What Allah (SWT) Loves | Mufti Abdul Rahman Waheed | Miftaah Circle

What Allah Loves

Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. Nahmduhu wa nuṣalli 'alā rasūlihi wa nusallim. Ammā ba'd.

Qāla Allahu 'azza wa jall fī kitābihi al-'azīz, ba'da a'ūdhu billāhi min ash-shayṭān ir-rajīm, Bismillāh ir-Rahmān ir-Rahīm:

Say: "It is the grace of Allah and His mercy — so in that let them rejoice. It is better than what they accumulate."

And on the authority of Mu'adh ibn Jabal رضي الله تعالى عنه, he said: A man came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, "O Messenger of Allah, what is Iman?" The Messenger of Allah ﷺ replied:

If your good deed pleases you and your evil deed grieves you, then you are a believer. (Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 22139; also referenced by Ibn al-Qayyim)

The Things Allah Loves

My dear friends, brothers and sisters in Islam — my younger brother Mufidul Wahab gave me a topic a few weeks ago, and the topic's title was Allah loves. And from the moment he gave me this title, I started thinking about all the different things Allah loves — all the different qualities, all the different attributes, all the different places, all the different things in the world Allah loves.

Finally I came to the conclusion that there's one thing that we don't get reminded enough about — what Allah loves. We get reminded about many of the other things:

إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ التَّوَّابِينَ — Allah loves those who repent.
إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ الْمُقْسِطِينَ — Allah loves those who are fair.
إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ الْمُتَطَهِّرِينَ — Allah loves those who are pure.

These things we hear, and these are good things. But there's something I want to share with you today.

A Father's Love at the Ice Rink

I was just in Michigan — just drove here. Two of my sons play ice hockey, they're 11 years old and 8 years old. And we're of course brown, so ice hockey is not in our blood. We just put them in ice hockey because we grew up playing hockey and we want our kids to be away from the television and the iPad and all that. But my two sons are the worst players on their team — and I don't miss any opportunity to tell them they suck.

Every single time I watch them, I dread it, because they're just like dragging their feet on the ice, rolling around. The coach puts them on when it's like 5-0 — I think the game's already over, garbage time, they're on. I'm not a good father — I've probably watched 3 or 4 of their games max this entire season.

But interestingly, subhanAllah, every single game I watched — it was the only game they won, subhanAllah! On the way to the rink I always tell my son: I love you, play good, play hard. And in his heart he's probably thinking, "My dad's watching me today, he's standing there — I gotta make him proud." The first game my son scored a goal was when I was standing there. He scored another goal in the same game. He hasn't scored a goal since — because I've never gone to his game since then.

My other son Yusuf — today I was at his game, they finally won, and he played the best. So I started thinking: how comforting it is to tell someone you love them. It doesn't matter what situation they're in — just tell them "I love you." It makes them feel better.

When my youngest brother passed away, people were hugging us and telling us "I love you," and it made you feel so good. Us brothers were crying on each other's shoulders and reminding each other about how much we love each other.

A Reminder of Allah's Love for Us

Sometimes we need a reminder about how much Allah loves us. The Quran was sent down to this world, the Prophet ﷺ was sent to this world — and all of this was an expression of how much Allah loves you and I.

The fact that all of us are sitting here for the last 2 or 3 hours is a sign that Allah loves me right now. And I want to tell you:

A person who is in the pursuit of obedience, then Paradise is pursuing that person. And a person who is in the pursuit of disobedience, then Jahannam is following that person.

The fact that we're all sitting here in this gathering, listening to the words of Allah, this is a sign that Allah loves me right now. And if any one of us — our soul leaves our body right now — it is highly likely that, inshallah, we'll be among those who are pious and righteous in the eyes of Allah, because we died doing something that Allah loves. There is nothing to be shy about, nothing to be remorseful about — we passed away in this condition.

The Story of Ubayy ibn Ka'b

The Prophet ﷺ once was sitting down and he called Ubayy ibn Ka'b رضي الله عنه and he said to him: "I want to recite Quran to you." This alerted Ubayy ibn Ka'b — imagine the Prophet ﷺ saying "I want to recite Quran to you." Ubayy said, "Really?" He said, "Yes, I have been commanded by Allah to recite Quran to you" — in one narration it was Surah al-Bayyinah.

