Seeking the Love of Allah (SWT) - Dr Ahsan Hanif

Khuṭbah Opening

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ تَعَالَى نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا، مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ، وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ، وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ، وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ وَصَفِيُّهُ وَخَلِيلُهُ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَسَلَّمَ تَسْلِيمًا كَثِيرًا

أَمَّا بَعْدُ، فَإِنَّ أَصْدَقَ الْحَدِيثِ كِتَابُ اللَّهِ تَعَالَى، وَخَيْرَ الْهُدَى هُدَى مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ، وَشَرَّ الْأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا، وَكُلَّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ، وَكُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ، وَكُلَّ ضَلَالَةٍ فِي النَّارِ.

Love — A Natural Human Emotion

One of the natural emotions that Allah has placed within us is love. We grow up loving and we live our lives loving people around us. We love our parents, we love our spouses, we love our children. We love those people who throughout our lives we become close with and we develop a connection with them. And at the same time it is also part of human nature that we crave that others love us as well. We crave the approval and love of others and we hope that throughout our lives we will earn their respect and their affection and their love — be they people who we are close to from our family members, or be they people who we come into interaction with and we hope that they approve of us. It is a human desire to want people to approve of you.

Allah mentions in the Qur'an in Surah Ali 'Imran, the 31st verse, that greater than the love that we have for one another, and greater than the love that we expect others or want others to have for us, far greater than all of this is the love that we should have for our Lord and Creator Allah, and the love in turn that we hope that Allah bestows upon us.

Say to them, O Muhammad ﷺ, that if you truly love Allah, then follow me — meaning follow the Prophet ﷺ. Allah will love you in return and He will forgive you for your sins, and indeed Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.

This verse of the Qur'an has many wisdoms and many lessons that we can extrapolate from it. From amongst the greatest of those lessons is that one of the surest ways of attaining the love of Allah is by following the Prophet ﷺ — by following his Sunnah, following his example and his way.

What Does It Mean to Love Allah?

Yet a more fundamental issue that is mentioned in this verse is the concept of the love of Allah. For us to love Allah means that we sacrifice everything for Allah. We submit our will to Allah. We sacrifice our desires and our wants and our preferences for that which Allah has commanded us to do, for that which Allah wants from us. And not only do we do it because it's a burden or an obligation that Allah has placed upon our shoulders, but we do it with the love and the sincerity and the certainty and the hope and the fear that we have within our hearts. And in doing so we hope that in return Allah will love us.

So what does it mean when Allah loves His creation, loves a person? Throughout the Qur'an you will find that Allah says that He loves certain people. He loves the muḥsinīn — those people who do good. He loves the muttaqīn — those people who have taqwa. He loves the people who are ṣābirīn — those people who show and exercise patience. But what does it mean when Allah loves those people? And how does it relate to me and you?

Allah's love, when He loves His creation or He loves a person from amongst His creation, it denotes Allah's approval for them. Allah will shower His blessings upon them and He will shower His mercy and forgiveness upon them. When Allah loves someone — and He loves me and you, inshAllah — that love means that He guides us to that which He is pleased with and He safeguards us from that which will incur His wrath and His anger and His displeasure. When Allah loves you, He guides you to only that which will benefit you in this life and the next. That is the meaning of the love of Allah.

And we spend in our lives so much time and so much effort in trying to gain the love and approval of many people around us. Yet if you were to spend that same amount of time and effort in gaining the love of Allah, then not only would it benefit us in this life and the next, but Allah will automatically — as a result of this — cause us to have the love and approval of those around us. Because their love is secondary and it is complementary to the love of Allah.

