Love mirage
Ibn Al-Qayim (may Allah mercy him) says: ‘he who loves something other than Allah, and does not love it for the sake of Allah or for its being facilitator to obeying Allah, he will be tortured in the worldly life before the Resurrection.’
- Categories: Tazkiah -
All praise is due to Allah alone, and prayers and peace of Allah be upon whom there is no prophet after him.
My friend said to me “How much I adored the one I loved! Ah, she destructed my heart and prevented my mind from thinking of anyone except her!”.
I said. “O young man, be easy on yourself”.
He said “Love does not know mercy; I am a lover who is wasted away in loving her and feels pleasure when seeing her. To me, she is the spring of my life and the rose of my gardens and the shade of my summer days. To me, she is the hope, future, present and happiness. To me, she is like the sky to the earth; cover and drink. To me, she is like the light of the dawn to the traveler and the hope to the patient person and the sweetness of meeting”.
I said “O young man, be easy on yourself”.
He said “Love does not know mercy. She stirs up my feelings; she is amazing. Yes. I tasted loving her and I had never loved but her. Therefore, I follow the path of her love and obey her, even if it was not possible. She is charm; she is beautiful; she is … she is … she is …”
I said “O young man, be easy on yourself.”
He said “Love does not know mercy. To me, she is like a sweet creek which runs in my veins and sweet water that flows in my heart. She is like the luxuriant oasis and the verdant shade and the texture of silk. She is truthful like the sun, beautiful like Luna and charming like the complete moon.”
I said “O young man, be easy on yourself.”
He said “I know that the religion never wrongs anybody, and I am sure that it has justice for every one; furthermore, I know that it respects the status and feelings.”
Whereupon I said: “then, let us free ourselves from these feelings and look for what is said by the righteous forefathers (may Allah mercy them), in this regard, in the light of the texts of the Generous Book and the Purified Sunnah (the best prayers and peace of Allah be upon its originator).
Dear blessed brother, you should know that this love means having the beloved above anyone else and giving the wishes of the beloved priority over the wishes of the lover.
Dear blessed brother, you should know that love has two main kinds;
First: The good love; and it has subdivisions include:
1- Loving Allah.
2- Loving the Prophet (prayers and peace of Allah be upon him).
3- Love for the sake of Allah.
As for loving Allah; it requires loving the sayings, deeds and beliefs which are loved by Allah. Also, this kind of love requires obeying the orders of Allah and believing whatever is told by Him and avoiding whatever is prevented and prohibited by Him and having submission to Him along with feeling satisfaction because of that {But those who believe, love Allâh more (than anything else)} [Surat Al-Baqarah 2:165]
{وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَشَدُّ حُبًّا لِلَّهِ} البقرة: 165
Transliteration: waallatheena amanoo ashaddu hubban lillahi
As for loving the Prophet (prayers and peace of Allah be upon him); it requires obeying his orders and believing whatever is told by him and avoiding whatever is prevented and prohibited by him {And obey Allâh and the Messenger} [Surat Al-‘Imrân 3:132]
{وَأَطِيعُوا اللَّهَ وَالرَّسُولَ} آل عمران: 132
Transliteration: WaateeAAoo Allaha waalrrasoola
Also, loving him (prayers and peace of Allah be upon him) requires accepting his orders with satisfaction and loving him more than the properties, wives and children.
As for love for the sake of Allah (the Exalted the Glorious); it requires advice, tolerance, being free from the worldly interests or personal affairs, having good emotions, thinking good about others, keeping the promises, truthfulness…etc.
Second: The evil love; and it has subdivisions include:
1- The love of doubt. It means loving a principle is different from the way of Ahlul Sunnah Wa Al-Jamaah. Actually, this is stray, because of its being against what came to us from Allah (the Exalted the Glorious) and the Prophet (prayers and peace of Allah be upon him). It indicates propagating the infidel profligate thoughts and spreading the destructive ideas and resembling the disbelievers in their customs, ways, thinking and visions; furthermore, it may be in a dissolute book or TV channel. Anyway, this is not our topic; rather we will discuss the second subdivision, which is:
2- The love of lust. It is what I focus on during my speech to you, because your love is based on it.
You (may Allah guard you) should know that the following are some of the great reasons for this love:
First: not fearing Allah as you must, going away from Allah’s path, being inattentive to the way of righteousness and neglecting the righteous people.
Second: not lowering the gaze, as first love comes from a glance.
