True Love Gets You to Jannah

True Love That Gets You to Al-Jannah

One true love that gets you into Al-Jannah. Today, this time of the year, people are celebrating love. And they put efforts, and plans, and energy, a lot of reservations, to ensure that their love moment is being exactly implemented perfectly the way they want it to be.

What are they looking for? They're looking for the reward. Reward from that experience, that emotional fulfillment they get from such a beautiful, beautiful human instinct and relationship. That's natural.

And there's nothing wrong with that. There's no haram in that. But is that the true love that gets you to Al-Jannah? Is that the one that I should put all my energy in, to get me to Al-Jannah? That true love that gets you to Al-Jannah is something different, something out of this world.

There is absolutely no feeling in this dunya that is parallel to this feeling. Yes, being in love and having those moments of love, they're beautiful. And Allah mentioned them in the Quran as a miracle.

He says, and among His signs, His miracles — that He had created for you, from amongst yourselves, your azwaj, your spouses. So that you find peace and tranquility with them. He made it a miracle. It's beautiful. But there's something way beyond those beautiful feelings.

Something out of this world. That if those who are truly in love with a human being can relate to, can feel it, they will realize the meaning of being in true love. That true love that we're talking about, ya jama'ah, was mentioned in a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ.

The Story of the Bedouin and the Prophet ﷺ

In a story that was reported by Imam Al-Bukhari from the hadith of Anas رضي الله عنه:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3688; Sahih Muslim, Book 44, Hadith 165)

A man asked the Prophet ﷺ — in another narration he was a Bedouin, someone who came from the desert. Desert people don't have their etiquette. They don't have that civilized etiquette of when to ask, and how to ask, and what to ask. So the man came in. He came into the masjid, he saw the Prophet ﷺ in a gathering. He didn't really care if he was talking or not. He had an important question he needed to ask the Prophet ﷺ about.

So he interrupts the Prophet ﷺ and immediately says: مَتَى السَّاعَةُ؟ — he didn't even say, "Ya Rasulallah, O Messenger of Allah." Simple Bedouin. You couldn't even imagine the level of education he had. Nothing. But he asked a very important question. He said: مَتَى السَّاعَةُ؟ — When will the Hour be established? He's talking about the Day of Judgment.

Now look at this. If this is the thing that you ask the Prophet ﷺ about in a moment like this — you came all the way from the desert to see the Prophet ﷺ to ask him this question — then what does that exactly mean? It is the most concerning question for you. This man's mind was preoccupied with this. He was so worried about the Day of Judgment that he always thought about it. Now that he meets the Prophet ﷺ, immediately he says: مَتَى السَّاعَةُ؟ When is the Hour? When will it be established?

The Prophet ﷺ kind of deliberately ignored answering the question in that moment because he was busy doing something else or saying something else. Some of the Sahaba were whispering, saying perhaps he heard the question and didn't like it. Others said, no, he didn't hear the question at all. They were whispering among themselves.

But then later on, the Prophet ﷺ, immediately when he finished what he was speaking about, turned to that direction and said:

"Where is that man who was asking about the Hour just now?" The man said, that's me, Ya Rasulallah. He said, مَتَى السَّاعَةُ؟ — When is the Hour?

The Prophet ﷺ gave him what we call جَوَابُ الْحَكِيمِ — the wise answer. The Prophet ﷺ knew that the answer to this question, if he said "I know" or "I don't know," it wouldn't really fulfill what this man was looking for. So he immediately threw him off with his answer ﷺ and said to him:

"What did you prepare for it?" — What have you prepared for this Hour, for this moment? Like, if I say to him "I don't know," it doesn't really matter, because I really don't know. And that's not going to satisfy the man's desire to know something. Instead, the Prophet ﷺ diverted him and his energy to focus on what he could do about it. It doesn't matter if I know today, or tomorrow, or the day after. What matters is: am I doing the right thing in preparation for that day?

The man replied:

"O Messenger of Allah, nothing — really nothing — except that I love Allah and I love the Messenger of Allah. I love Allah and His Messenger."

