Abdul Rahman Chao - God's Love-Defined

As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. Alhamdulillah, we praise Him, we ask His help and we ask His forgiveness, and we seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our souls and from the bad deeds of our mouths, and from the accursed Satan.

Verily, Allah is ever watchful over you. O you who believe, be God-conscious, fear Allah and speak the truth, He will render your deeds righteous, and He will forgive you your sins.

And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has indeed achieved a great victory. Verily, the best of speech is the speech of Allah, and the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad ﷺ. And the worst affairs are those that are of religious innovations, for all of that is misguidance, and all of it leads to hellfire.

Verses Revealed About Future Events

Of the thousands of verses that we find in the Qur'an, most of the verses, or you could even say the majority of these verses, were sent down to an event, regarding an event that occurred either in the past or is occurring during the time of the Prophet ﷺ. But some of these verses, a small portion of them, were revealed about a future event that would occur.

During the time of the Prophet ﷺ, as you know when the people embraced Islam and they came in, يَدْخُلُونَ فِي دِينِ اللَّهِ أَفْوَاجًا they came in large groups and masses entering Islam. After the Prophet ﷺ had passed away, a large group or section from the Ummah of Muhammad ﷺ actually left Islam.

They actually quit Islam. And the ulema said that this was due to two reasons, either because they thought, they negated and rejected the entire institution of almsgiving, al-zakah, or, and they said that that was for the Prophet ﷺ when he was alive and now he's gone, we don't have to give it. Or it was because they just outright just quit everything about Islam, just rejected it.

O you who believe, whoever among you leaves the religion of Islam, then Allah will bring about a different group of people. And what are these characteristics? يُحِبُّهُمْ Allah loves them وَيُحِبُّونَهُ And they love Allah. أَذِلَّةٍ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ They are merciful to the believers. And أَذِلَّة here doesn't mean humiliation, it means merciful.

أَعِزَّةٍ عَلَى الْكَافِرِينَ Having dignity, being strong in the face of those who are against you and Islam. And that you struggle in your way, and you do not fear the blame of those who are just blaming you for whatever reason it is. You stand firm on the truth.

Allah's Love - Conditional, Not Unconditional

I want to focus on the part where Allah says, فَسَوْفَ يَأْتِي اللَّهُ بِقَوْمٍ يُحِبُّهُمْ وَيُحِبُّونَهُ Allah will bring about a new group of people, those who love Allah, and they are also the recipients of Allah's love.

Allah tells us in the Qur'an that one of His names is the Loving. And He is also the Loving. And we as Muslims, we believe that a person cannot be considered a Muslim if they don't love Allah. You have to love Allah.

And more often than not, we confuse this term, and it's going around in our society very often, where people define Allah as love itself. They will say, God is love. And I think that concept is nice from the outside, but it's actually a little misleading. Because Allah is not simply an emotion. Emotions come and go. And number two, Allah, in His love for the creation, yes He does, but at the same time, this characteristic is better characterized as rahmah, as mercy.

In fact, I was one time in a debate with a Christian missionary, and he was saying that Allah يحب إبليس, Allah loves Iblis. I said, no, Allah لا يحب إبليس، إنما هو رحمة, He has rahmah, He has mercy for Iblis. And we have to be very careful about this term. Allah loves, but Allah's love is conditional. Allah's mercy is unconditional.

It's to those who believe as well as to those who reject Him. As for Allah's love, it is specific to certain conditions, and we want to talk about that.

Our Relationship with Allah Should Not Be Selfish

Unfortunately, as humans, we tend to love things that give us a certain benefit. Same thing with animals. If I get a benefit from you, I will like you as a person. But if your benefit doesn't extend to me, I'm not going to pay attention to you. And if you don't give me what I want, you will be the victim of my scorn.

But subhanAllah, this kind of relationship is not how we have with Allah. We should not have this selfish relationship with Allah, where if Allah gives us what we want at a drop of a hat, then we love Allah. And when Allah doesn't give us what we want, then we don't love Him. And that is not the way how our love is with Allah.

Allah's love is not dependent on us. Allah's might and izzah is not predicated on whether or not we obey Him or not, or disobey Him. Because to say that Allah benefits from this, would mean that Allah is in short of something. Allah doesn't benefit from any of our own actions.

The Prophet's Du'a About Love

The Prophet ﷺ teaches us in a du'a, that he used to say regarding the love of Allah, regarding how we should love God, he said:

And O Allah, I ask You for Your love. And the love of those who love You. And the love of actions that bring You closer, that bring us closer to Allah, to the love of Allah.

