8.8. HOW LOVING ALLAH AND HIS MESSENGER IS CONNECTED TO WILL
The Muslim nation agrees that Allah rewards his servants for loving Him and His Messenger and for loving and hating for His sake; He punishes the servants for hating Him and His Messenger and for hating His believing servants [the guided], and for loving the false idols instead of Him. With regard to the wills and resolutions that accompany this love, whether we say that one’s love is a type of will or another type that leads to will, it is always accompanied by will and resolve. Thus it is not said that it is a form of self-talk that is overlooked.
In fact, it occurs in a hadith related by TirmidhI: “The firmest hand- hold of faith is love for Allah and hate for Allah.”Anas ( radiyAllahu ‘anhu) narrates in another hadith related in the Two Sahlhs that the Prophet said: “By He in whose hand rests my soul, none of you believes until he loves Me more than his children, parents, and the entire mankind.” It also occurs in Bukhari that ‘Abdullah Ibn Hisham (radiyAllahu ‘anhu) says: “We were with the Messenger of Allah when he had taken ‘Umar Ibn al-Khattab by the hand. ‘Umar
(radiyAllahu ‘anhu) said: ‘Surely, you, O Messenger of Allah, are more beloved to me more than anything except my own self.’ Thereupon, the Prophet said: “No,by He in whose hand rests my soul,not until; I am more beloved to you than your own self.” ‘Umar (radiyAllahu ‘anhu) then said: ‘Truly, you are now more beloved to me than my own self!’The Prophet said:“Now,O ‘Umar!” ’In Fact,Allah, Most High, says:
“Say, (O Muhammad), if your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your wives, your relatives, wealth which you have obtained, commerce wherein you fear decline, and dwellings with which you are pleased are more be- loved to you than Allah and His Messenger and jihad (i.e., striving) in His cause, then wait until Allah executes His command. And Allah does not guide the defiantly diso- bedient people.”’ (al-Tawbah (9): 24)
Just look at this warning from Allah for those who love their families and wealth more than Allah and His Messenger and strive in His path. It is hereby known that a believer must love Allah and His Messenger and strive in his path more than his family, wealth, house, business, companions, and brothers. If he does not, he is not a true believer. Similar to this is the hadith related in the Two Sahlhs on the authority of Anas {radiyAllahu ‘anhu) “The Messenger of Allah said: ‘No one finds the sweetness of faith until he loves another purely for Allah’s sake, until he would rather be thrown into flames than return to unbelief, and until Allah and his Messenger are more beloved to him than anything else.’’ This is the wording of Bukhari. In this hadith, the Prophet tells us that no one will taste the sweetness of faith without these three loves:
• The first He loves Allah and His Messenger more than anything else. This is one of the fundamental aspects of faith without which one cannot be a believer.
• The second He loves another person purely for Allah’s sake. This is a necessary consequence of the first.
• The third He loves being thrown in flames more than going back to unbelief.
Likewise, in the case of a person who repents from his sins, one of the strongest signs that his repentance is sincere is the existence of the traits of loving Allah and His Messenger and loving the believers for His sake. Even though they are not connected to our actions as such like the connection of one’s will is, they do necessitate action; if one loves Allah and His Messenger more than himself, his family, and his wealth, he will inevitably want to do what this love requires, like supporting Allah and His Messenger and the religion, bringing others closer to Allah and His Messenger, and showing hatred to- wards their enemies.
Related to this is the famous hadith of Ibn|Mas’ ud (radiyAllahu ‘anhu), Abu Musa (radiyAllahu ‘anhu), and Anas [radiyAllahu ‘anhu) narrated in the sound collections where the Prophet says: “A man is with those whom he loves.” Another report says: “A man may love a person whom he has not yet joined,” meaning: whose deeds he has not yet done. Regarding his words: “A man is with those whom he loves,”Anas (radiyAllah ‘anhu) said: “After Islam, the Muslims had not rejoiced at anything like they rejoiced at this hadith. I love the Prophet and I love Abu Bakr and ‘Umar and hope that Allah joins me with them in spite of the fact that I have not done what they have.” This hadith is correct, for the fact that a lover is with the beloved is something natural and it cannot be otherwise. He is with him because of his love for him; if it is average love or close to that, he is with the beloved to that extent, and if the love is complete, he is with the beloved completely. This being said, complete love necessitates doing what the beloved loves doing as long as one is able. If this action is lacking, the lover’s love, even though still present, is deficient to the same extent.