And Ubayy ibn Ka'b said — in one narration — أَسَمَّانِي رَبِّي؟ and in another narration أَسَمَّانِي رَبِّي فِي الْمَلَإِ الْأَعْلَى؟ — "Did Allah take my name? Did Allah use my name and say, 'O Rasulullah ﷺ, go ask Ubayy ibn Ka'b to listen to you'?" And the Prophet ﷺ said, "Yes, He said your name." And Ubayy ibn Ka'b started crying out of happiness.

When he was narrating this story, his student Abdur Rahman ibn Ya'la asked him: "O teacher, why are you crying? Are these tears of joy?" And he said, "Yes." And he recited this verse I recited to you:

Say: it is the فَضْلُ اللَّهِ — the grace of Allah — it is the mercy of Allah. And because it is the فَضْلُ اللَّهِ and the mercy of Allah that we have come here today, He is saying you should be happy. There should be tears of joy — "O Allah, you let me come here today to express how much you love me." It doesn't matter how bad I am. It doesn't matter how many sins I committed earlier today or yesterday. The fact that I came here today to listen to the words of Allah and His Messenger ﷺ is a sign that Allah loves me.

Umar ibn al-Khattab: Loved Before He Even Said the Kalimah

Umar ibn al-Khattab was not even Muslim when the Prophet ﷺ made du'a: "O Allah, give Islam or Iman to one of these two people — the one you love more." What had Umar done at that point? He had not even said the kalimah at that point. But the fact is, Allah loved him more — for the potential that he had, for what he was going to do in his life — and Allah then gave Islam and Iman to this person.

The Earth, the Angels, and Allah's Mercy

It comes in a narration that Ibn al-Qayyim, rahimahullah, mentions in Madārij al-Sālikīn, which is mentioned in the book of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal:

(Madārij al-Sālikīn, Ibn al-Qayyim; based on narrations in Musnad Ahmad)

There is not a single day that goes by that the earth, the water in the ocean, do not ask Allah: "O Allah, these servants of yours are disobeying you so much — allow us to destroy them."

Even the angels get to a point where they beg Allah: "O Allah, let us punish them right now." And Allah says:

"Leave my servant alone. These are my people. I know more about them — when I created them, I love them."

And then He goes on in the hadith Qudsi, saying: if this servant of mine comes walking to me, I'll come running to that person.

If he comes close to me — or she comes close to me — by one inch, I'll come one arm's length close to that person. They come one arm's length, I'll come one fathom close to that person. If they come walking, I'll come running. If they come at night, I'll forgive them at night. If they come in the morning, I'll forgive them in the morning. This is out of the love that Allah has for us.

The Parable of the Lost Camel

And Allah gets so happy when — as we're sitting here today saying, "You know what, I want to change my life" — how happy does Allah get? The Prophet ﷺ gives an example: A person is in the middle of a desert. He is traveling in a dangerous place — there is no water, there is no food, and everything he has is on the back of a camel. He ties the camel to a branch of a tree, takes some rest in the middle of the day, wakes up, and the camel is missing.

He has no water, no food, nothing. He gets up and starts looking for the camel — looks one place, looks the other, keeps looking all day until it becomes night. At this point he becomes hopeless. He comes back to that tree where he was initially resting, waiting for death. "There is nowhere I can go now."

May Allah help and bless all those that were affected in Turkey and Syria — those people who were buried and finally came out, we have seen the pictures.

So he sleeps now. And then when he wakes up, all of a sudden he sees the camel that he owns — with all of the belongings, the water, the food, and everything — and the rope is tied back to the branch of the tree. He is so shocked and so happy that he says: "O Allah, I am your Rabb and you are my servant!" — out of sheer happiness he forgets to say "O Allah, you are my Rabb and I am your servant."

And then the Prophet ﷺ says: Allah is even more happy than this person — when a person who comes back to Him says "O Allah, forgive me, I am back again." He is so happy at that moment. The whole Quran is a message of Allah's love for us, and Allah is telling us over and over again: "I am waiting for you, I am giving you all these different opportunities."

The Story of Kifil from Bani Isra'il

Imam al-Tirmidhi gives a narration of a person in Bani Isra'il whose name was Kifil, and he was a young man — a big sinner. One night he wanted to buy the services of a woman, so he gave her 60 dinar. He comes to the room and she is sitting there crying. He says, "Why are you crying? Is everything okay?" She says, "Well, I have never done this in my life before, but poverty has driven me to this point where I am doing this now." So he starts to cry and says, "Sister, take the 60 dinar. Wallahi, I will never go back to sins again." And then she leaves.