The First Hadith: The Hadith al-Qudsi of Allah's Awliya

The Prophet ﷺ gave us two ahadith to highlight and exemplify the love of Allah that He has for His creation. The first hadith is collected in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī on the authority of the great companion Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him — that our Prophet ﷺ said, narrating a Hadith al-Qudsi:

(Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Hadith 6502)

An amazing hadith. Allah says in this Hadith al-Qudsi: Whosoever shows enmity or opposes one of My awliyā' — one of those people that Allah loves in this world — then he has waged war upon Me. He has waged war upon Allah. And My slave or My servant doesn't do anything that is more beloved to Me by which he can seek nearness to Me than the obligatory actions that I have placed upon him — that I have obligated upon him. And My servant continues to do optional deeds, nawāfil, until I love him. And when I love him — and Allah is saying when He loves someone — I become his hearing by which he hears, and his eyesight by which he sees, and his hand by which he touches, and his foot by which he walks. And if he was to ask of Me, then of a surety I would respond. And if he was to seek refuge and protection in Me, then certainly I would give him that protection. And there is nothing that I hesitate more about — Allah is saying — there is nothing that I hesitate more about than taking the life of the believer. For I know that he dislikes death and I dislike to do to him that which he dislikes.

What a powerful, amazing hadith — all of it revolving around the concept of who Allah loves. When Allah loves someone, not only does He give them His approval, but when Allah says that He becomes their hearing and their seeing, it doesn't mean a literal seeing and hearing. But it means that through His divine care and protection and assistance, Allah guides that person so that they only see that which pleases Allah, and only hear that which pleases Allah, and only touch and walk towards that which pleases Allah. And then even if they were to sin — because as humans we all sin — then Allah guides that person to turn back to Allah and seek forgiveness and make repentance to Him. This is the way that Allah loves people. And Allah loves this person to such an extent that even doing something to him which he dislikes — even though it is from the decree of Allah that every single person will taste death — it is something which Allah dislikes in relation to this person, because He knows that it is something which this person dislikes himself.

The Second Hadith: Acceptance on Earth

In another hadith, also narrated by Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, and collected in the two Ṣaḥīḥs of Imam al-Bukhārī and Muslim, may Allah shower His mercy upon both of them, the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Hadith 3209; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Hadith 2637)

Allah, if He wishes to love someone, He calls out to Jibrīl, peace be upon him, and He says to him: "O Jibrīl, indeed I love so-and-so" — not that He loves all of the Muslims in general or all of the ṣābirīn or all of the muḥsinīn, even though Allah does love them all, but relaying it to me and you on an individual basis — Allah says: "O Jibrīl, I love so-and-so," and He takes his or her name. "So love him, O Jibrīl." So Jibrīl loves that person, because he knows that Allah's love for that person is more than enough of a reason, and his love of Allah demands that he loves that person. So then Jibrīl, after loving that person, calls out to the inhabitants of the heavens — to the other angels and the inhabitants of the heavens — and he says to them: "Indeed, our Lord Allah loves so-and-so, so love him." So all of the inhabitants of the heavens love him. And then the Prophet ﷺ said: once they love him, acceptance is written for him upon the earth.

When Allah loves you, everyone else will love you. When Allah loves you, others will respect you and others will admire you, because Allah's love denotes — and by necessity it means — that there will be acceptance for you upon the earth.

Actions Most Beloved to Allah

When you look throughout the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ, from these two ahadith that I have just narrated to you, there are many ahadith that speak about the love of Allah, the way that Allah loves His servants, and the actions and the things that we can do that are beloved to Allah.

The Prophet ﷺ told us in the hadith of Abdullah ibn Mas'ūd, which is collected in Bukhārī and Muslim, that the three most beloved actions to Allah are: that you pray your prayers at its correct and proper time, and then that you show respect and honor to your parents, and then to make jihad in the path of Allah — the correct, lawful, legislated jihad.

(Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Hadith 527; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Hadith 85)

In another hadith, a man from the tribe of Khath'am said — in the Musnad of Abī Ya'lā — that the Prophet ﷺ said the three most beloved actions to Allah are: that you have belief in Allah, and then that you join the ties of your family and kinship, and then that you order the good and you forbid the evil.

Just as the Prophet ﷺ told us in that first hadith — that Allah loves that you do that which He has obligated upon you — there is no greater way of attaining the love of Allah than to fulfill the obligations that Allah has placed upon your shoulders. And once you have fulfilled those obligations, then to do as much as you can from the optional deeds, from the recommended acts of worship in this religion of Islam.

To further highlight this — the Prophet ﷺ said: the most beloved of actions to Allah are those which are most frequent, even if they appear to be small. That which you do regularly — like the five prayers, like fasting every year in Ramaḍān, like the other acts of worship that you do on a regular or semi-regular basis — that is more beloved to Allah even if they seem small to you and insignificant to you.