Loving and wanting something necessitates hating its opposite as long as one knows that the two things are indeed opposites. Allah, Most High, says:
“You will not find people who believe in God and the Last Day having affection for those who oppose God and His Messenger.” (al-Mujadilah (58): 22)
Having affection is an action of the heart. Having faith in Allah necessitates loving Him and His Messenger and that cannot exist together with affection for those who oppose them.
Everything that contradicts faith necessitates resolve and punish- ment because of the absence of faith. All the things that contradict faith like doubt, abandonment, apostasy of the heart, and hating Allah and His Messenger lead to blame and punishment because they entail not abiding by a command of Allah and His Messenger, and whoever does not abide by them deserves to be rebuked and punished.
The greatest of all obligations is the heart’s faith, so the necessary consequence of anything that contradicts it is blame and punish- ment as it entails neglecting this obligation (unlike the actions that necessitate blame due to being unlawful, like acts of wickedness and oppression, as it is those actions where the discussion about inclina- tion and planning is relevant, as long as they do not contradict the very foundations of faith and only affect the completeness of faith as usual). In fact, acts of obedience, too, entail abstaining from sins and abstaining from sins entails obedience. This is why prayer prevents one from wickedness and wrongdoing, as it consists of two things: the quality of preventing one from sinning and remembrance of Allah, which is the greater of the two. This has been elaborated on elsewhere.
The point here is that complete love for Allah and His Messenger necessitates the existence of what is beloved to Him. It occurs in a hadith in TirmidhI: “He who loves for Allah and hates for Allah and gives for Allah and withholds for Allah has completed his faith.”61 This is because when one’s love and hate, which are actions of the heart, and giving and withholding, which are actions of the limbs, are all for Allah, it indicates that his love for Allah is complete, which in turn indicates that his faith is complete.
This is because complete faith means dedicating one’s religion completely to Allah which equals worshiping only Him and joining no partners with Him. This worship entails complete love and humility, and love is the source of all willed actions. All living be- ings love and hate; if one loves those whom Allah loves and hates whom He hates, the faith in his heart is true. This faith, however, can be strong and it can be weak depending on the resistance of one’s whims which manifest themselves in spending, which is the very matter of the soul. If one’s love, giving, and withholding are all for Allah, it means that his faith is complete both inwardly and outwardly.
The root of the polytheism (shirk) of the pagans who divided their religion and became groups was their taking of (other than Allah) as equals and loving them like they loved Allah:
“And (yet), among the people are those who take other than Allah as equals (to Him” (al-Baqarah (2): 165)
If one’s love and hate are for Allah, he only loves and hates for Allah and gives and withholds for Allah. This is the state of the forerunning servant of Allah, as related by Bukhari in his Sahlh in the hadith of Abu Hurayrah (radiyAllahu ‘anhu) where the Prophet says: ‘Allah says: ‘Whoever show enmity towards a friend of mine, i have declared war against him. My servant does not draw near to me with anything more beloved to me than what I have made obligatory on him. And my servant continues to draw near to Me with voluntary actions until I love him. When I love him, I am the hearing with which he hears, the sight with which he sees, the hand with which he strikes, and the legs with which he walks. When I love him I am his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes and his foot with which he walks. If he asks [something] of Me, I shall surely give it to him, and were he to ask Me for refuge, I shall grant him refuge. I do not hesitate regarding anything as much as hesitate in taking the soul of my believing servant; he hates death and I hate hurting him, but he has to go through it.”
These people whose love for Allah was complete drew near to Him through the voluntary actions that are beloved to Him after first drawing near to Him through the obligatory ones. Consequently, Allah’s love for them too was complete and they reached the levels they reached and perceived by Allah and moved by Allah, and Allah granted them their requests and protected them from whatever they sought protection from.
