Allah's Love: The Ultimate Priority And Test

Opening

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ، الحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ، الحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَكَفَى، وَسَلَامٌ عَلَى عِبَادِهِ الَّذِينَ اصْطَفَى، أَمَّا بَعْدُ

Allah, who is our creator, has granted us this heart, and one of the beautiful af'ālun qulūb — or actions of the heart — is that this heart Allah has given us has the ability to have ḥubb and love. This attribute, this action of the heart of loving Allah, has directed us that as believers, this fi'āl of ḥubb, this act of love of the heart, should be dedicated for Him.

The love for anyone else that we may have — starting even with the Prophet ﷺ, moving down to parents, spouse, children, friends — the love for anyone besides Allah has to be under the umbrella of the love of Allah and love of Allah alone.

The Supreme Love Belongs to Allah

Allah mentions in the āyah:

Those who are the true believers — ashaddu ḥubban lillāh — their most strong love, the most supreme love that they have, is for Allah, more than anyone else, more than anything else of this world.

And Rasulullah ﷺ, among his masnūn du'ās — the du'ās that he asked from Allah, the blessings that he asked from Allah — he asked Allah:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhī, Hadith 3490)

O Allah, make it such that Your love is the most supreme love in my heart — that I love You more than anyone else, more than anything else.

And if we love Rasulullah ﷺ, we love him as he was the messenger of Allah, as a sent one from Allah. And if we love our parents, if we love our spouses, if we love our children, we love them as we have been commanded by Allah to love them — as this is the order of Allah to take care of them, to fulfill the responsibilities that Allah has given us.

And the test comes when anyone besides Allah — whether they are a spouse, whether they are children — if they ask from us something that will end up in disobeying Allah: will we give preference to the demands of our worldly beloveds, or will we give preference to the order of Allah, who is our most beloved? This is where the test comes. And many times we find, unfortunately, we fail in this test, and we suffer the result of that failure in this dunyā before we suffer in the ākhirah.

There is a hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ that whoever sacrifices the orders of Allah — violates the orders of Allah — in order to please a worldly beloved, then as a punishment for that, Allah, who is supposed to be the sole Rabb and we are supposed to be His slaves, since we have preferred others' pleasure over His pleasure, as a result Allah will make us enslaved to those very individuals. And we see this happening, unfortunately, with our own beloved children.

Children and Wealth as Fitna

Allah mentioned that our children are a test for us, just as our wealth is a test for us:

Verily, your wealth and your children — they are a fitna. And what is the meaning of fitna? Fitna is such a test in which it becomes apparent who is mukhliss — who is sincere and who is insincere, who is loyal to Allah and who is not loyal to Allah. That test itself is known as a fitna.

In our common language we might refer to different places of sin where it is difficult to obey the order of Allah — a very compromising situation. We'll say, "Oh, that particular location, there is a lot of fitna there." A person had to go to a trade show in Las Vegas for his business — he'll say, "Oh, there was a lot of fitna there." Somebody will say, "Oh, in universities there is a lot of fitna, on college campuses," or, "On so-and-so beach there is a lot of fitna." What does that mean? It actually means that in those given circumstances, it is very, very difficult for a person to guard his gaze or protect himself from falling into ḥarām. So any such condition where it becomes difficult to follow the deen is called a fitna.

And that is why the a'ẓam ul-fitan — the greatest of all fitnas — is which one? Dajjāl — sharru ghā'ibin yuntaẓar. And why is Dajjāl a fitna? Because when Dajjāl will come, it will be very, very difficult to save oneself. It will be very easy to fall into the trap of Dajjāl. And Nabi ﷺ, for example, when warning us — subḥānAllāh — he will be given so much power that Rasulullah ﷺ is warning us: do not fall into the wrong belief that he is your lord, he is your Rabb. And then he gives such an 'alāmah and sign which might seem so obvious. Rasulullah ﷺ said: watch out — Dajjāl, he is one-eyed, and your Lord is not one-eyed.

