Muhammad ibn Ibraheem al-Hamad Language: English | Format: PDF | Pages: 26 | Size: 4 MB
All praise be to Allah and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah.
Love is the cornerstone of worship.
Worship is based on three pillars: love, fear and hope. Here below is a
short word on this great pillar— i.e. love.
1. Definition of love [mahabbah]
Ibn al-Qayim (may Allah have mercy on
him) said: “Love knows no boundaries. Boundaries are nothing but to
prevent love from existing. Love is only manifested through love. People
are only to mention its causes, factors, signs, evidence, benefits and
rulings. Therefore, their logic about love is based on these six pillars
where everyone differs in expressing his concept according to his/her
perception, position, conditions and fluency”1.
There are many definitions of love as follows2:
1- Heart inclination in [loving Allah].
2- Preferring the beloved [Allah] over all other things.
3- Consistency with the beloved in his presence and absence.
4- The heart’s obedience to the commands of the beloved [Allah].
5- Magnifying little sins and belittling abundant good deeds.
6- Freeing the heart from loving anything except that of Allah.
7- Your inclination and love for a thing, then preferring Allah over
your soul and property. Then, making your inward and outward deeds the
same and finally realize your short comings towards Him.
8- Enslaving oneself to Allah alone and freeing oneself from any other thing.
9- Engaging in seeking His pleasure through your heart and continuous remembrance of Him by the tongue.
10- Continuous occupation with Him and doing everything for His sake.
Categories of love
1- Love of worship: it means humiliating
oneself and glorifying Allah. It is represented in feeling His majesty
in one’s heart, complying with His commands and refraining from His
prohibitions. This kind of love is the basic for faith [Iman] and
monotheism [tawheed]. It implies numerous virtues. Whoever dedicates
this kind of love to Allah is considered the true believer. Whoever
dedicates it to otherwise, he will associate others with Allah the
Almighty [Shirk]. This is like the disbelievers who love their deities
and other things such as trees, stones, humans or kings like the way
they love Allah. This kind of love is the basic and root of polytheism.
2- Loving Allah the Almighty: this implies love of what Allah loves of places, times, people, deeds, sayings and the like.
3- Natural love: this kind of love falls into the following:
# Mercy: like the parent’s love for his children and being merciful to the patients and weak.
# Respect and veneration: it includes a child-parent love, student-teacher love and the like.
# Human needs: this includes man’s love for food, drink, marriage, garments, friends and the like.
This represents the permissible forms of
love, if these forms were to help in loving and obeying Allah, it will
be categorized among good acts of obedience; otherwise, it will be
considered among prohibitions. If it neither helps in obeying nor
disobeying Allah, it will remain from among permissible things.
__________________
1 See Madarig As-Salikeen (311/).
2 See Madarig As-Salikeen (318-13/).
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Contents:
Words on love
1..Definition of love [mahabbah]
2..Virtues of loving Allah
3..Characteristics of those whom Allah loves
4..Means that bring Allah’s love
Words on fearing Allah [al-Khawf]
1..Definition of Khawf
2..Quotes on fearing Allah
3..Praiseworthy fear
4..Obligatory and recommended fear
5..Which one does take precedence over the other: fear or hope?
Words on hope (al-Raja’)
1..Evidence from the Qur’an
2..Evidence from Sunnah
3..Quotes on al-Raja’
4..Combining between fear, hope and love
5..Kinds of Raja’
6..Distinction between Raja’ and Tamanni [wishing]
7..Raja’ must be accompanied by action
8..The criterion for thinking wel of Allah [Husn az-Zan]
9..Virtues of Raja’
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