The khutbah on Jumu’ah this time (7th December 2012) spoke on something that is close to our hearts. Well, in it actually. It can give us strength and bring out the best in us. That something is love but not just any kind of love; it is the one that transcends all others: it is the love for Allah SWT.

It exists in all of us and is further strengthened by having faith in Him and His attributes. To truly love Allah S.W.T however, this faith translates into two things:

1. Abiding and obeying all that which has been commanded by Allah
2. Love for all of His creations

Below is my reflection on the two points made during the khutbah:

When we love someone, we’d do everything within our capacity to make him/her happy and to ensure that he/she stays happy.  We’d try our best to avoid making him/her sad or angry at us by not doing things that displeases him/her right? We are willing to go to great lengths for their sake as proof of our love but here, this is not our parents, siblings, spouses or our children that the focus is on; this is our creator and sustainer, Allah SWT. Anyone can claim to love Allah. Giving lip service is easy. It could even be as simple as a click of a button to “show” that love but let’s ask ourselves this:

Can I honestly say that I love Allah when I’m consciously doing things that would result in His displeasure?

Does He not deserve more than what we’d do for the people we love?  This is why conscientious effort is needed on our part to strive in the things that Allah has commanded of us and refrain from the things that He has prohibited as proof of that love.

To love Allah is to love all of His creations. Why? It’s because He created it; emphasis on the word “He”. There is no other way about it for it is through His creations that Allah gives us a glimpse of His attributes. The fact that we can feel or even know what love is is because of that.

Could we have known what love is had it not been for our mothers who nursed us as a baby or our fathers who taught us wrong from right?  Thus, respect and care has to be given to all of His creations especially our own family. It is by extension of our love of Allah and His attributes that we love His creations as well.

It is not through the mutual exclusion of our love for only Allah, Rasulullah(S) or people but it is when we combine the love of all three would we be able to taste sweetness of faith.

Fadhuli Taufek
Fadhuli is an aspiring writer and believes in putting in the time and effort into meaningful causes. He strives to improve himself as a person and as a Muslim.