In another narration, in the hadith of Ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه, the man elaborated. He said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3688; Sahih Muslim, Book 44, Hadith 165)

"O Messenger of Allah, I swear — I did not prepare much of salah, or fasting, or charity. I'm not that type of person. But I love Allah and I love His Messenger."

To this, the Prophet ﷺ answered him:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3688; Sahih Muslim, Book 44, Hadith 165)

"Don't worry. You will be with those whom you love." On that day, Allah will bring you together with those you love the most.

Anas رضي الله عنه, who was reporting the story, said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3688)

He said, "We have never been so happy. We've never been happier with a moment or an answer from the Prophet ﷺ like the answer we got when he answered this man."

And Anas himself said: "Wallahi, I swear, I'm probably not like this man." He was young at the time, as you remember. "I'm not that type of person who does all these things. But I love Allah. I love the Messenger of Allah. I love Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. And I love Umar. I love these people. Those are the people that I love the most. And I hope that Allah will reunite me with them on the Day of Judgment — even though I haven't done much of what they do. I don't do what they do. But I'm hoping that Allah will bring me with them on that day."

This Is the True Love That Gets You to Al-Jannah

My dear brothers and sisters, this love is the true love that gets you to Al-Jannah. This is what can get us to Al-Jannah. And subhanAllah, if you look at the answer of the Prophet ﷺ and what this man was offering — he told the Prophet ﷺ frankly: "Ya Rasulallah, I did not bring much. I'm not that type of devotee. I'm not that learned person who is mashAllah into so much spirituality that I would love to dedicate my time day and night to salah and siyam and charity and a lot of these good deeds. I know myself. I'm not that type of person. But I know in my heart — I love Allah and His Messenger ﷺ."

Our ulama, they say in commenting on this hadith: look how this man was so spontaneous with his answer. When the Prophet ﷺ told him, "What did you prepare for it?" — the man, naturally and so spontaneously, said: "Nothing really, nothing much really. I admit it, I don't do much for the akhira. But I have hope — I love Allah and His Messenger ﷺ. That's all." And to that spontaneous, very innocent answer, the Prophet ﷺ told him: this is a lot. That in itself is so heavy in the scale that it can get you to Al-Jannah.

But what does that mean? It means if you truly — if you are truly authentic and genuine about that love, if you're not faking it or just claiming it while your actions are the opposite — but if you truly say that you love Allah and His Messenger ﷺ, even though you're not doing much, but at the same time you're still maintaining the minimum — that's what it means here. Then, as he said: أَنْتَ مَعَ مَنْ أَحْبَبْتَ — you will be with those whom you love.

The Actions of the Heart — أَعْمَالُ الْقُلُوبِ

Our ulama said: look again — the reward or the action that this man was presenting as a sacrifice, his offering to get to Al-Jannah, was not any physical deed. It was something from the heart. أَعْمَالُ الْقُلُوبِ — the actions of the heart — are much more important than anything else.

We live in times where our hearts are so distracted, so preoccupied with this dunya, that we no longer have room to have these kinds of actions of ibadah — such as loving Allah and His Messenger. Our hearts are busy chasing this dunya. Especially this dunya as we live it today, in this age, can offer us so much — so much of immediate reward.

In the past, if you wanted to cook a meal, what did you need to do? You would spend most of the day, if not even the whole week, to prepare for it — so you could enjoy a few moments of a beautiful, sweet meal. Today this is done in seconds. And you can have a meal after a meal. So much this dunya can offer you. So our hearts are so preoccupied with all these opportunities of pleasure that we can get immediately. And because we're so preoccupied, and we see other people have more than us, we're also preoccupied with what other people have in their hands.

There is not much room left for us to have this ibadah with the heart. So we're trying our best to maintain the bare minimum of the ibadah of our actions. "As long as I do my salah, and my fasting, I'm good." And you know what? May Allah make you true to this, Ya Rabb al-'Alameen. But that is not sufficient — unless it comes from the heart.

Because even those who pray, Allah said about them:

"Woe to those who pray" — the obligation for them is to pray, but are they doing it right? Are they sincere about it? Is it enough to get them into Al-Jannah?

