Love that replaces everything
“Oh! If you knew how much Allah ﷻ cares for you, you would never tire of praying to Him.” (Yahya ibn Muadh).
“It is said that a righteous woman worked as a servant in a house. Late at night, she was performing namaz. Her master heard her addressing Allah ﷻ while prostrating, “O Allah ﷻ, for the sake of Your love for me, I ask You to grant me even greater piety...” and so on. After finishing the namaz, he asked her, “How do you know that Allah ﷻ loves you?! Why did not you say: “O Allah ﷻ, for the sake of my love for You, I ask You...?” She replied, “My lord, if it were not for His love for me, He would not have woken me up at such a late hour. If it were not for His love for me, He would not have placed me on the prayer rug. If it were not for His love for me, He would not have made me say that supplication.”
This story is told in the book “Love in the Koran and Its Role in Human Life” by Sheikh Muhammad Said Ramadan al-Buti, one of the greatest Islamic scholars of our time.
The author precedes the story with a question that I would like us to ask ourselves more often: “What prevents a person <…> from understanding that Allah Almighty loves him? What prevents him from rejoicing and being happy from the realization that Allah ﷻ loves him?”
There is no doubt that there is nothing higher than the Creator’s love for us, nothing more joyful and inspiring, nothing that would fill our lives with meaning both in this world and in the eternal world.
The love of the Almighty for His creations is so great and boundless that we can hardly comprehend it fully. However, nothing prevents us from reflecting on this love, filling our hearts with its light. After all, the heart, like a mirror, reflects images, be they earthly desires and passions or high aspirations and reflections on the beautiful qualities of the Creator. Moreover, these reflections are capable of displacing the silhouettes of worldly desires from the heart and thus influencing a person’s behavior.
The manifestation of Allah’s love for His slaves is that He grants them boundless mercy, despite omissions in worship. If a Muslim drinks water or eats food out of forgetfulness during the month of Ramadan, his fast is still considered valid - it is as if the Almighty Himself fed him. If a person lies down with the intention of getting up for the tahajjud prayer (night vigil), but falls fast asleep – Allah ﷻ still promises to reward him according to his intention (that is, only for the fact that he was going to do a good deed, even if he did not carry out this intention).
The Almighty never breaks promises and does not leave the prayer of His slave unanswered. In the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ it is said: “Indeed, Allah ﷻ, is Generous, when a man raises his hands to Him, He feels too shy to return them to him empty and rejected.” (Narrated by Abu Dawud).
There are many testimonies in the Holy Koran that indicate the special position of man before Allah ﷻ (not because of superiority over other creations, but solely by the grace of the Creator). Various manifestations of respect for him on the part of the Creator indicate that man is endowed with special love, and it extends to all of humanity without isolating its individual representatives.
At the same time, each person is given the opportunity to win even greater love from the Creator by following a certain path, creating the prerequisites for this and fulfilling the obligations imposed on him and showing special diligence in performing the desired actions to which the Almighty calls us.
In itself, the guidance to the true path, with which Allah ﷻ honoured him, is proof of the acquisition of His love by man. Sincerity in religion, receiving satisfaction from faith in Allah ﷻ and submission to His laws - all these are manifestations of the Creator’s boundless love for us.
When a slave strengthens his faith by performing the duty of worship, fulfilling the commands of Allah ﷻ, being wary of His prohibitions and also frequently remembering Him, the signs of this “found” love intensify.
“This is indicated by the words of the Most High, related in the sacred hadith (hadith “Al-Qudsi”), which the Messenger of God ﷺ narrates from Him,” says Sheikh Muhammad Said Ramadan al-Buti, “My slave does not stop coming closer to Me, doing desirable deeds, until I love him. And when I love him, I will be his hearing, his sight, his tongue, his hand...”.
Answering the question of why it is the desirable deeds of a person that are the reason for Allah’s ﷻ love for him, the author of the book writes that the motive for performing additional actions (as opposed to obligatory ones) is not the fear of punishment for neglecting them but the desire to get closer to Allah ﷻ and increase His love for oneself.
The great danger lies not only in the loss of the love of the Almighty and love for the Almighty in the heart but also in striving for something other than Him. After all, the Creator is jealous, and if our hearts are filled with worldly desires, He can leave these worldly attachments in our hearts, depriving us of divine light.
Love for Allah ﷻ and His Messenger ﷺ is a necessary condition for the preservation and completeness of faith.
But the main thing: what could be more joyful for a person than the realisation that the Almighty loves him? “It is no secret to any slave who knows his Lord and is close to Him that the reward received from the Lord because of His love for him cannot be compared to anything,” summarises Muhammad Said Ramadan al-Buti. “Moreover, if a slave realizes that Allah ﷻ loves him, then all his difficulties and sufferings will disappear and all the blessings of Paradise that he missed will become insignificant for him.”
