of Muhabbat. 

Imam Ghazali (RA) wrote that Muhabbat is the natural inclination of a human being to that which gives them true joy and happiness in their heart, and Muhabbat means that a lover's thoughts, desires and wishes become same as the thought, desires and wishes of their beloved. That is the trans-formative nature of muhabbat.

Allah's Love for Momineen

One of the Shakyhs of spirituality defined muhabbat as in which the lover views his own attributes as insignificant and the lover views everything that his beloved does with  tremendous importance. The shakyh then uses this definition to establish from Quran, that Allah swt is the Lover of the momineen and that Allah has love for the Momineen. so somebody asked him and he quoted from Quran..

Allah swt says in Quran (4:77 part)

"Say: the enjoyment of this world is little.."

This ayat comes in line with fact that lover considers what he gives to his beloved as very small and insignificant. Allah swt has made Dunya subject to human beings. Allah swt has made human beings master of this world in terms of wordly life whereas what momin gives to Allah swt is his worship, his remebrance and his Dhikr.

Allas swt says in Quarn(33:35 part)

"for men and women who engage much in praise.." 

so that for that small amount of Ibadaat, the momin does, Allah swt calls it "Kaseer"(abundunt). but for that massive entire dunya Allah swt has given to humanity, He calls it Qaleel (little).

So the shakyh said that this is a proof that Allah swt has love for believers

Love for Allah

Allah swt says in the Quran(3:31)

"say, if you love Allah, follow me and He will love you..."

this ayat means that if one has to love Allah, one must have love for Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) as well.

Junaid Baghdadi (RA) said that Muhabbat means that characteristics of the beloved are transferred into the lover. So if someone has love for Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) then he must have the following of Sunnah. Junaid Baghdadi (RA) also said that when beloved's characteristics are transferred to lover then they become indistinguishable. An example can be found in history books is when non-Muslim deputation used to came to Madinah they would find everyone as same. they could not differentiate who is prophet Muhammad(pbuh). that was the level of love, the sahabah had for Allah swt and his messenger

Allama shibli (RA) on another definition of love says that a lover loves everthing that his beloved loves and the lover would dislike everything that his beloved dislikes. The sahabah did not like anything which Prophet(pbuh) did not like, not only in shariah terms but also in personal terms. It meant shabah loved whatever Prophet(pbuh) liked. That is what Muhabbat means

.Today we donot feel the love for Allah and his Prophet(pbuh) because our own hearts are filled with love of this dunya and how can a heart filled with love of dunya, have love of Allah swt.  Shakyh Zulfiqar Ahmed says that just like a room is dark or lit at a time, similarly the heart can either have love of Allah swt or the love of the world. So as to have love for Allah swt, we must strive and struggle to remember Allah swt abundantly and try to follow the Sunnah of Prophet(pbuh) so that we may become the Zakeereen, Allah swt talks about in Quran.

Posted by Jahanzaib Jamshed

Taken from Shakyh Kamaluddin Ahmad talk