In His Book, Allah rebukes those who love the allegedly equal idols:
“And their hearts absorbed (the worship of) the calf because of their disbelief.” (al-Baqarah (2): 93)
He also rebukes those who make their own whims their gods by deifying their objects of desire and love, which may be purely an action of the heart (fi’l al-qalb).
There are numerous places in the Book of Allah where he has either praised or blamed certain actions of the heart like love (mahabba), will (irada), hate (bughd), displeasure (sakt)> joy (farh), and sadness (ghamm). Allah says:
“But those who believe are stronger in love for Allah.” (al-Baqarah (2): 165)
And
“No! But you (i.e., mankind) love the immediate…” (al-Qiyamah (75): 20)
And
“Indeed, these (disbelievers) love the immediate and leave behind them a grave Day.’’ (al-insan (76):27)
And
“If good touches you, it distresses them; but if harm strikes you, they rejoice at it.” (Al-’Imran (3) 120)
And
“And when Allah is mentioned alone, the hearts of those who do not believe in the Hereafter shrink with aversion, but when those (worshiped) other than Him are men- tioned, immediately they rejoice.” (al-Zumar (39): 45)
And
“And when Our verses are recited to them as clear evi- dences, you will recognize in the faces of those who dis- believe [their] disapproval. They are almost on the verge of assaulting those who recite to them Our verses.” (al-Hajj (22): 72)
And
“Many of the People of the Scripture wish they could turn you back to disbelief after you have believed, out of envy from themselves.”(al-Baqarah (2): 109)
And
“Neither those who disbelieve from the People of the Scripture (i.e., The Jews and Christians nor the polytheists wish that any good should be sent down to you from your Lord.” (al-Baqarah (2): 105)
And
“and you wished that the unarmed one would be yours.”(al-Anfal (8): 7)
And
“And what prevents their expenditures from being accepted from them but that they have disbelieved in Allah and in His Messenger and that they come not to prayer except while they are lazy and that they do not spend except while they are unwilling.” (al-Tawbah (9): 54)
And
“That is because they disliked what Allah revealed, so He rendered their deeds worthless.” (Muhammad (47): 9)
And
“As for those who believed, it has increased them in faith, while they are rejoicing.” (al-Tawbah (9): 124)
And
“And [the believers among] those to whom We have given the (previous) Scripture rejoice at what has been revealed to you, (O Muhammad), but among the (opposing) factions are those who deny part of it (i.e., the Quran) (al-Ra’d (13): 36)
And
“Say, ‘In the bounty of Allah and in His mercy in that let them rejoice; it is better than what they accumulate.” (Yunus (10): 58)
And
“Thereupon his people said to him,‘Do not exalt. Indeed, Allah does not like the exultant.” (al-Qasas (28): 76)
And
“(The angels will say), ‘That was because you used to exult upon the earth without right and you used to behave insolently.” (al-Ghafir(40): 75)
And
“Indeed, Allah does not like everyone self-deluded and boastful.” (Luqman (31): 18)
And
“And indeed, when We let man taste mercy from Us, he rejoices in it.”(al-Shura (42): 48)
And
“And if We give man a taste of mercy from Us and then We withdraw it from him, indeed, he is despairing and ungrateful. But if We give him a taste of favour after hardship has touched him, he will surely say, ‘Bad times have left me.’ Indeed, he is exultant and boastful. Except for those who are patient and do righteous deeds; those will have forgiveness and great reward.” (Hud (11): 9-11)
And
“And you love wealth with immense love.” (al-Fajr (89): 20)
And
“Indeed mankind, to his Lord, is ungrateful. And indeed, he is to that a witness. And indeed he is, in love with wealth, intensely.” * (al-’Adiyat (100): 6-8)
And
“and despair not of relief from Allah. Indeed, no one de- spairs of relief from Allah except the disbelieving people.” (Yusuf (12): 87)
And
“And who despairs of the mercy of his Lord except for those astray?”(al-Hijr(15): 56)
By Shaykhu’l-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah
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