In another hadith — the hadith of Mu'ādh ibn Jabal in the Ṣaḥīḥ of Ibn Ḥibbān — the Prophet ﷺ said: the most beloved of actions to Allah is that death comes to you at a time whilst your tongue is moist with the remembrance of Allah — that you live a life in which you are connected to Allah, that your heart and your limbs and your tongue they are moist with the remembrance of Allah, that you remember Allah in your heart, you remember Allah through your actions, you remember Allah through your speech and words.

To further highlight this point — in another hadith, the hadith of Ibn Mas'ūd, may Allah be pleased with him — the Prophet ﷺ said: the most beloved of speech to Allah is that you say:

— "Glory be to Allah and all praise is due to Him, and exalted be the name of Allah, and exalted be Allah, and there is no god worthy of worship besides Allah." To make this type of dhikr is the most beloved speech to Allah.

And in another hadith — the hadith of Samurah ibn Jundub, may Allah be pleased with him — the Prophet ﷺ said: the most beloved of speech to Allah are four things:

(Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Hadith 2137)

And then the Prophet ﷺ said: it doesn't matter which of these four you begin with. These are the things which are beloved to Allah. And these things, when you perform these actions — even though they seem to be small — in the sight of Allah they are great. But because they are so great and weighty, many of us still fall short, even though they seem relatively easy when I say them upon my tongue; they roll off very easily, they sound very simple. But most of us struggle to attain this level because we have not yet attained that discipline and that strong imān in Allah that allows us to reach those heights.

Other Things Beloved to Allah

Allah wants us to love Him and wants us to sacrifice for Him so that in return Allah will shower His love and acceptance upon us. And if you look throughout the Sunnah, it is not just actions and statements that the Prophet ﷺ said are from the most beloved things to Allah, but there are many other things. For example, the Prophet ﷺ said: the most beloved of places to Allah are His masājid — the houses of Allah — and the most despised places to Allah are the marketplaces.

In another hadith — the hadith of Jābir, may Allah be pleased with him — the Prophet ﷺ said: the most beloved type of food to Allah is that in which many hands partake and share — that which you share with others; that food is the most beloved to Allah.

In yet another hadith, the Prophet ﷺ said — collected in the Sunan of Imam al-Tirmidhī — the most beloved names to Allah are the names Abdullah and Abdurraḥmān.

Throughout the Sunnah you find these types of ahadith, but all of them bring us back to that single central point that I began this khuṭbah with — and that is that we as humans crave the love and attention and approval of others, and sometimes in doing so we neglect the greater love that we should seek and the greater attention that we should seek: and that is the love of Allah. We should want and crave Allah to love us more than we want acceptance and love from anyone else.

The Central Theme of the Prophet's Life ﷺ

If you were to analyze the life of the Prophet ﷺ and you were to study every single point and every single facet and every single issue in his lifetime, you would find that the Prophet ﷺ himself — and in the way that he taught and nurtured and instructed his companions, and then by extension the way that he wanted us, me and you, to live our lives — it goes back to that central theme of attaining the love of Allah. Everything we do in this life — the worship that we perform, the imān that we have within our hearts, the different struggles and sacrifices that we make, even if it is for our families or those things that Allah has made ḥalāl for us in this life — it is in that hope that Allah will shower His love upon us. Because we know that if Allah loves us and He is pleased with us, then He will enter us into Jannah. Allah will not punish someone that He loves. Allah will not punish someone that He is pleased with. And this is the goal of our life — it is our vision and our mission statement in this life: to attain the love of Allah. Because if you have attained that pleasure and love of Allah, then everything else in this life and in the eternity of the next life becomes easy for you. You will be successful.

The Most Beloved People to Allah: Those Who Benefit Others

The Prophet ﷺ, when he spoke in his Sunnah about the people that Allah most loves — not the actions or the statements or the places or the type of food, but the people, the comprehensive way that me and you should be, the character that we should have — he said in the hadith of Usāmah ibn Sharīk, collected in the Mu'jam al-Kabīr of al-Ṭabarānī:

(Al-Mu'jam al-Kabīr lil-Ṭabarānī)

The most beloved of people to Allah are those best in character — those best in character: the way that they speak, the way that they act, the way that they interact, the way that they react when other people come to them with their statements and their actions. Your character — the way that you hold yourself, the way that you show Islam externally and internally — that is what Allah loves most. And that is why the Prophet ﷺ told us that there will be nothing heavier on the scales on Yawm al-Qiyāmah than good character — something we take for granted, something which we don't think twice about often, yet it is one of the heaviest things upon the scales of Allah on the Day of Judgment.

