*ALLAH is LOVE*

The Qur’an teaches us that love is first and foremost a divine attribute, as stated in
verse 90 of the 11th Surah: *“My Lord is certainly All-merciful and Loving [wadud]”*.

This is in addition to the divine attributes evoking this notion, such as *“Al Rahman”* and
*“Al Rahim”* (the merciful, the all-merciful); both derived from the notion of *“Al Rahma”*
which is a particular type of love. (pro-active and selfless love.)

We learn from the Qur’an that Allah (swt) has different types of love for His creatures.

The first is His general love which includes all creation whatever the nature of their
deeds. Thus, this love is bestowed even upon wrongdoers, for *man remains a creation
of Allah like a mother feeling a motherly love for her child in spite of his flaws.*

The higher level is His love for true believers, those who believe, trust in Him, and act
upon His prescriptions. These are people *“whom He loves and who love Him”* (5:54).

Moreover, we learn that Allah loves *“the defenders of justice”* (5:42; 8:60), *“those who
purify themselves”* (9:108), *“the pious”* (3:76), *“those who trust Him”* (4:35), and
*“those who do good [to others]”* (5:13).

Finally, the highest level of divine love is His love for perfect human beings, such as the
prophets. For example, one of the well-known titles of Prophet Muhammad (saw) is
*“Habib Ullah“*, which means the *Beloved of Allah*
*“To Allah belongs the most beautiful names.”* (Qur’an 7:180)

Allah is *Al-Wadud*, the Origin of Love.

Allah does not start loving you or stop loving you, because His Love is Eternal and has no beginning or
have an end.
*Love is not something Allah does, love is something Allah is*.
Love is a part of Allah's Essence; you cannot separate love from Allah, any more than you can separate
water from the ocean. Allah is not motivated or moved by human emotions, good deeds, or sins.
We are given the choice to respond to Allah’s love by loving and worshiping Him, but our unwillingness
to honor Allah does not change His love for us, as *”Allah is entirely independent of His creatures.”*
(3:97)
Whereas the human being can be kind, Allah is Kindness *(Ar-Ra’uf)*;
where we can be merciful, Allah is Mercy *(Ar-Rahman)*.
Allah is not just forgiving, He is Forgiveness *(Al-Ghaffur)*;
He is not just peaceful, He is Peace *(As-Salam)*.
Allah’s love and attributes do not change in response to our choices because Allah is not reactive. He is
the cause of everything in existence.

The Prophet (pbuh) explains that if every single human on Earth reached the height of spiritual piety or
if they were all the worst of existence, it would not add or take away anything from Allah’s sovereignty.
The Prophet (pbuh) continues to say that if Allah chose to fulfill the prayer of every single human being
at once, it would not decrease what Allah has “any more than a needle decreases what is in the ocean
when it is put into it.”
Allah’s love for us never diminishes. What changes is our ability to be receptive to Allah’s Love.

When we are kind and loving to others reflecting Allah’s Love upon the Earth, we are more able to
receive the unconditional love of Allah. *Reach out to someone you love.* Let him/her know what they
mean to you.
*However, we should not mix “Allah’s Love” with the “Love of God” concept in
Christianity*
We can notice, in Quran, that several verses evoke what Allah loves, but also many
others stating what He does not love. This highlights the fact that, contrary to the
Christian view, “Allah’s love in Islam is not unconditional.” 

Indeed, *God does not love “the unbelievers”* (3:32),* “the unjust”* (3:57), *“the
wasters”* (6:141), and *“the traitors”* (8:58).

The idea of unconditional love is against the principle of divine justice according to
which all beings are to be rewarded according to their own efforts and deeds.

For example, if, out of commiseration and affection, a teacher gives the highest mark to
all his students, whether they all answered correctly or not, whether they were absent or
not, doesn’t the concept of justice and love itself become empty shells?

As Allah is merciful, the attributes of anger and punishment are considered inseparable
from that same mercy.
Do parents who spoil their child and tell him only pleasant things really love him? Isn’t it
sometimes through punishment that they really show him all their love and guide him to
become a better human being? 

This balance also ensures the freedom of man and the meaning of acts: if God loved
men unconditionally and indifferently, the meaning of religion, their acts and their lives
would be worthless. 

It is important to remember that although one of God’s attributes is anger (“ghadab”), its
application is much more limited in comparison to the mercy and love He shows for all
the realities of which He is the originator 

This mercy is expressed in particular through the possibility of repentance offered by

Allah

Although God’s love for His servants is not arbitrary and depends on their merits, His
love for humans (inspite of their wrong doing) is so great that it far exceeds their
expectations.

Indeed, the Qur’an says: “O my servants who have committed injustice to themselves,
Do not despair of the mercy of God. God certainly forgives all sins. He is All-forgiving
and All-merciful” (39:53).