At first glance it seems like — obviously our Lord is not one-eyed, why do you need to tell me that Dajjāl is one-eyed and Allah is not one-eyed, so he is not Allah? Why would I even think he is ever Allah? No — that's how bad the fitna will be. By bringing the dead back to life, bringing life to death, having jannah and jahannam and controlling the environment and weather and all of these powers he will have — which is called istidrāj. It's not a mu'jizah. Mu'jizāt are given to the anbiyā, and istidrāj are supernatural feats that are granted to the enemies of Allah — not the friends of Allah, not the awliyā' Allāh, but the a'dā' Allāh. So he will have such supernatural powers that it will be very easy to end up believing in him to be Allah — to the extent that such a warning had to be given: watch out, he is one-eyed, he is not Allah, because that's how easy it is to start believing he is Allah. So that is a fitna.

So when Allah says إِنَّمَا أَمْوَالُكُمْ وَأَوْلَادُكُمْ فِتْنَةٌ — the reason I was explaining this: if someone will say, "Oh, my beautiful little innocent children, masum bache, so cute — how can they be a fitna?" Because the word fitna has a negative connotation, something bad or evil. They are not evil. In fact they are innocent. Technically they are innocent, because their book of sins is not even open yet. The kirāman kātibīn — يَعْلَمُونَ مَا تَفْعَلُونَ — who start writing down the sins and the good deeds — only the good-deed angel has clocked in and started writing the good deeds; the angel who writes the sins has not even started his shift. So 100%, they have not committed anything — they are masum. And why does Allah say they are a fitna? They themselves are not the fitna. The love that you have in your heart for them — that is the test for you. So the love you have for the wealth is a test. The love you have for the children is a test.

Just like this will help answer the objections of the feminist and others who are haters on the sharī'ah and the Islamic law and misinterpret the words of Rasulullah ﷺ — when Rasulullah ﷺ is warning the men about fitnatun nisā'. The liberal feminist, when they attack these aḥādīth, they say: "Are you trying to say that Nabi ﷺ said he is afraid for this ummah about the fitnatun nisā' — the fitna of women? So women are inherently evil creatures, sources of fitna?" No — that's not it. They are the way Allah created them. The fitna is the attraction and the love the man has for the woman, or the lust he may have for a woman, which will make him end up disobeying Allah. And if you have a problem being labeled a fitna — well guess what? Innocent children are also a fitna. It's not even just a hadith — it's a Quranic āyah: إِنَّمَا أَمْوَالُكُمْ وَأَوْلَادُكُمْ فِتْنَةٌ. Your awlād, your innocent children — no one is saying they are evil, but they are also a fitna. So you are also a fitna. Men are a fitna for women, women are a fitna for men, or — naūdhubillāh — today anyone may be a fitna for anyone.

So wherever your inclination is towards — hopefully the opposite gender, or same gender — whatever the inclination is to commit any sin, that inclination itself is the fitna. The test is: are you going to fulfill the desire of the object of your love, or are you going to fulfill the desire of Allah? If they coincide, then you are in no problem. But if they are in conflict, that is where the test is. And the test is that we have to explain to the worldly beloved: "I love you very, very, very much. However, I love Allah. You can even go so far as to say: I have to love Allah more than I love you." If they start feeling jealous against Allah, then we have bigger problems — how can you feel jealous against Allah?

The Example of the Prophet ﷺ and Sayyidah Aisha

Rasulullah ﷺ — we have all the different aḥādīth — when he enters the house, he is smiling. He asks where she drank from the cup so he can drink from the same place. He asks where she bit the meat off the bone so he can bite from the same place. Sometimes he is racing with her — all of these things. But Sayyidah Āisha says: "When Bilāl would call the adhān — Allāhu Akbar — he would become such that it was as if he didn't even know who we were anymore. He didn't recognize us. We became strangers. He responds to the call of Allah."

