Sincere Love and Worship

When Sincere Love for Allah Becomes Our Greatest Motivation

Love of Allah is what I truly believe to be the greatest weapon that a believer can have. We live in a world where we are constantly competing for other people’s love, admiration and acceptance—whether it be through what we do, the things we say, or what we possess. It cannot be denied that it is a wonderful feeling to be loved and accepted by the people around us, but imagine if you were one of Allah’s most beloved creations. Can you honestly compare the love of Allah to human love? It is inevitable that the creation will hurt you, and they cannot always be relied upon. The same cannot be said about Allah. We, as the creation, are not perfect, but Allah is. He is All-Loving and All-Merciful to the ultimate degree and thus deserves our utmost degree of love and veneration.

When you love someone or something, it becomes an integral part of your daily life, including your main thoughts throughout the day. When the believer sincerely loves Allah, he wants to please Him and ensure that he does not anger Him because of this immense love. Ibn Qayyim, as quoted in the book Patience and Gratitude, stated that those who refrain from sins due to their love of Allah are those who have the highest status with Allah. The Sahabah also reinforced the importance of love by referring to a verse in the Qur’an as the verse of love:

“Say, [O Muhammad], ‘If you should love Allah, then follow me, [so] Allah will love you and forgive you your sins. And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.’” (Quran 3:31)

This verse sets the condition for gaining Allah’s love: that one should follow the Messenger (ﷺ). Therefore, love encourages us to implement the Sunnah of the Messenger (ﷺ).

Love is also an umbrella for many virtues, such as appreciation, concern, strength, forbearance and obedience. For example, out of love for Allah, the believer would want to show greater concern and be more careful in how he treats the creation of Allah. Therefore, sincere love is powerful for the believer, as it helps him to implement the other traits that a believer ought to have.

An important point to also mention is that the opposite of love is hate. When you truly love Allah, you will naturally hate anything that opposes Him and His religion. Thus, you will begin to encompass an important aspect of Islam known as Al-Wala’ wal-Bara’ (loyalty and disavowal). You will begin to hate that which Allah hates and, as a result, obedience to Allah becomes easier. Therefore, not only does love help you to develop the other traits of a believer, but it also helps you to understand and embody the important concept of Al-Wala’ wal-Bara’.

To love also means to strive and focus. When the reason is love, you are more determined never to give up, and you aim to seek as much closeness as possible to what you love. Thus, I believe that love really helps to elevate the believer by encouraging them to gain greater nearness to Allah through various forms of worship.

Love is also what made me want to know more about Islam, and thus love served as a factor that motivated me to study more about my religion. The love of Allah really helps me to keep my focus on how Allah wants me to be, rather than how society wants me to be.

To gracefully end, I would like to mention a beautiful statement attributed to Ibn Qayyim:

“The heart on its journey to Allah is like a bird. Love is its head and the two wings are fear and hope.”

Love, for this great scholar, was so important that he viewed it as the main component of the journey towards Allah. Likewise, seeking knowledge can be seen as a journey or a path, and one that I also believe should have love as its head and driving force on our return back to our Lord.

Sources & Further Reading
Qur’an • Hadith • Classical Works • Contemporary Resources

The Qur’an. Translated by Sahih International. Available at: Quran.com

Abu Dawud. Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 2682. Narrated by Abu al-Darda.

At-Tirmidhi. Jami‘ at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3541. Narrated by Abu al-Darda.

An-Nawawi. Riyad as-Salihin, Book 13: The Book of Knowledge.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah. Madarij as-Salikeen (The Paths of the Seekers). Available at: Madarij as-Salikeen PDF

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah. (1997). Patience and Gratitude. Translated by Nasriuddin Al-Khattab.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah. (1993). The Purification of the Soul. London: Ta-Ha Publishers.

Ali, M. (2012). [Title of work]. University of Exeter. Available at: University of Exeter Repository

WhyIslam. (2017, August 25). Worship in Islam. Available at: WhyIslam