And even the Prophet ﷺ reminded us that on the Day of Judgment, people will come with mountains of good deeds — mountains of good deeds. But they come with so many liabilities attached. They hurt this person, cursed at that person, envied this person — and all these things eat away from their hasanat. They start taking from their good deeds, and what is left for them? Nothing. That's why the deeds of the heart are very important.

Hadith al-Bitaqa — The Hadith of the Card

In a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, a man on the Day of Judgment will come with mountains of sayyiat — horrible things he has done in his life. Horrible things. And when the time came to weigh his deeds, the man said: "Look, I know myself — don't bother. I'm going straight to Jahannam. I'm doomed. I know what I've done in my life. I have nothing good to offer."

But the angels told him: "Yes you do. There is one card." This is called Hadith al-Bitaqa — the Hadith of the Card. They said, "You have this card — the card of your good deeds." He said, "What will a card do in front of all these mountains of sayyiat?" They said, "Doesn't matter. Let's put it on the scale." And they placed that card on the scale for him. The weight of this card was so heavy that it made all his sayyiat fly off completely. He won — by one card.

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2639; Ibn Majah, Hadith 4300 — classified as sahih)

What was that card? La ilaha illallah — I bear witness there is no god but Allah. Our ulama say that this man was so sincere with his belief in Allah. No matter what he had done in his life, he was always guilty about it — because he believed he had done wrong. He felt so shy, so embarrassed before Allah. But his belief that there is no god worthy of worship but Allah was an unshakeable faith. And that in itself — the quality of this good deed of the heart — was heavier than everything that he had done in his life.

That's not a justification for us to misbehave. But at least it gives us all hope. When it comes to our ibadah, that true love of Allah and the Messenger of Allah can travel — can take you on a journey that is far away and beyond. As long as you are sincere about the love of Allah and the Messenger of Allah, it will get you to Jannah. May Allah make us all among the people of Jannah.

Three Categories of Believers

My dear brothers and sisters, those who love Allah, the believers, they fall into three categories. Allah says:

"Then We granted the Book to those We have chosen from Our ibad, Our servants." And Allah says from our servants — our ibad — meaning you and I, all of us. Some transgressed against themselves. And some of them are on the middle way. And some of them are always ahead of everybody else.

Three levels. Some of us wronged ourselves — which means we always mix good with bad together. We do good, we do bad. Every time we do bad, we feel guilty about it, so we start doing good, alhamdulillah. We feel good about it. But then we get to a moment of fatigue, and we start doing bad again. But we're still doing good, alhamdulillah. Those are ظَالِمٌ لِنَفْسِهِ — those who wronged themselves. Allah doesn't wrong us — we are wronging ourselves. But still, they still have love of Allah in their hearts. They strive to love Him.

And then مُقْتَصِد — some of them are in the middle way, which means they try their best to stay away from doing wrong. They do their bare minimum: barely the salah, barely the fast of Ramadan. They don't add sunnah or nafl — that's not their thing. So these people, alhamdulillah, they're good. They're kind of conservative.

And then سَابِقٌ بِالْخَيْرَاتِ — those who always race to the best, to the top. They don't leave any opportunity of goodness without participating. Even if it is not obligatory on them, they will still go look for opportunities to do khair. They don't have to come for every salah in the masjid, for example — but they come. They don't have to read Quran every day — but they do. They don't have to give charity every single day — but they do as well. And they fast even outside the month of Ramadan. They do so much, because they want to race to Al-Jannah. Those are the people called السَّابِقُونَ بِالْخَيْرَاتِ. Allah put them ahead of everybody. May Allah make us some of them, Ya Rabb al-'Alameen.

As you can see, the strength of that love in your heart can take you from one level to the other. Your deeds are indicators of how much love for Allah and His Messenger exists in your heart. You do your best — that's all we're asking from you. But don't forget to start worshipping Allah with your heart.

That requires you to disconnect from this world for a few minutes. Just sit down and reflect. Think about this world and the hereafter. Think about your relationship with Allah. Read the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. Remember Allah. Read the Quran. This is how you show your love to Allah. May Allah make us among those who truly love Allah and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

Du'a