Loving Allāh
and gaining His Love
source:
bidāyat us-sūl fi tafdhīl ir-rasūl ~ …the superiority of the
Messenger (of Allāh) ~ page no. 5-7
Shaykh al-Albānī says in his introduction:
“Know, O Muslim brother, that it is not possible for anyone
to rise to this station of loving Allāh and His Messenger (صلى
الله عليه وسلم) except by tawhīd (singling out) of Allāh,
the Most High, alone in His worship, and by singling out the
Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) alone for following from among
the servants of Allāh, due to (Allāh’s) statement: ‘He who
obeys the Messenger (Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم)) has
indeed obeyed Allāh’[1] and His statement ‘Say (O Muhammad (صلى
الله عليه وسلم) to mankind): ‘If you (really) love Allāh
then follow me (i.e. accept Islamic Monotheism, follow the
Qur’ān and the Sunnah), Allāh will love you.’’[2] And (the
Prophet) (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said: ‘No, by the One in whose
Hand my soul is, if Mūsā was alive, he would have no choice
but to follow me.’[3]
I say: so if someone like Mūsā, the one who Allāh spoke to
(directly), cannot follow other than the Prophet (صلى الله
عليه وسلم), then can anyone else do that? Hence, this is one
of the definite evidences of the obligation of singling out
the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) in following, which is one
of the requirements of the shahāda (testimony): ‘anna
muhammad ar-rasūlullāh (that Muhammad is the Messenger of
Allāh).’ Therefore, Allāh, the Blessed and Most High, in the
before-mentioned āyah, made following him (صلى الله عليه
وسلم) alone to be a proof of Allāh’s love for (the
follower). And there is no doubt that whoever Allāh loves,
Allāh is with him in everything, as occurs in the authentic
hadīth al-Qudsī:[4] ‘(Allāh says), ‘My slave does not come
near to me with anything more beloved to me than that which
I have made obligatory upon him, and My slave continues to
come near me with supererogatory deeds until I love him; and
when I love him, I am his hearing with which he hears, his
sight with which he sees, his hand with which he grasps and
his leg with which he walks.[5] And if he asks me, I will
surely give him, and if he seeks refuge in Me, I will surely
protect him . . .’[6]
And if this divine care is only for the beloved slave of
Allāh, it is obligatory upon every Muslim to take the means
which will make him beloved to Allāh, namely following the
Messenger of Allāh (صلى الله عليه وسلم) alone; and just by
that, he will attain special care from his Mawlā[7], the
Blessed and Most High. Don’t you see that it is not possible
to know the obligatory duties and distinguish them from the
supererogatory acts except by following him (صلى الله عليه
وسلم) alone? And indeed there is no doubt that the more the
Muslim learns about the biography of the Messenger of Allāh
(صلى الله عليه وسلم) and knows of his pleasant nature and
virtues, the more his love for him will be and the more
extensive and comprehensive his following of him will be.”
~ asaheeha translations ~
[1] Sūrat un-Nisā, 4:80
[2] Sūrah Āl ʽImrān, 3:31
[3] Shaykh al-Albāni adds the following footnote:
“Ad-Dāramī, Ahmad and Abu Nuʽaym narrated it from the hadīth
of Jābir bin ʽAbdillāh, and it is a hasan (good) hadīth as I
clarified in ‘Al-Mishkāh’ and others”
[4] a hadīth in which the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم)
narrates Allāh’s Speech from Him
[5] i.e., Allāh directs his hearing, sight, actions with his
hand and his walking to only that which is good; refer to
Explanatory Notes on Imām an-Nawawī’s Forty Ahādīth
(Revisited) by Shaykh Muhammad ibn Sālih al-ʽUthaymīn
(rahimahullāh), p. 250-251
[6] Sahīh al-Bukhārī #6502
[7] Lord, Helper, Protector, etc.; refer to Translation of
the meanings of the Noble Qur’ān in the English Language by
al-Hilāli/Khān
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