Now if you say, "Hey, I'm jealous — why do you love Allah more than me?" — then we have, as I said, bigger problems to address. You cannot be jealous against Allah. In fact, the husband and wife should tell each other, the brothers should tell each other, the partners should tell each other, friends should tell each other, that in all circumstances we need to and should always remind each other to love Allah more than we love anyone else. And in fact: "If I start loving you or loving anyone more than Allah, you need to remind me — if you truly love me — for the sake of Allah, to love Allah more."

The Khullat of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq

Among the aḥādīth in which Rasulullah ﷺ is giving the virtue — among the manāqib of Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه — among his virtues, if you look at the wording of the hadith, it actually indicates that he is not calling him his best friend, yet it is still considered one of his virtues. How so? He ﷺ says: "If I would have anyone who is my khalīl — such that his love is supreme and supersedes everyone else's love — if there would have been such a friend besides my Lord, then it would have been Abu Bakr."

What does that mean if you complete the statement? It means: since there is no one who is my khalīl besides Allah, therefore Abu Bakr is not my khalīl. However, if I would have a khalīl besides Allah, it would have been Abu Bakr. So this shows that khullah at that level is reserved only for Allah.

All Friendships Without Taqwa End in Enmity

The khullah that we have for anyone else — the friendship that we have for anyone else — will actually, by default, end up in enmity. With one exception: if it is based on taqwā. But the default is enmity. Where do we get this? Is this a very pessimistic, morbid understanding? No — that is the Quranic understanding. Allah uses the same word khalīl — akhillāh, the plural — all the akhillāh, friends of this world:

For each one, they will be enemies on the Yawm al-Qiyāmah — they will be enemies — illal muttaqīn, with the exception of those whose friendship is based on taqwā. Otherwise, every other khalīl is going to end up in 'adāwah — enmity. So all other friendships that are not based on taqwā, on reminding one another to please Allah, for the sake of Allah — fillāhi lillāhi — subḥānAllāh, as a very comprehensive statement:

"By Allah, I love you for the sake of Allah and for the pleasure of Allah." So then that friendship will be beneficial. Otherwise, every other friendship, every other relationship will be a source of regret — yawm al-ḥasrati wal-nadāmah.

The Joy of Being Beloved to Allah

And not to have such a sad feeling — on the other hand, we can have a happy feeling. Imagine if we truly love Allah for the sake of Allah and we become the beloved of Allah — how joyous and happy our existence could be.

Imagine if there is an ultimate rags-to-riches story where there is a poor girl from a village who is swept up by the prince of the kingdom — some real-life Cinderella story. Now when she goes into the palace and becomes the queen, she sees the beautiful gardens, the palaces, the kingdom, the army. What is going to be her feeling in her heart? "All of this belongs to my beloved husband, to the king, and I am his queen." So she has this sense of happiness and contentment when she looks around.

Allah is above and beyond any example — but if a person is beloved to Allah and loves Allah for the sake of Allah, and his heart is filled with the love of Allah to such a level that now Allah is loving him or her — then when they look around the creation, when they look at the samāwāti wal-arḍi wa mā fīhinna wa man fīhinna — the heavens and the earth, whatever is between them that is living, and whatever is between them that is non-living — they see that this is all the creation of their beloved Allah. Whatever conditions are coming, they are the conditions brought by their beloved Allah:

Nothing happens without the will of Allah, without the permission of Allah. And they will be at ultimate peace with themselves and with the entire creation. They are rāḍī bi qaḍā'il qāḍī — pleased with the decree of the greatest judge of all, Allah. This state is known as nafs ul-muṭma'innah — the state of the nafs which is muṭma'innah billāh.

Or the nafs which is muṭma'in, which is at complete peace and in a state of permanent contentment with whatever is the decree of Allah. Then Allah will call that nafs back: Irji'ī ilā rabbiki — "Now return back to your Lord. The time of your exam has finished. Now is the time for your reward."

