Love for Allah and His Habeeb
When a person falls in love with someone he would want to be close to that person. He would admire her and would want to say nice things to that person. It would be a thrilling experience to be close to the one that is loved.
Just as the lover has undying love for the beloved, so too, Allah wants us, His servants, to love Him more than anything else, because He loves us more than we could ever imagine. He says about the true believers the following:
“Those of Faith are overflowing in their love for Allah.”
(Chapter 2, verse 165)
If we culivate love for our Creator He will take us closer to Him,; on the other hand, if we are not sincere in our relationship with Him, He can replace us with people who will really love Him.
Allah gives us a lot of refrences in the Qur’an of what He is capable of doing. He says that if there are people who do not love and worship Him He can cause them to go out of existance and bring forth a group who will demonstrate love and devotion. This is recorded in the Qur'an in the following verse. Allah says:
O you who believe, if any from among you turn back from his Faith; soon will Allah produce a people whom He will love as they will love Him. (5:54)
Allah has recorded about the past nations, how He erased them and brought others in their places. For example, the people of 'Ad and Thamud, the people at the time of Prophet Noah (pbuh), the people at the time of Pharaoh; they were all destroyed and others were brought in their places.
Allah gave the Israelites the mission of establishing His Religion on earth; as they all disobeyed He removed the responsibility of projecting religion from them and He bestowed it upon the Muslims. Allah created a special bond between Him and the Muslims.
The true believers follow the ways of Father Abraham. He was a Muslim, and desmonstrated complete submission to the orders of his Lord. The Qur'an records that he said:
"Truly, my prayer and my service of sacrifice, my life and my death, are (all) for Allah, the Cherisher of the Worlds”.
Prophet Muhammad also demonstrated sincere love for Allah as a result he said nothing of his own desire. He had so much of love for Allah that he only said and did what Allah inspired him to do; he taught the believers to do likewise so they are taught to say: we hear and obey.
Now Allah has created a people, i.e. the Believers, that will have plenty of love for Him. They do not behave towards Him like the past nations who stipulated conditions for obeying and loving Allah . For example, when Jesus asked: Who will be helpers in the way of Allah, some of the Israelites said: we will be helpers on condition that you get us food from the skies.
The human personality comprises a physical (nafs) and non-physical (ruh). The ruh is pure and it cannot be contaminated and, if given a chance, it can have a beautiful connection with Allah . But Allah also wants us to use the physical side of our bodies to demonstrate love for Him. We do so by showing love to a material thing that He has created. This creation is His Beloved as, Prophet Muhammad is called the "Beloved of Allah". Prophet Muhammad (pboh) is therefore the common object of love from Allah on one side and the true believers on the other. The true believer is supposed to love him more than anything else in this world. He is reported to have said:
He is not a true believer until he loves me more than his father, his children and mankind at large.
Allah has made ways of cementing the bond of love between Himself and the true believers. One of these ways is His invitation to visit His Holy House in Makkah. So people who can afford it avail themselves of the opportunity to visit the Holy Cities of Makkah and Madinah. They either perform Haj at the specified time or Umrah whenever it is convenient.
Haj is especially significant, as during that time the beleivers from all around the world assemble in Makkah and connect themselves with the Sunnah of Father Abraham and his family. He was true in faith and a real model for mankind.
The believers also take the opportunity to visit the Holy City of Madinah and to cement their relationship with the beloved Prophet of Allah. They send salutations to him near to his person.
All the true believers are supposed to express love for Allah and Prophet in a respectable manner. Through this you will gain closeness to Him. True, pure, sencere love will get you close to Him, and that should be our goal.
We beg Allah to take us closer and closer to Him and His Habeeb and may He raise us in the Prophet's (pboh) companionship on the Promised Day.
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