The Wrappings of Gratitude

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
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In the Name of Allah Most-Compassionate, Most-Merciful

This post is in response to a very good comment made to the article “Two hearts” in which I have discussed the importance and necessity of true love, of striving to find and establish true love in our lives and particularly in the context of, and the reason for, seeking marriage. The comment that was made in regards to this post was:

“…But true love and everlasting love is only for Almighty Allah”

To begin with I entirely agree with you, the truest of true loves, the purpose for which love has been granted to us at all by Allah subhanhu wa ta’ala, is to love Him and Him alone, that is true. However, there are many beautiful and necessary aspects to love, shades of love that deepen our understanding of what love is and how it may be attained, and perfected. Not for its own sake but for the sake of Allah. So what I sought to present here was love from a different perspective, which is the necessity of perfecting human relationships before one can even begin to love Allah.

Allah is too High for anyone of us to begin to love Him directly, and of this there any many examples from the prophets, peace be upon them all, to the companions of the prophet, peace be upon him, and the prophet himself. Even the prophet was being elevated during his life, and being brought closer and closer to Allah through the various tests and trials that he had to go through. This denotes and reflects a core principle in Islam which is the concept of the hijab, which specifically means a barrier, something that prevents a person from going any further because they have not yet acquired, or do not possess the right, the means or the permission to go any further. This principle teaches us that prior to progression must come humility, and thus if we are prevented from acquiring a certain blessing, or we are made to wait at a certain door because it is closed in front of us, this is to raise our estimation of the value of what lies behind that door. Thus in the context of love, because it is the highest of all virtues, because every verse in the Quran, except one, begins with the attributes of Allah of Compassion and Mercy, and because Ar-Rahman is the highest of the attributes of Allah, all denotes that love and compassion are not understandings that Allah will granted easily.

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ سَيَجْعَلُ لَهُمُ الرَّحْمَنُ وُدًّا

“On those who believe and work deeds of righteousness, will (Allah) Most Gracious bestow love”

(Quran, Maryam 19:96)

Subhan’Allah, what an amazing promise by Allah. That, as a reward for believing and deeds of righteousness, which are both the highest levels of obedience to Allah, that the reward is commensurate with the striving of His servant, which is love. This gives us an indication of the estimation of true love, which is not easy to acquire, but is the highest level of reward and achievment. But this does not mean that one can go directly from being granted to true love, which begins in ones heart, to loving Allah. No, there must be a reipient of that love amongst His servants, through which that love must be tested, perfected and purified even before we can think about our love for Allah being sincere and genuine. Thus as Allah says:

وَيُطْعِمُونَ الطَّعَامَ عَلَى حُبِّهِمِسْكِينًا وَيَتِيمًا وَأَسِيرًا

“And they feed, for the love of Allah, the indigent, the orphan, and the captive”

(Quran, al-Insan 76:8)

True Love and Hijab (separation)

The difficulty in understanding love is also a type of hijab, a separation, a barrier, between us and an understanding of true love which will change, which will alter the way we see the world around us. And it does completely alter it, and ourselves in the process. So the reason, that particular article, deals specifically with true love between man and wife in the context of marriage is that it presents the idea of true love as a journey on the path back to Allah which requires the perfection of love in marriage as a means by which one can begin to perfect ones love of Allah. This show humility to Allah that we cannot ever even hope to know Him, let alone love Him, unless by His permission, by His mercy, kindness, generosity, grace and nobility. That, through our efforts to perfect human relationships first, to seek true love and to keep striving for this immense blessing, we are already demonstrating our love for Him. And if we impress our Lord with our striving and our desire, and even though in the process our hearts may be broken a thousand times and a thousand more, even though all our efforts to love or want to be loved purely and unconditionally for the sake of Allah for the sake of who He has created us to be. Thus our desire to continue to believe in true, love, to continue to want it for ourselves is in itself a sign of our love for Him, and His love for us in allowing us to love Him. And we hope for this, our striving, we may be granted closeness to Him, so that He may show us how to love Him better. This is to take a humble position before our Lord in that we saying we don’t even know how to love Him, that to love Him is an invitation to love Him, by Him, to those He alone chooses. That we hope, if we show Him how much we believe in love, how much we want to love Him and Him alone, through our efforts to apply the teachings of the Quran and Sunnah, and never give up believing in the blessing that is love, that our reward will be this invitation.

“Thus our desire to continue to believe in true, love, to continue to want it for ourselves is in itself a sign of our love for Allah, and His love for us in allowing us to love Him”

Another aspect to this is that out of one-hundred portions of Rahmah, Allah has granted us one on this earth and has reserved ninty-nine for us for the day of judgement. Subhan’Allah. Which provides another proof that Allah placed love on this earth as a means of establishing the highest levels of conduct and the most intimate relationships between people, which is a core principle in Islam. Why so? Because if Allah has reserved so much of His love and mercy for the final day, when we will need it the most, then this is showing us how important love is. Thus for Him to place one portion here on earth, which is more than enough for us, is a sign that we are to live according to the principle of love between ourselves first before we can begin to attain His mercy of love. The proof of this is to ask, ‘how does one get to know the One that cannot be known by human hearts’? How does the finite understand the infinate, let alone love Him? Hence love, between people, between a husband and wife, or parents and their children is a blessing here for us on earth because it enables us to perfect our understanding of love so that we may begin to get to know how to love each other unconditionally before knowing how to begin to love Allah unconditionally, the only means of doing this is through the beautiful blessing that is true love. Which also means that even if you have had your heart broken or suffered for the sake of love, this only raises you even further to want true unconditional love, which means that there is considerable blessing in being tested in love between each other.

You may also like another article I wrote called ‘Untitled’ which relates more to Divine Love. I hope you like it, and look forward to seeing your thoughts, and anyone else, on it insha’Allah.

·30 Rabi-Al-Thani 1429·