HADITH TWELVE : ALLAH IS THE SOURCE OF ALL LOVE
HADITH TWELVE : ALLAH IS THE SOURCE OF ALL LOVE. The Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم said, «When Allah loves someone, He says to Jibril, “Allah loves so-and-so, so love them.” So, Jibril loves them. Then, Jibril says to the inhabitants of the skies, “Allah loves so-and-so, so love them.” So, the inhabitants of the skies love them. Then, acceptance is established for them on earth. And when Allah hates someone, He says to Jibril, “Allah hates so-and-so, so hate them.” So, Jibril hates them. Then, Jibril says to the inhabitants of the skies, “Allah hates so-and-so, so hate them.” So, the inhabitants of the skies hate them. Then, hate is established for them on earth.»
Reported by al-Bukhari (3209) and Muslim (2637)
Commentary
All love comes from Allah. If He loves you, everything else will.
Allah is the origin of all love
HADITH TWELVE : ALLAH IS THE SOURCE OF ALL LOVE
Love is the sublimest emotion there is. Sure, it can be misdirected and catastrophic at times, but when appropriate, there is nothing else like it, let alone above it. Most spend their lives looking for it. Many find it in a spouse, child, vocation, pet, or romantic stories and poetry. No matter where we locate it, we know it to be comforting, fulfilling, and inspiring. It is no exaggeration to say that it is the essence of life itself.
With all that, we seldom wonder at the source of all this love. A materialistic understanding of the universe cannot account for it, since matter possesses no emotions to give. Evolutionists claim emotions are about survival, but we know it to be something more profound than that. There must be a power greater than us all, and wiser and more compassionate to make love possible. It is something beyond matter. And this power—the Creator—must possess love. In fact, the Creator is the source of all love.
It is mind-boggling to try to wrap our brains around the fact that Allah is the source of all love. Ibn Abd al-Barr, the famous eleventh-century Andalusian scholar, affirmed:
Allah is the one who starts and spreads love and affection among people.
HADITH TWELVE : ALLAH IS THE SOURCE OF ALL LOVE
Al-Tamhid (vol. 21, p. 238)
Allah creates and spreads all the love that we and everybody else experience. From the beginning of creation until the end of time. Humans, animals, and all living things. We learned in Hadith Eight that it is the same with mercy: Allah is behind it all, truly making Allah the All and Most-Merciful. This similarly makes Allah Al-Wadud: the One who loves more than any other, and is more deserving of love than any other.
Allah’s love is the greatest of all love. The human love that we experience, both when we love and are loved, is but a small fraction of the love that Allah has for us. Just consider how human mercy is almost nothing compared to Allah’s Mercy, and you will get how Allah’s Love is far beyond our earthly experience. The following hadith qudsi provides us a glimpse of it. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said:
«If [my servant] comes close to Me the distance of a handspan, I come close to them the distance of a cubit. And if they come close to Me the distance of a cubit, I come close to them the distance of two arm spans. And if they walk to Me, I will run to them.»
Reported by al-Bukhari (7405) and Muslim (2675)
HADITH TWELVE : ALLAH IS THE SOURCE OF ALL LOVE
What prompts the Lord of all, the Creator and King of everything, to respond to us in this way? To run to us when we walk to Him! This is love. This is mercy. We get from Our Beloved more than we get from any other lover. We find in His love the meaning of everything, and safety from all harm.
All earthly love leads to something else beyond it. It is a chain that does not end until we reach Allah (see Appendix I). When we love beautiful people and scenery, we are, in essence, searching for beauty. But where does beauty come from? We love people
who are kind and generous because we are seeking nobility in character and actions. But who made it possible? We love the ones who help us and bring us benefit, not realizing that Allah is the real provider. We love pleasure that enhances our life, and we love companionship that chases away our loneliness. Yet, whenever we seek these things on earth, we find them incomplete and flawed. And they do not last. Earthly beauty fades. Earthly pleasures diminish with time. No one’s character is complete and satisfactory all the time. And no companion lasts. It is in their nature to be incomplete. They can fulfill some of our needs, but a stubborn longing remains for more. We move
to another love, another earthly possession, but we still cannot escape its incompleteness. People can give us something, but they cannot give everything. Earthly benefactors are deficient: they do not have all that we need, and they expect a benefit in
return for their gift. We cannot chase away the desire for the perfect, the complete, the never-ending, and the love to surpass all love. This can only be Allah. He is Perfectly Beautiful. He is the Companion who never leaves or disappoints. He grants us
permanent pleasure and safety. He gives us life and protects it. He always listens to us and comforts our hearts. He fulfills all of our needs. He loves us back even more than we love ourselves.