The Prophet ﷺ told us in another hadith — the hadith of Abdullah ibn Umar, may Allah be pleased with them both — highlighting this point about the most beloved people to Allah:

(Al-Mu'jam al-Awsaṭ lil-Ṭabarānī; also referenced in Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, Qadā' al-Ḥawā'ij)

The most beloved of people to Allah are those who are most beneficial to others — those who are most helpful to others. And this should make us stop and pause. The most beloved people to Allah are those who help others, those who are most beneficial to others, those who are most caring towards others. And then he said ﷺ: and the most beloved of actions to Allah is happiness that you enter into the heart of your fellow brother or sister, or you remove from them some hardship, or you repay for them a debt, or you feed them because they are going hungry. And then he said ﷺ: and if I — meaning the Prophet ﷺ — if I was to go with one of my brothers or sisters, a fellow Muslim, and I was to help them finish something that they were doing, remove some type of hardship from them, it would be more beloved to me than making i'tikāf in my masjid for one whole month — not Green Lane Masjid, not a masjid in the UK, but Masjid al-Nabawī, the Mosque of the Prophet ﷺ in Madīnah. And then he said ﷺ: whoever suppresses his anger, Allah will place His veil upon him. And whoever suppresses his anger — even though they may be able to exact their revenge if they chose to do so — then Allah will fill their heart with hope on the Day of Judgment. And whosoever walks with one of their fellow brothers or sisters helping them in their affairs, then Allah will make their feet firm on the Day that everyone else's feet will slip — meaning on the Day of Judgment.

How amazing is this hadith! Simply to help another Muslim, simply to relieve some distress from them, simply to give them a meal or some clothing if that's what they require, or to assist them in some way, shape or form — it is from the greatest and most beloved actions to Allah. And that is why al-Imām Ibn al-Qayyim, may Allah have mercy on him, said: if Allah forgave a person for all of their past sins simply because they found a thirsty dog and they gave it some water, then how about those who feed hungry people and water thirsty people and clothe and provide for the needy and the poor? Wouldn't Allah forgive them even more? Wouldn't Allah shower His mercy upon them even more? If this is the way that He treats kindness to an animal, then what about our fellow humans?

Conclusion and Appeal for Nepal

And so it is in this regard, at the conclusion of this khuṭbah, that I want to stress this point about attaining the love of Allah — and how in our lives it is one of the most crucial, if not the most crucial, thing that we need to strive for: to attain the love of Allah.

And then in relation to this, and to the final hadith that I just mentioned — today's collection after Ṣalāt al-Jumu'ah, the proceeds from it will go to our brothers and sisters and the people of Nepal who are suffering because of the earthquake that took place there just a few days ago. And Allah knows, and the brothers and sisters you too know, that we require your funds for this masjid and we require your donations to help us continue the work of our masjid. But there are times and situations when things occur across the world that they also have a right upon us. And so we think that it is only appropriate and befitting that, inshAllah, what we have today from the collection after Ṣalāt al-Jumu'ah — all of it will go for our fellow brothers and sisters and the people of Nepal. So I will ask you to donate generously, understanding and realizing what I have just mentioned in this hadith, and also in the hopes of attaining the love of Allah.

Du'ā'

We ask Allah by His Most Beautiful Names and Lofty Attributes that He makes us from amongst those people who love Him and sacrifice our lives in the pursuit of love for Him, and that in return Allah showers His love and His blessings and His mercy and His forgiveness upon us — not just upon us, but upon our families and our parents, our children, our spouses.

We ask Allah that He relieves the difficulty and hardships of all of the people across the world — our brothers and sisters in places like Syria and Gaza and in places like Nepal. And we ask Allah that He makes our affairs easy for us and that Allah grants us the highest levels of Jannah.