Rāḍiyatan mardiyyah — such that you are pleased on your own, and mardiyyah meaning Allah is trying to ensure your happiness and your pleasure as well. Rāḍiyah is the one who themselves are happy, and mardiyyah is the one that Allah is trying to make even more happy. Like Allah mentions about the Ṣaḥābah — رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُمْ وَرَضُوا عَنْهُ — they are pleased with Allah, that's rāḍiyah; and Allah is pleased with them, that's mardiyyah.

Fadkhulī fī 'ibādī — "Now you enter into My selected servants." Fadkhulī jannatī — "Enter into My Jannah." So this is the condition of the one who is pleased with the decree of Allah. That is the individual who will have no grief in this world. There may be temporary moments of grief and sadness as a human being, but they will come to terms very quickly. They will realize that whatever is happening is happening with the decree of their beloved Allah. Whenever any blessings are granted to them, instead of becoming arrogant, this will lead to shukr. And whatever tests and calamities come in their life, instead of leading to ya's and depression or losing hope, that will inspire them to have ṣabr and to be patient.

So this is the enjoyable experience of life for the one who is truly in love with Allah. This is the secret to the happiness in our earthly existence, which will also lead to the eternal bliss in Jannatul Firdaus. And that is why Rasulullah ﷺ begged Allah for this and asked Allah for this.

Worldly Love Must Be Rooted in Allah

And now the rest of the love that we have for everyone else — it will also be long-lasting. It will be more secure, more permanent, if it is only for the sake of Allah. If the love is for any worldly reason, then that worldly reason may fluctuate, may increase and may decrease. If the love is for wealth, the wealth may come and go. If the love is for beauty, the beauty may come and go — more likely it will be going rather than coming. So these are all the temporary, temporal reasons of this worldly material life that people have attachments to.

And in general, moving down from the ishq ḥaqīqī — the love of Allah — even the ishq majāzī, worldly love between individuals, is something which is very rapidly disappearing. Because the day and age we are living in — the age of individualism — it is only about me, myself, and I. Even at a worldly level, that level of sacrifice, that level of attachment to individuals where you have happiness and satisfaction in serving others, serving your beloved, is going away. Even taking Allah out of the picture, even at a worldly level, instead of having love there is more about lust — immediate gratification and fulfillment of one's shahwah and desire. Baṭnī baṭnī, farjī farjī, jayibī jayibī, mālī mālī — my money, my shahwah, my needs, my desires — rather than self-sacrifice, loyalty, and devotion. So these are things we need to talk about, remind ourselves, and teach our children.

The Joy of Serving the Beloved

SubḥānAllāh — when there is genuine love, then there is an enjoyment that comes in serving the beloved. We see the words of Abu Bakr al-Ṣiddīq رضي الله عنه during the Hijrah. In the middle of the journey, when they were travelling in the desert and he got the milk from the goat of Umm Ma'bad — a longer story — but at one part he says: "Rasulullah ﷺ was drinking from the milk, and I was feeling the satisfaction." SubḥānAllāh — he is drinking the milk and I am feeling the satisfaction.

And just as Allah mentions in the Quran:

This āyah refers to the Anṣār and the Muhājirūn — the Anṣār and the guests of Allah. They prefer others over themselves, even if they are in loss. They are not only preferring others because it is a command of Allah — they actually truly are enjoying the internal level of satisfaction of remaining hungry by feeding others. It's at a very deep level. If you have the opportunity to eat food and someone is hungry, versus actually feeling more satisfied by feeding the beloved and remaining hungry yourself — this may be hard to imagine.

The Hadith of Aisha and the Mother with Two Daughters

Maybe one example that comes to mind that makes it easier is Āisha رضي الله عنها, since she was childless. She had never had the joy of being a mother or having children. So she was astonished by an incident. She said: "O Rasulallah, today something strange happened." Rasulullah ﷺ said: "What happened, O Āisha?" She said: "Today a beggar came with two daughters."