So let's go through this du'a very quickly. What does it mean to say that you love Allah, you're asking for Allah's love? It means that it is not freely given. Unlike mercy, Allah gives it to everyone. He even gave it to Fir'aun, He gave it to Iblis. When Iblis said, رَبِّ أَنظِرْنِي إِلَى يَوْمِ يُبْعَثُونَ Oh Allah, give me a respite, give me some time. Allah gave it to him. Allah was merciful.

But here, when you say you're asking for Allah's love. And I believe we as Muslims should teach our kids this. And we should make sure that we do this du'a, everyday that we ask for Allah's love.

To love Allah as our Creator, as our Sustainer, as the one who deserves to be worshipped. That we do it freely, that we do it not because we were told to do so, but that because we actually believe in what we say. To believe and love the Prophet ﷺ, to love everything that Islam has come with.

(Sahih Muslim)

The Prophet ﷺ says, that person will taste faith, the sweetness of iman, for those who are pleased and happy, and accepting that Allah is their Lord, that Islam is their religion, and that Muhammad ﷺ is his messenger.

And this extends to all the rulings that Allah has prescribed to us, for us in the Qur'an as well as in the sunnah and the life of the Prophet ﷺ. And so that means, even if you are struggling with an act, a fareedah, or you're struggling with an addiction, or you're struggling with getting rid of a sin, a bad habit that you are doing, you have to first accept, that this is what Allah likes, and you put your whims and desires at a second level, under that.

(Related by al-Nawawi in Forty Hadith)

As the Prophet ﷺ says, no one has truly believed, until they put their whims and desires, until they submit them to what I have brought forth.

Loving Fellow Believers

The second thing that this du'a teaches us, is the importance of loving your fellow believers, loving your fellow Muslims.

(Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim)

As the Prophet ﷺ says, None of you have truly believed, until you love for your brother, what you love for yourself. In other words, ridding yourself of jealousy, ridding yourself of the diseases of the heart, by surrounding yourselves with believers.

And sometimes you will find people saying things like, I just don't like hanging around Muslims. People say that. I don't like hanging around Muslims, because of X, Y, Z reason. And it's like, well, maybe because you don't like a certain habit, or a certain behavior that they're exhibiting. But for you to dislike in general, being around a Muslim, you gotta check yourself. And the Prophet ﷺ even said, that on the day of judgment, you will be among those whom you love.

True Worship - Love and Submission

And in the last part of this du'a, he says, Oh Allah, we ask You to give us the love, to make us love the actions that get close to Your love. حُبَّ عَمَلٍ يُقَرِّبُ إِلَى حُبِّكَ And that is very important in our time and age.

The word, worship, brothers and sisters, عِبَادَة, worship. If you ask someone, what is worship? They're going to say, worship is salah. Worship is not just salah. That's just عِبَادَةٌ عَامَّة But there's also عِبَادَةٌ خَاصَّة which is like salah, all these فَرِيضَة that Allah has made, these obligatory acts, all these acts of worship.

What is your view on them? Do you do them willingly, lovingly? Or is it because you're doing it because you have to do it? And that's why in Arabic, the word, العِبَادَة, the meaning of it, and this will shed some light for all of you. It is a combination of love and ذُلّ. Of حُبّ and ذُلّ.

A combination of love and submission to Allah. In other words, a person cannot be truly enjoying the act of worship until they love it, and they are submitting to it. And that's why when the Prophet ﷺ says that the best of actions to him was salah. He didn't do it because he had to do it, he did it because he wanted to do it. And there was this act of submitting to Allah.

What Allah Loves - The Common Thread

So I don't want to go over all the verses in the Qur'an where Allah says that He loves this, where He loves this, where He doesn't love this, because that will take forever. But I want to give you a reflection that I thought about.

When you think about all these verses, for example, Allah says, Strive for excellence, because Allah loves the muhsinin, the people who strive for excellence.

And Allah says, Allah loves those who are patient. Allah loves those who are متوكِّلين, those who rely on Allah.

Allah loves those who repent to Him, and who purify themselves physically and spiritually.

So I started thinking, what is the common thread that undergirds all of these verses or hadith that says Allah loves this and Allah loves that. And I came to the simple conclusion, Allah likes for you to be patient, to strive for excellence, and all of these things, because it makes you undergo a certain change.

Allah is constant. In other words, Allah is merciful, and He is always merciful. He doesn't stop being merciful one day. Allah is الكبير, the greatest. And He will always be. He is constant. But we as humans, we are not constant.

And so many times, people strive for perfection or what they perceive is perfection, because they think if they reach that level, that's it. But Allah doesn't want us to be in a stationary, stagnant position. So when you are going through patience, when you are undergoing a trial or tribulation, it is not the pain that Allah likes to see, because Allah is not sadistic. Allah likes to see how you react to that test.

