How can I increase my love of Allah and the Prophet in me? I want my love toward them to be bigger.

How can I strengthen and increase my love of Allah and the Prophet?

Dear Brother / Sister,

The way of loving Allah and the Prophet (pbuh) and to increase this love is to know them. Marifatullah is the science of knowing Allah. Man loves Allah based on his knowledge of Allah. He who knows Allah and obeys His orders loves Allah; and Allah loves him. The root of all incompleteness is weakness of belief. As man’s belief increases, his love of Allah and His Messenger (pbuh) will increase. Belief, love and obedience will follow one another.

It is the order of our religion to love Allah more than anything else. The way of loving Allah is to love the Prophet (pbuh), who lived in the way that He loved, and to follow his way.

As a matter of fact, The following is stated in the Quran:

"Say: ‘If ye do love Allah, Follow me: Allah will love you and forgive you your sins: For Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.’"(Aal-i Imran, 3/31)

To love Allah is the highest target of man’s creation. Therefore, it is the highest target that Islam leads man to. The verse above includes the following definite analogy: “If you love Allah, you must follow the Messenger of Allah. If you do not follow him, it means you do not love Allah.” The opposite of it is as follows: “I love Allah but I do not obey His orders. I do not love those whom He loves. I do not love those who love Him, who show His way and whom He chose and sent to humanity.” This means “I do not love anything/anybody except myself. I do not want to follow the way of oneness (tawhid).”

Allah, who created this universe in such a nice way with the manifestation of His power, perfection and beauty, and who granted so many boons to His slaves, definitely expects thanks from them. He definitely appoints a distinguished one among them as their guide and makes him a perfect model. Thus, He wants the beauties in him to be reflected to others.

It is something good for man to love Allah. If man knows Allah fully in his conscience, he will love Allah very much. For, the only place of love is the conscience. Mind, which is one of the parts of the conscience, informs man; divine faculty shows him and leads him to what Allah wants; mind reasons based on love and the heart gains him important depths.

If a person is full of metaphorical love and deprived of real love, it is necessary to do something and to turn his face toward real love. The transience and mortality of those ephemeral lovers can be shown to such a person and the desire for the real Everlasting (Baqi) One and eternity can be kindled in him; he can be helped to establish a connection with Allah Almighty by increasing his belief and knowledge, mentioning Allah while talking to him and keeping him away from sins and mistakes, which are regarded as the dirt of the heart; he can cut himself off from everything and turn toward him by saying, “La uhibbul-afilin - I love not those that set” (al-An’am, 6/76) and “I want an everlasting lover”.

He reads the star, moon and sun like Hz. Ibrahim with their rising, setting and nature; he tells everybody that their disappearance, rising and setting and those disappearing things are not worth being interested by the heart. They are lifeless things that cannot hear man, listen to him and meet his needs.   

Man should turn toward such a being who will see, hear, listen to him and meet his needs, know what is in his heart, answer his prayers, fulfill his worldly and otherworldly demands, eliminate his loneliness and be his friend, make him happy by giving a positive answer to his desire about eternity and please his friends and relatives like him. Yes, man needs such a God, Beloved One, loyal darling and a friend that is aware of all of his states. Then, it is necessary for man to establish a love like that.

Mulla Jami states the following regarding the issue:  

“Love only One; the others are not worth loving because they are not visible. Want only One; the others are not worth wanting because they cannot cure your illnesses. Mention only One; it is unnecessary to mention the others because they will be of no good to you.”

Thus, he emphasizes that the real love is the one toward Allah and that no matter whom man loves except Allah, they will leave causing a pain and sorrow in him; this is something that everybody needs to learn and repeat.

To sum up, ephemeral and transient beings show that they are not worth being interested by the heart since they come and go; they remind those who seek the real lover that “they must love Allah”.

LOVE: The feeling of loving, the feeling of loving someone or something.

Love is an inborn feeling in man. Love is a uniting element that brings peace and fraternity to the society. The Quran gives importance to the unification of hearts through love. The heart of a believer is full of love. Hatred and enmity are among the characteristics of an unbeliever. Allah unites the hearts of believers with love and He strengthens them with this love and loyalty. Allah Almighty states the following:

"And (moreover) He hath put affection between their hearts: not if thou hadst spent all that is in the earth, couldst thou have produced that affection, but Allah hath done it..." (al-Anfal, 8/63).

The biggest happiness for man is to attain love of Allah. Allah does not love oppressors, mischief-makers, squanderers, transgressors, braggers and boasters. He loves those who are pious, who repent, show patience, who are generous, who act justly, worship and rely on Him.

Allah states the following in the Quran:

"Say: ‘If ye do love Allah, Follow me: Allah will love you and forgive you your sins: For Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.’" (Aal-i Imran, 3/31)

Thus, He states that it is possible to attain love of Allah only through obeying His orders and following the way of the Prophet.  

The duty of a Muslim is to direct his love to what is good, nice and legitimate. He should love for Allah and dislike for Allah. It is necessary to love those that Allah loves only for Allah’s sake and to keep away from those that Allah does not love only for Allah’s sake.

The Prophet (pbuh) states the following:

"On the Day of Judgment, Allah will say, "Where are those who love one another for me? I will provide them shade on the day when there is no shade but mine in the shade of the Throne (Arsh)." (Muslim, Birr and Sila, 161).

"If a person loves his brother in religion, he should tell him." (Riyadus-Salihin, I / 413).

Hz. Umar’s son, Abdullah stated the following:

"Love for Allah and hate for Allah. Make friends for Allah and show enmity for Allah. For, it is possible to attain the friendship of Allah only like that." (Y. Kandahlawi, Hadislerle Müslümanlık, III / 1123).

In that case, a Muslim should love anything and everybody for Allah’s sake and sincerely, without having any thought of material interest.

Love, which is one of the spiritual foods that mature human spirit, cannot be kept away from people, especially children. What will nurture all kinds of good deeds in the spirit of a child is love. Children who are brought up by being deprived of love are apt to be hard-hearted and cruel. This spirit of deprivation will definitely affect their spirit negatively.

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