In essence, each love we have is us looking for Allah. All love leads back to Allah. Once our love reaches Him, we reach our destination. The journey is over. You do not need to tire anymore.
When Allah loves you, everything loves you
HADITH TWELVE : ALLAH IS THE SOURCE OF ALL LOVE
Love begins with Allah and spreads to His creation. Through the Hadith of the chapter, we become privy to how this takes place in the upper realms. When Allah loves someone, He announces it to Jibril S and asks him to love that person. Jibril complies and delivers this message to the rest of the angels, who, in turn, love him/her. Finally, the people of earth turn towards that person with love and affection. Love on earth, many times, is an extension of love in the higher realms.
There are ayahs in the Quran that confirm the deep connection between Allah’s love and the consequent love people experience. Allah said about Musa:
And I endued you with love from Me, so that you may be brought up under My Eye.
Taha (Q20:39)
HADITH TWELVE : ALLAH IS THE SOURCE OF ALL LOVE
Allah loved Musa and surrounded him with a love that attracted everyone’s heart. Anyone who looked at infant Musa loved him and could not harm him. Though he was alone, defenseless, and weak, the gift of love surrounding him broke all barriers and carried him all the way to Pharaoh’s palace. He may have looked weak, but Allah’s love gave him power that no one could resist. It made him more powerful than Pharaoh. Love achieves what force cannot.
In case one may think that this is exclusive to Musa and the Prophets, Allah told us in the Quran:
The Merciful will bestow love to those who believe and do righteous deeds.
Maryam (Q19:96)
Mujahid, the famous second-generation exegete, wrote commenting on this ayah:
He loves them and makes people love them.
Tafsir al-Tabari
HADITH TWELVE : ALLAH IS THE SOURCE OF ALL LOVE
Those who have Iman and do good will receive Allah’s love and the love of the people. This should be qualified, however, by remembering that even the Prophets of Allah had enemies. So, when we say they will receive “the love of people,” it means most people or the pious. The following hadith confirms that it is the pious.
A funeral passed by [the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and the companions] and they praised the dead person, so the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, «He received it.» Another funeral passed by, and they criticized the deceased person, so he said, «He received it.» Umar ibn al-Khattab I asked, “What did you mean by ‘He received it?’” He replied, «You praised this one, and he received Jannah, and you criticized this one, and he received Hell. You are the witnesses of Allah on earth.»
Reported by al-Bukhari (2642) and Muslim (949)
In another narration of this hadith, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said:
«The believers are the witnesses of Allah on earth.»
Ahkam al-Jana’iz by al-Albani (p. 44)
The believers are the witnesses because they love what Allah loves, so their love reflects what is happening in the heavens. If the believers unite in praising or condemning someone, then it was Allah who joined their hearts. If the believers—or non-believers—love someone for the wrong reasons, in conflict with what Allah loves, their affection and testimony would not carry the same weight.
The reputation that one has on earth, specifically among the pious, matters. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said:
Everyone has a reputation in the heavens. If their reputation in the heavens was good, it would be sent to earth. And if their reputation in the heavens was bad, it would be sent to earth.
Reported by al-Bazzar in his Musnad (9202) and al-Albani declared it sahih (Sahih al-Jami‘, 5732)
The best reputation belongs to the best, and the worst to the worst. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said:
«The best of your rulers are those whom you love and who love you back, and you pray for them and they for you. And the worst of your rulers are those whom you hate and who hate you back, and you pray against them and they against you.» They asked, “O Messenger of Allah, shall we not fight them then?” He replied, «No, as long as they establish Salah among you.»