Third: the need and benefit; when they are fulfilled, love is fulfilled.
Therefore, you should consider!
Fourth: love as entertainment and satisfaction to self-conceit and keeping pace with recklessness.
Actually, the story of Qais and Layla is the best example for that. He loved her a lot till he is degraded to the worst status; he used to take his clothes off then walks in the streets crying for his beloved and wandering like a mad man.
We seek refuge with Allah from being let down, his heart is entrapped with her love and attached to it. So, you (may Allah guide you) should take lesson from this humiliation and disgrace.
Fifth: Leisure time. It is one of the reasons that make many ignorant people love other than the Lord. If the person was occupied by knowledge or worship or work, he would not have fallen in what he fell in. Indeed, love is the work of the empty heart, and you should keep in your mind that if you did not occupy yourself with the acts of obedience, it would occupy you with other things.
Sixth: imitating companions, friends and those who have love stories and sinful songs, which are the mail of the prohibited sexual intercourse (may Allah guard us all).
Seventh: not putting on the veil where it’s one of the greatest causes of this great affliction.
Eighth: Misusing the blessings of Allah. Among these blessings is communication, and what Allah had facilitated for his slaves to save their efforts, time, money and health. Where it is used in disobeying the Provider (the Exalted the Glorious), actually, this is a grave ignorance and evil danger leading to harassment, along with other things, and takes this blessing to the way of disobeying the Provider (the Exalted the Glorious), while not caring for the consequences and not taking into consideration that the Provider (the Exalted the Glorious) sees what happens.
Ninth: facilitating the means that make it easy; such as the TV and satellite channels that deliberately reveal what is ordered to be concealed and hurts the righteous people.
Also, these means include the written materials that call for pornography under titles like ‘fashion’, ‘fitness’, ‘sexual culture’, ‘innovative novels’ or ‘police stories’. They take the shape of books, booklets, articles, memories or evil autobiographies.
Tenth: not knowing the definitive ends of the evil love. Indeed, if the lover knew such ends, he would not fall in it, because having decision about something is subsequent to understanding it, and such lover did not consider the end. And usually these ends include:
1- Not having sufficient wisdom or knowledge and the destruction of faith and manners and neglecting the affairs of the religion and life.” this is the saying of Imam ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah mercy him), that summarized the definitive ends of the evil love.
2- Having the heart inclined to other than its Creator.
3- The evil end at death (may Allah save us all). Verily, by Allah, this evil love has nothing but humiliation and disgrace in the sight of the Creator and the created beings.
4- Falling in the trap of polytheism that is prohibited by Allah (the Exalted the Glorious). Indeed, polytheism of love is one of the kinds of polytheism which is prohibited by Allah; He prevents the one who falls in it from getting in Paradise; Allah said: {Verily, whosoever sets up partners (in worship) with Allâh, then Allâh has forbidden Paradise to him, and the Fire will be his abode. And for the Zâlimûn (polytheists and wrong-doers) there are no helpers} [Surat Al-Mâ`idah 5:72]
{إِنَّهُ مَنْ يُشْرِكْ بِاللَّهِ فَقَدْ حَرَّمَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ الْجَنَّةَ وَمَأْوَاهُ النَّارُ وَمَا لِلظَّالِمِينَ مِنْ أَنْصَارٍ} المائدة: 72
Transliteration: innahu man yushrik biAllahi faqadharrama Allahu AAalayhi aljannata wamawahu alnnaru wamalilththalimeena min ansarin
5- Resembling the infidel people and the dissolute people. Actually, whoever resembles a group of people would be considered as one of them as it is mentioned in the Hadith.
6- Falling in the first steps of obscenity (we seek refuge with Allah from that).
7- The weakness of determination. Actually, the person who is afflicted with this disease is idle person who always has weak determination.
8- The psychological deterioration, depress, grieves, solicitudes and not having self-confidence.
9- The permanent fear of having the evil deeds revealed and the curtains torn and having shame and scandal.
10- Losing the sense of security and tranquility.
11- Unemployment.
12- Destructing the families and tearing houses’ unity and cordiality.
13- Refusing marriage, whether it is early or not. This subsequently leads to the spreading of corruption and such things.
14- Marital betrayal. Ash-Shafe’i (may Allah mercy him) said that adultery is debt will surely be paid back in the worldly life.
15- Having the crimes spread in the countries and between people.
16- Losing dignity that Allah bestowed upon mankind and having animal desire.
