“That is the good news which Allah gives to His servants who believe and do right actions. Say: ‘I do not ask you for any wage for this—except for you to love your near of kin.’ If anyone does a good action, We will increase the good of it for him. Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Ever-Thankful.” (Surat ash-Shura: 23)
The believer’s entire life is devoted to Allah. He lives for Allah, works for Allah and loves for Allah’s sake. A believer who knows Allah and sees His great mercy towards him, who realises that he exists through Him, that he lives through Allah’s mercy and that everything he loves and enjoys comes from Allah, naturally attains the nobility of loving Allah and loving for His sake. The great difference between believers and other people with regard to love is revealed in the Qur’an as follows:
“Some people set up equals to Allah, loving them as they should love Allah. But those who believe have greater love for Allah.” (Surat al-Baqara: 165)
As revealed in the verse, those who associate partners with Allah and, in their own minds, attribute to other beings qualities that belong entirely to Him love these beings as they should love Allah. This is a love founded on associating partners with Allah, in other words, on shirk.
Believers, however, know that everything that exists belongs to Allah and comes from Him, and they love Allah most. This great difference, arising from believers’ recognition of Allah as the One and Only, makes their understanding of love entirely different from that of other people. The Qur’an reveals that those who associate partners with Allah cannot bear to hear Allah mentioned as the One and Only.
“When you mention your Lord alone in the Qur’an, they turn their backs and run away.” (Surat al-Isra’: 46)
The truth the believer recognises is this: nothing possesses any beauty of its own. Allah creates everything, and it is He Who gives all things the qualities they possess.
Since a person, for example, has not designed and created his own face, the beauty in that face belongs to Allah. Allah has temporarily bestowed this beauty upon a human being whom He has created from nothing. Only Allah has the power to recreate this beauty in an even more perfect form in the Hereafter. To remind people that He Himself is the true Owner of beauty, He will also bring these beings to an end through death and through the Last Day, which is a more universal death. Creation anew will take place in the Hereafter.
For this reason, the believer loves all the beauty he encounters knowing that it belongs to Allah and that its original is in the Hereafter. Therefore, his love is directed above all towards Allah, Who gives him everything he loves and is its true Owner. Those who do not believe possess a love that is the complete opposite of this love the believer has, which is founded on faith in Allah. Their love is based on associating partners with Allah, on shirk. In the Qur’an, this kind of love is described in the words of the Prophet Ibrahim (as):
“Ibrahim said: ‘You have adopted idols apart from Allah as tokens of mutual affection in this world. But then on the Day of Rising you will reject one another and curse one another. The Fire will be your shelter. You will have no helpers.’” (Surat al-‘Ankabut: 25)
Bediuzzaman Said Nursi also describes those who possess this kind of love through an illuminating example:
“A man holds the mirror in his hand towards the sun. According to its capacity, that mirror receives from the sun a light, a radiance containing the seven colours, and a reflection. To that extent, it has a relationship with the sun and converses with it. If he directs that shining mirror towards his dark house or his private garden beneath a roof, he can benefit from the light only to the extent of the mirror’s capacity, not the power of the sun. The other man, however, puts the mirror aside and goes directly out into the sunlight, beholds its splendour and understands its greatness.” (Risale-i Nur Collection, The Words, p. 594)
The believer directs all his love towards Allah. Loving Allah means loving the beings in which Allah’s attributes are reflected, knowing that these names belong to Him.