Reported by Muslim (1855)
Muslims applied this principle and saw the connection between the feelings they had for someone and how much Allah loved them. Suhayl ibn Abi Salih said:
We were in ‘Arafah, and ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz happened to pass by, and he was the Amir of Hajj. People stood up to catch a glimpse of him. I said to my father, “Father, I believe that Allah loves ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz.” He said, “Why?” I said, “Because of the love that people have for him in their hearts.”
Reported by Muslim (2637)
‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz was pious and just, and people loved him for it. They loved him for the right reasons, and Suhayl saw Allah’s love reflected in it. This is available to us all. And it happens especially before our death. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said:
«If Allah loves someone, He sweetens them [literally, sweetens them with honey].» They asked, “What does sweeten them mean, O Messenger of Allah?” He replied, «He guides them to a righteous deed before their death so that their neighbors—or he said those around them—will be pleased with them.»
Reported by al-Hakim (1258) and al-Albani declared it sahih (Sahih al-Targhib, 3358)
HADITH TWELVE : ALLAH IS THE SOURCE OF ALL LOVE
If Allah loves them, they leave this earth with the sweetest (i.e. most pleasant) reputation. People love them, pray for them, and their name feels like honey on the tongue. They leave the most beautiful legacy behind. This is what love does.
It is such a comforting and overwhelming feeling to know that you can get everything to love you, to live in harmony with the universe because of the love of the Lord of the universe. Electrons, like the planets in their orbits, move inside an atom out of love (i.e. Allah loves them to move, and so they do). The hearts of all living beings beat because of love. When you love Allah, you move because of the love of Allah and with it, like
everything else in the universe, like the atoms of your body. This is harmony. This is a true connection. Even the animals experience this connection. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said:
Indeed, Allah, His angels, the inhabitants of the heavens and earth, even the ant in its hole and the fish pray for the teacher of righteousness to people.
Reported by al-Tirmidhi (2685) and al-Albani declared it sahih (Sahih al-Tirmidhi, 2685)
The connection goes beyond our awareness, beyond our imagination. When Allah loves you, everything falls into place. All move with the same rhythm and goal.
When we understand this, it will free us from false-dependency on people. We are trying to please everyone all the time, worried about who likes us, who hates us, why they hate us, and how we can get them to like us. But if we remember that love begins with Allah and He determines its flow, we need only to please Him. The rest will follow. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said:
«The one who seeks Allah’s approval though it is upsetting to people, Allah will be pleased with them and will make people pleased with them. And the one who seeks people’s approval though it is upsetting to Allah, Allah will be displeased with them and will make people displeased with them.»
Reported by Ibn Hibban (276) and al-Albani declared it sahih (Al-Ta‘liqat al-Hisan, 276)
Sometimes, there will be a conflict between what Allah loves and what people (or we) love. If we please Allah, then people will (eventually) be happy with us, and we will be happy with ourselves. But if we choose what people love (or what we love), people will (eventually) hate us, and we will start hating ourselves. It is easier to please one instead of many. Do not worry about who loves you, who hates you, or why they love so-and-so more than you. Do not worry about your earthly reputation and ignore your heavenly one. Love Allah and forget the rest. Love Allah, and He will fix the rest. This, of course, does not mean that we should stop caring about people’s feelings, be rude, and disregard their rights. Allah hates this. We should do what Allah loves without alienating people or pushing them away from Allah. But if, despite our best efforts, they still oppose what Allah loves, then Allah’s love is better than everything else.
HADITH TWELVE : ALLAH IS THE SOURCE OF ALL LOVE
How do you get Allah’s love? As the rest of the book will demonstrate, we attain His love by doing what He loves. Receiving His love is the greatest achievement, and its deprivation is the greatest loss. When Allah spoke about the nonbelievers in the Quran, He would repeat that He did not love them. He did not say that He hated them; He always expressed it as the negation of love. This is significant. Though not loving something is hating it, putting it in the negative highlights the momentous deprivation when Allah’s love is lost. Loving Allah is the goal of every living being, the comfort of every soul. When it is gone, everything else is gone. And when it is there, everything else is there. Set the love of Allah as your destination. Let everything else move you towards it.
DR. ALI ALBARGHOUTHI
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