In many verses of the Qur’an, God speaks about the possibility of repenting and
returning to Him: “But whoever repents after his iniquity and reforms [himself], then
surely Allah will turn to him [mercifully]; surely Allah is All-Forgiving, All-Merciful” (5:39). 
Furthermore, the Qur’an refers not only to the fact that God forgives those who seek
redemption, but also to the fact that He can turn their evil deeds into good deeds. About
these people, the Qur’an says: “These are the ones whom Allah will turn their evil deeds
into good deeds, and Allah is Oft-Forgiving and Most Merciful” (25:70).

It is also a sign of Allah’s love that He, firstly offers the person the capacity for
intentional and sincere repentance and the second is His forgiveness after the person
has repented. The phenomenon is explicitly stated in the Qur’an:  

“…they knew that there was no refuge from Allah except with Him. So He turned to
them so that they may repent, for Allah is the One who welcomes repentance, the
Merciful One” (9:118).

Human Love
A fundamental question we must answer now is to understand why we love God. 

The main reason can be explained by our deepest nature (“fitrah”). Indeed, God has
conferred on man a divine original nature that naturally leads him to love and to seek
beauty and perfection, the highest and greatest manifestation of which is none other
than God.

Because of this nature, any search for perfection, even by an atheist, is, in reality, an
unconscious search for God. According to this vision, all people seek God, but the
majority are mistaken in their search for materialistic, worldly pleasures. Since their
nature is not satisfied with the material and the limited imperfection, they are destined to
be permanently unsatisfied, moving from one passion to another in a quest for infinite
satisfaction. 

Another reason is also explained by human nature. Indeed, human beings love anyone
who is kind to them, and feel obliged to be grateful. 

According to Islam, the least that can be expected from believers is that God has a
central place in their hearts, in the sense that no other love can prevail over it.

The Qur’an says: “If your fathers, your children, your brothers, your wives, your clans,
the goods you earn, the trade whose decline you fear, and the dwellings that are
pleasing to you, are dearer to you than Allah, His Messenger, and strive in the Cause of
Allah, then wait until Allah brings His command. And Allah guides not the transgressors”
(9:24).

Therefore, a believer is not a person who loves God like any other reality worthy of
affection. He is the person whose love for God is the strongest love he has and who
therefore voluntarily submits to the divine will.
There is a hadith in which the Prophet of Islam asked his companions “what is the best
way to acquire faith?“. Amongst other answers, Prayer, Hajj, were the suggestions of
his companions. The Prophet replied negatively and stated that “the best way to acquire
faith is to love for divine contentment and to hate for its contentment, to befriend God’s
friends and to distance oneself from His enemies“.

Thus, Islam considers divine love in its purest and most sincere dimension because it
aspires to love the Beloved and all reality connected with Him and the denial of that
which is opposed to Him.

A relevant example of this double dynamic is given in a Qur’anic verse about the
Prophet Abraham (as) who, after he had moved heaven and earth to convince his
people to accept the oneness of God, disapproved of them and turned away from them:
“Surely you had a good example [to follow] in Abraham and those who were with him,
when they said to their people, ‘We disown you and what you worship outside of God.
We deny you‘” (60:4).

Within the Islamic lexical field, this dimension manifests itself through the notions of
“tavalli” and “tabarri“, referring respectively to affection for all things loving God, and
disapproval of all realities rejecting Him.

To conclude, we can quote an extract from a hadith of the Prophet of Islam reporting a
word of God (“hadith e qudsi”), which highlights not only the high level of closeness to
God that can be reached by the human being but also the deep love that unites him to
his creator:

“Every servant who wants to come closer to Me does not make himself more loved
by Me by performing [only] the obligatory acts of devotion. But surely, the servant
arouses My love by performing acts of devotion that are supererogatory (“nâfila”), until I
love him (“ahabbahu”). And when I love him, I become the ear with which he hears, the
eye with which he sees, the tongue with which he speaks, the hand with which he gives,
and the legs with which he walks. When he prays to Me, I answer him, and when he
asks Me for something, I give it to him…” 

Here, the meaning of religion reaches its paroxysm because it allows us to attain the
highest stage of love, that of a mutual divine and human love: when the believer aspires
to come closer to his Creator and to be loved by Him through his actions, God loves him
in turn and manifests Himself in him. 

In the light of this hadith, the idea that the human being is God’s vicar on earth takes on
its full meaning: “[…] when your Lord said to the angels, ‘Indeed, I will make upon the
earth a successive authority.’ They said, ‘Will You place upon it one who causes
corruption therein and sheds blood, while we declare Your praise and sanctify You?’
Allah said, ‘Indeed, I know that which you do not know.'”