17- Degrading women and making them just objects for sex. In fact, this is grave evil.
18- Also, there are funny harm; it is the financial loss that is in the bills of phones, gifts and such things. May Allah save us all from being let down.
In fact, the definitive negative results of love disease are many; the above mentioned results are just some. May Allah (the Exalted the Glorious) get us along with every Muslim man and woman away from the positions of His wrath and may He guide us all to whatever makes the status good in the worldly life and Hereafter too. Indeed, He is capable of all that.”
My friend said to me: “o brother, because of what you said, I surrender, after knowing that my love is evil love. And I seek forgiveness from Allah and I repent to Him. However, what is the best kind of love?”
I said: “Loving Allah and loving for the sake of Him (the Exalted the Glorious); this is the true love and the sign of faith. Verily, the saying of Omar ibn Al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) when Abu Bakr freed Bilal ibn Rabah (may Allah be pleased with them) ‘Abu Bakr is our master and he freed our master’ is the best example for that.
He said: “then, loving Allah and loving for the sake of Him is one of the greatest ways of good?”
I said: “yes. And I add that it is one of the reasons of feeling the sweetness of faith. The heart is follower to the creed and belief; therefore, whoever believes in Allah as Lord and in Islam as religion and in Muhammad (prayers and peace of Allah be upon him) as messenger should surely love Allah and love for the sake of Allah and love whatever is loved by Allah and His Messenger (prayers and peace of Allah be upon him). Moreover, dear blessed brother, do not forget that Friends on the Day of Judgment will be foes one to another except the pious.
Ibn Rajab Al-Hanbali (may Allah mercy him) says: ‘the perfection of loving Allah indicates loving whatever He loves and hating whatever He hates.’
Also, Ibn Al-Qayim (may Allah mercy him) says: ‘he who loves something other than Allah, and does not love it for the sake of Allah or for its being facilitator to obeying Allah, he will be tortured in the worldly life before the Resurrection.’
Whereupon the young man said: “I sought forgiveness from Allah and repented to Him. However; is there a good cure and decisive solution to my affliction?”
I said: “yes.”
He said: “then give it to me quickly.”
I said: “here it is for you. The beginning of the cure (may Allah bless you) is the sincere repentance for Allah (the Exalted the Glorious) provided that you do not return to the sin again and neglect the beloved person, in order not to remember the past, and not to insist upon what you did in the past. Also, the cure includes remembering Allah a lot and what is relevant to that from glorification, worship, prayer, fast, Hajj, ‘Umra, attending the gatherings of gaining knowledge, accompanying the pious and invocation. Also, the cure includes spending the time in doing what brings benefit in the worldly life or Hereafter, early marriage, lowering the gaze, feeling that Allah watches you all the time, thinking in the beloved and considering his personal defects (i.e. every beloved creature has defects; he/she urinates, excretes, blows his nose and dies), considering the interests that will be missed because of this love, doing some useful things (even if it is just sport to have strength for obeying Allah and being trained for manhood), reflecting on the people who have remediless diseases and visiting them in the hospitals and knowing their status to remember the great bounties of Allah, not to look at the photos that stirs this disease (whether they are in newspapers or magazines or books or TV channels) and not to listen to songs or music because they are the mail and partner of the prohibited sexual intercourse.
“Also, the cure includes using the mind and making it busy with memorizing what you can from the Holy Qur`an and the Prophetic Sunnah (the best prayers and peace of Allah be upon its originator) and the Arab poetry, that makes speaking the language correct, and deserting the evil places and evil companies.”
My friend said: “now, I realized that I was in loss. I call Allah to witness, then I call you to witness, that I repented and returned to my Lord. May Allah forgive me and you too, and may He reward you well because of me.”
I said: “o my brother, may Allah guide us and you and every Muslim man and Muslim woman to success in the worldly life and Hereafter too. And may He make us hold fast to the truth till meeting Him. Indeed, we praise Him for the blessing of guidance and we thank Him for His grace.”
Dear repentant brother, you should know that if the slave is reminded and he remembered, and if he is taught and he learned, and if he is instructed and he understood; he is really has great good.
May Allah guide us all to the good intention and deed, and may He reveal to us the plans of the enemies. Indeed, He is able to do that.
Finally, prayers and peace of Allah be upon Muhammad and his family and companions.
Compiled by: Muhammad ibn Sirar ibn Ali Al-Dghish Al-Yami
Al-Watan house