That same night he passes away. Imagine — his life after asking for forgiveness must have been just a few hours. This person, if he died like this, everyone knew he was a great sinner in town; nobody would even touch his body or bury him. But Allah — out of love for this person, and because He was so happy that he finally came back to Allah's doorstep — He miraculously made it written on the wall of this person's house:

(Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2496)

"Allah has forgiven Kifil." In the morning, everyone who walked by the house saw the statement, and they all went and prepared his body for his funeral.

How Much Do You Love Allah?

Brothers and sisters, the story of the Quran — the message of the Quran — is this: Allah loves you. Now the question is: how much do I love Allah? Allah is so close to us, but how close am I to Allah?

The way to know this is just one basic thing. You want to know how close you are to Allah? You want to know how much you actually love Allah? One measurable way is: how much do you enjoy speaking to Allah? That's it.

If I love somebody, I could speak to that person for 3 or 4 hours and I would not even know the time went by. If someone I love calls me, I keep talking. But if a telemarketer calls — you hang up. Brothers and sisters in Islam, the Quran is Allah's conversation with us — Allah's love for us — and how much do we love Allah? This is expressed in our conversation with Allah.

Suleyman al-Darwani: A Conversation with Allah

I did not use the word "du'a" because the word "du'a" can feel heavy. When you meet someone you love, it's natural — what's going on, how are you doing — there is this expression of love and joy. The people of the past who loved Allah would just have a straight conversation with Allah.

Suleyman al-Darwani used to at night have a conversation with Allah all night and cry. He would say:

He would say, "O Allah, if you present my sins in front of me and say, 'Suleyman, what are these sins?' I'll say: 'O Allah, where is your forgiveness?' And if you reply, 'Suleyman, but where is your tawbah?' I say: 'O Allah, you don't need my tawbah — you are so generous you can forgive me anyway.'"

And then he would say to Allah:

"And if you O Allah throw me in Jahannam, I will even there tell everyone: I love you."

One of the salaf, when leaving this world, was saying:

"O Allah, I used to disobey you, but I still loved you."

Thabit al-Bunani: Asking to Cry

Thabit al-Bunani was asked, when he was sitting down talking to Allah quietly, privately, crying: "What are you asking from Allah?" He said:

"I want — I am asking Allah — that I can cry in front of Him so much that my tears dry up and I can no longer cry in front of Him."

Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz: Whose Tears Would Keep His Family Awake

Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, rahimahullah, would have conversations with Allah all night. You know how some people their snoring keeps you awake? His crying would keep his family awake. His tears — you know, a poet says:

Ab ishq mein unki khatir hum aankhon se lahu barsayenge,
Jab ishq hai unka dil mein mere, phir kyun na hume tarpayenge,
Aata hai mujhe nalo mein maza, ay zahid na tanz na kar —

He says: when you love Allah, the love of Allah in the heart drives the tears out of the eyes. He says: "I actually enjoy these tears — I enjoy this moment more than just begging Allah, even if I don't get what I want. I enjoy this more. This is my enjoyment."

So Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz used to speak to Allah all night — this is because he was close to Allah and he enjoyed having conversations with Allah. One of his servants said: "Amir al-Mu'minin, last night I could not sleep for one second — you were crying all night. What did you get out of this entire night?" And he said: "Listen my son, respect is not about whether people listen to you and people obey you. But respect is the fact that you recognize your Lord and you obey Him."

Fudayl ibn Iyad: The Strangest Thing on Earth

Fudayl ibn Iyad was asked: "What is the strangest thing on this earth?" He said:

"The strangest thing on this earth is a heart that recognizes Allah and still disobeys Allah."

After this entire gathering — knowing that Allah loves us — now we have to turn to Him. We recognize Allah, we also want to be close to Allah. And as you get closer to Him, you start feeling the sweetness of Iman.

The Earth Yearns for Those Who Prostrate

The poets have said:

The portions, the places of this earth are yearning and crying — "When will those people prostrate upon us who cry in front of Allah?"

Iqbal says — in the translation of his poem — the Sahaba are saying: "The deserts of Africa, the scorching sands of Africa have not forgotten our sajdahs. As we were doing sajdah, the sand was like charcoal — but at that moment it was as if we were in a lush garden, because our heads were on this earth but our soul was with Allah."

Closing

Brothers and sisters, this is Allah's love for us. Now it is our time to express our love for Allah, so that we can be with those whom He loves in the Akhirah.

Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.