So she said: "There was one mother and two daughters. I gave them three dates. The two daughters quickly put the dates in their mouths. The mother gave one daughter a date — she ate it. She gave the other daughter a date — she ate it. Then she took out her own date. But as she looked, they were both looking at her. A mother — as long as she has her natural disposition — fiṭratullāh illatī faṭaran nāsa 'alayhā — so she took her last date, broke it in two, gave half to one daughter, half to the other, and returned with no date."

So then Rasulullah ﷺ said: "See — this is the love that Allah has placed in the heart of the mother for her children." And he said that he loves his ummah more than 70 mothers, and he makes du'ā for us.

Our Natural Fitrah and How It Has Been Corrupted

We have to add exceptions to every statement we make. Somebody will say, "Did you just say all mothers love their children? What about this news article — a mother who took her children and drowned them?" Yes — this is because her fiṭrah was corrupted. This is not the natural fiṭrah — fiṭratullāh illatī faṭaran nāsa 'alayhā. The natural disposition that is supposed to be there is that motherly love. But in some cases, even that most natural instinct has now been corrupted.

Why do we have Child Protective Services in this country to protect kids from parents? People who come from abroad will say, "This is a ẓālim agency — there was a genuine accident, they came and they robbed me of my child." You may have heard such horror stories: the government came and took my child. Maybe someone was ironing his thawb for Jumu'ah, left it, and the iron fell and burned the baby. Now they're taking my child. But the reason such an agency exists in the first place is precisely because this most natural instinct — parents loving and caring for their children — has, in some cases, been destroyed. So parents are committing crimes and violence against their own kids. That's the reason the agency exists.

So our fiṭrah has changed drastically from the way Allah had made us. This heart was made to love — and it was made to love whom? Allah. And to love the rest of the creation of Allah under the umbrella of love for Allah.

Closing Du'ā

We ask from Allah that He grants us His true love and that He gives us loving relationships with the fellow creation — our parents, children, spouses, neighbors, and friends. And that all of the love that we have with His creation is love for His sake and for His pleasure. Āmīn.

Announcements

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We have a very important announcement for tonight. We are inviting all high school and college students to join us for our Youth Night — Friday, September 16th, tonight. We will be having guest speakers from IFS School and CPSA — Sheikh Ridwan, Qari Noorman — and our scholars here, Mufti Azeem Uddin and Brother Ali Siddiqui. We have an amazing lineup. This is a program about going back to school, how to preserve our deen on campus, and what are some of the challenges the youth are facing. I encourage everyone to send your sons and daughters for this program.

We are excited to announce our annual Quran Night and Benefit Dinner, where we listen to qirā'ah in the masjid and we have a beautiful dinner — Saturday, September 24th. We have some new qurrā' coming in this time: Sheikh Hamza Wardak and Qari Abdul Basit Qazi from Canada. This will be an amazing opportunity to hear live, beautiful qirā'ah and participate in this program.

Our weekly Bukhārī Dars has begun on Monday nights after 'Ishā Ṣalāh. Tuesday nights: Tafsīr program after 'Ishā Ṣalāh. Sūrah Ṭāhā will be completed — last session for Sūrah Ṭāhā. Saturday Team Fajr program will be continuing tomorrow — Fajr Iqāmah at 6 a.m., followed by community breakfast.

Du'ā for the Uyghur Muslims

There are requests for du'ā. One of our Uyghur brothers in our community is requesting us to make du'ā for the Muslims in East Turkestan, also known as Xinjiang Province in China-occupied territory. They have been suffering violent oppression for a long time. The newest development he is mentioning is that different apartment complexes are being blockaded by soldiers under the pretext of COVID isolation, and people are being starved and shot if they try to escape.

Let us make du'ā for our suffering Muslims in the occupied region of western China — the Uyghur Muslims. May Allah grant them relief from their suffering. May Allah hold the ẓālimīn accountable for their ẓulm. May Allah grant the oppressed great rewards for their ṣabr. May Allah make it a means of forgiveness of all their sins and elevation of their status. May Allah grant them relief, and may Allah make it a means of forgiveness and ultimate victory. Āmīn.