55
Our Lord, as we see beautiful things around us,
this inspires love within our hearts
and encourages us to have dreams and wishes.
And indeed all our wishes and hopes come from none but You.
Our Lord, the Most Affectionate, is the One Whom the pious people love and to Whom the fearful and distressed turn for refuge and security.
He loves those who frequently repent and purify themselves. He is the Most Generous and the Most Bountiful of all those who are generous and bountiful.
Our Lord, Your giving is the most generous, Your mercy is the most vast, and Your refuge is the firmest, and You are with us when we are alone and the source of support when we are few and weak - Exalted are You!
We will talk here about Allah’s name “Al-Wadūd”.
Allah Almighty says: {...Indeed, my Lord is Most Merciful, Most Affectionate.} [Surat Hūd: 90] He also says: {And He is the All-Forgiving, the Most Affectionate, the Owner of the Throne, the Most Glorious.} [Surat al-Burūj: 14-15]
“Wadūd” is derived from “wudd”, which means love.
Our Lord, Exalted be He, shows affection towards His close servants by making them know Him and His sublime attributes.
His affection is particularly shown to His close and pious servants. He facilitates for them the means whereby they win His love and affection. Indeed, their hearts are attracted to His affection. As He mentions to them His beautiful names and great attributes, people with sound and untainted hearts feel inclined to love Him.
My Lord, my heart was empty before I loved You.
I used to engage in play and diversion with people.
Yet when Your love called my heart, it responded.
And ever since, it never leaves Your court.
Allah is the Most Affectionate. He endears Himself to sinners among His servants and shows affections to the repentant among them, facilitating for them the means by which they can attain His forgiveness and pardon, and shows them the signs of His vast mercy.
Allah Almighty says: {Say: “O My servants who have transgressed against themselves, do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, He is the All-Forgiving, the Most Merciful.”} [Surat az-Zumar: 53] He also says: {...And My mercy encompasses all things...} [Surat al-A‘rāf: 156]
Our Lord, Exalted be He, shows affection to His servants through His great favors and blessings, both apparent and hidden. He brought them into existence, gave them life, sustains their existence, reforms their affairs, and guides them to faith and Islam, which is the greatest of all blessings.
He is the Most Affectionate One. He loves them and they love Him. And He rewards them for their love for Him.
Indeed, this is utmost benevolence from Allah, the Bestower of favors.
When the meaning of Allah’s name “Al-Wadūd” is revealed to a person, his heart becomes attached to his Lord and he feels love and longing for Him and finds incomparable pleasure in his life.
Indeed, that is the greatest thing by which His servants worship Him and seek closeness to Him - love; {...He loves them, and they love Him...} [Surat al-Mā’idah: 54]
A person’s faith in Allah is as pure as his knowledge of His names and attributes.
The believer knows that this condition can only exist through the power and will of Allah Almighty. If Allah, the Most Affectionate, loves a servant, He puts love in his heart; and when the servant loves Him, through guidance from Allah, He still rewards him with additional love, and that is utter benevolence from the Almighty Lord, as it all comes from Him.
Indeed, if a person loves his Lord truly, his love will yield sincere servitude to Him alone and will entail that he should love anyone and anything loved by Allah and hate anyone and anything that He hates. This is the essence of allegiance and dissociation. {You will not find any people who believe in Allah and the Last Day taking as allies those who oppose Allah and His Messenger, even if they were their parents, their children, their brothers, or their kindred. It is they in whose hearts Allah has instilled faith and strengthened them with a spirit from Him. He will admit them to gardens under which rivers flow, abiding therein forever. Allah is pleased with them and they are pleased with Allah. They are the party of Allah. Indeed, it is the party of Allah that will be the successful.} [Surat al-Mujādilah: 22]
A true believer shows love for Allah by such words and deeds that win His love, the greatest of which is obeying Allah Almighty and His Messenger (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him). Our Lord says: {Say [O Muhammad]: “If you really love Allah, then follow me, and Allah will love you...”} [Surat Ᾱl ‘Imrān: 31]
A person continues to adhere to such things that are dear to his Lord and hasten to do whatever is pleasing to Him until he wins His love and closeness. “If Allah Almighty loves a servant, He calls upon Jibrīl (Gabriel) and says: ‘Verily, Allah loves so-and-so; so love him.’ So, Gabriel loves him and calls upon the inhabitants of the heavens: ‘Verily, Allah loves so-and-so; so love him.’ The inhabitants of the heavens thus love him, and then he is granted acceptance on the earth.” [Narrated by Al-Bukhāri]
Allah Almighty says: {Those who believe and do righteous deeds, the Most Compassionate will endear them [to His creation].} [Surat Maryam: 96]
When Allah Almighty loves a servant, He becomes “his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he seizes, and his leg with which he walks.” [Narrated by Al-Bukhāri]
Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy upon him) said: “There are ten means by which a person can win Allah’s love:
1. Reciting the Qur’an and understanding and pondering its meanings and objectives.
2. Seeking closeness to Allah through supererogatory acts of worship after performing the obligatory ones.
3. Remembering Allah at all times and in all situations, by the tongue and heart, and through the deeds and in all circumstances.
4. Preferring the things He loves over the things one loves when one’s personal inclinations become so intense.
5. Considering, observing, and knowing His names and attributes.
6. Observing His kindness, benevolence, and blessings, the apparent and hidden.
7. Having his heart in complete submission to the Almighty Lord.
8. Being in seclusion with Him when He descends to the heaven of this world and engaging in private talk with Him.
9. Sitting with those who love Him and are sincere to Him and picking up the good fruits from their speech.
10. Keeping away from any reason that may stand as a barrier between one’s heart and the Almighty Lord.”
Not all those who love are gratified by their loved ones, nor all those who are called respond.
When the lovers hear the call of their beloved Lord: “Come to prayer; come to success”, they get out of their beds, push sleep away, and rise up to their feet, be it in the extreme cold or the severe heat. It is as if they are walking on silk. And when they hear: “Come to struggle”, they rush to sacrifice their lives and shed their blood in the cause of their Lord.
When {...spend from what We have provided for you...} [Surat al-Baqarah: 254] is recited to them, they vie with one another in giving from their most precious and dearest possessions. They give like those who do not fear poverty. And when they hear {...and due to Allah upon the people is pilgrimage to the House...} [Surat Āl ‘Imrān: 97], they come from all places and directions and cross long distances and rough terrain, weary and thirsty, saying: “Here we are, our Lord, at Your service. There is no partner with You.”
Their condition is that of true lovers. A poet says it rightly:
“He whose heart is empty of intense love cannot know how love grips the heart so powerfully.”
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Rūmi said: “Love turns bitterness into sweetness, dust into gold, trouble into ease, pain into recovery, prison into a spacious garden, ailment into a blessing, and oppression into mercy. It relents and softens what is hard and stiff, and it resurrects the dead and instills life into them.”
My Lord, I hope to make You pleased and I do not care if all people become displeased with me.
If I obtain Your affection and love, I do not mind if my relation sours with everyone else. All that is now above dust will one day turn into dust.
Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy upon him) said about love: “It is the secret in our deification of Allah, and its monotheism is: There is no god except Allah.”
While the Prophet (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) was delivering a speech to the people, a Bedouin stood up and said: “When will the Hour be, O Messenger of Allah?” He said: “What have you prepared for it?” He replied: “I have not prepared for it much prayer, fasting, or charity. But I love Allah and His Messenger.” The Prophet (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) said to him: “You will be with those you love.” [Narrated by Al-Bukhāri and Muslim]
I love the righteous, though I do not claim to be one of them, hoping to attain intercession because of them.
And I hate those who frequently sin, even if they and I are alike in this regard.
Harim ibn Hayyān said: “No one turns to Allah Almighty with his heart except that Allah turns to him with the hearts of the believers until He grants him their love.”
The believer is affectionate and friendly; he loves and is loved, and he is easy to get along with. The Prophet (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The believer gets along with others, and they get along with him.” [Narrated by Al-Tabarāni in Al-Mu‘jam al-Awsat] [Hasan (sound)] This is because he wishes good for his fellow Muslims and does not hurt or harm them in any way. It is authentically reported that the Prophet (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) used to supplicate saying: “Allāhumma wa as’aluka hubbaka wa hubba man yuhibbuka wa hubba ‘amalin yuqarribuni ila hubbika (O Allah, I ask You Your love, the love of those who love You, and the love of an act that brings me closer to Your love).” [Narrated by Al-Tirmidhi; Sahīh (authentic)]
O Allah, our Most Affectionate Lord, we ask You for Your love, the love of those who love You, and the love of an act that brings us closer to Your love.
--