When you are worried about something, and you place your trust in Allah, coming out stronger, that is what Allah likes to see, that change inside of you. When you return to Allah, and you repent to Him, there is great effort for a person to humiliate themselves, and humble themselves to Allah, and submit to acknowledge, I've done something wrong, I need to turn back to Allah. That takes a great deal of effort.

And so this is, Allah knows best, what Allah wants to see in us, to become a better person, to change for the better.

How Do We Know Allah Loves Us?

الحمد لله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على أشرف الأنبياء المرسلين نبينا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين.

In an authentic narration, the Prophet ﷺ tells us, that when Allah loves someone, that when He loves someone, He informs Jibreel, نادى جبريل، إني أحب فلانًا فأحببه I love so and so, so you should love him. And then Jibreel will announce to the أهل السماء, the people of the heaven, the angels. Allah loves so and so, and I love so and so, so you should love them. And all the angels in the heavens will love that person. And then Allah will put the acceptance of that person. The people who are righteous, they will recognize the people of righteousness, and he will gain wide acceptance. And the love of Allah is put in their hearts as well.

So how do we, after talking about what are the things that we should focus on, how do we know as believers, and this is a big question, how do we know as believers, that Allah indeed loves us. At times of difficulty, at times of tragedy, tribulation and trials, we sometimes question, where is Allah in the equation? Where is Allah? Why is He doing this to me?

And I think the first thing that we have to remember as Muslims, is that if you look in the Quran, Allah talks about some of the people of the past, the Jews and the Christians, they would say, That we, some of the Jews and Christians, they would say, we are the children of God. It's a metaphor of saying, we are as beloved to God, as a father is loving his children. And Allah says, So if you're saying, that Allah loves you unconditionally, like a father loves a child, then tell me, why does Allah punish some of you?

In other words, this teaches us that love from Allah is not something that basically whatever we want all the time. So as a result, what does this teach us? It teaches us the concept of we as Muslims would never, and should never, assert that we are forgiven, guaranteed Jannah. No Muslim would ever say that. I'm guaranteed Jannah, I'm automatically going to Jannah. You don't know that. And it is that kind of humility, that makes you strive to do what Allah tells you to do, to do those things that Allah loves, because you're never sure. And that is why Allah tells us to pray five times a day, to get us into that habit.

Sometimes people will say, you know, Allah loves me, for whoever the person is, Allah accepts me for whoever I am, or whoever she is, or whoever he is. And yes, we say that Allah is merciful. But if you look at the verse in the Qur'an, Allah describes Himself as forgiving before He loves.

He is the most forgiving, and the most loving. In other words, in order to get to the love of Allah, you have to submit yourself, and ask Allah for forgiveness, and He is the loving.

Tests as Signs of Allah's Love

Additionally, brothers and sisters, the Prophet ﷺ tells us, that when Allah loves a servant, He will put them through tests, and trials, and tribulations, until they keep passing these tests through their patience, until they are walking on earth like as if they have no sins. And in another narration, it's like as if the leaves falling off a tree, their sins are automatically wiped.

And we have to understand that when Allah puts you through some difficulty, that this difficulty is of two scenarios. Either it is to remove something that you like, or to give you something that you don't like, and to see how you respond. So depending on your response, you will purify yourself, and you will be a better person.

Allah Using You for Good

Finally, brothers and sisters, sometimes Allah shows His love to you, by putting you in specific situations, where He wants to use you for something good.

(Related by Imam Ahmad)

The Prophet ﷺ says, If Allah wants good for something, He loves someone, He will use them. In other words, what? I'll give you a story.

I have a friend of mine, he, many many years ago, he used to visit the jails, the local state jails. He was not Muslim. And the Muslims in the jail were denied getting Qur'an translations. Whereas the Bibles and other books, they were all coming in nice and fast. So out of his love for freedom to read what they want to read, he started contacting different embassies, the Saudi embassy for example, and getting Qur'an translations to bring to the jail, because he thought that that was their constitutional right.

And over these many years, he's passed out thousands of Qur'an. Until I met him, and I started talking to him, and I talked to him about the beauty of Islam, and why he's doing it, and you can tell he was a very sincere Christian gentleman, older gentleman in fact. And then I started talking to him, I said, so do you accept Islam? He says, yeah, but I've just never taken the step. Right there that evening, he said the testimony of faith, and he became Muslim. Allah puts him in these situations to make him a tool, an instrument of change.

Oh Allah, give us the best in this world, and give us the best in the next life, and protect us from the fire.