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    Allah Loves
    Allah Loves
    Allah Loves
    Ebook132 pages1 hour

    Allah Loves

    By Omar Suleiman

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    About this ebook

    In Allah Loves… Omar Suleiman explores who and what Allah loves so that we may become one of those who are beloved to Him.

    The Prophet Muhammad said that one of the supplications of Prophet Dawud was, “O Allah I ask You for Your love and the love of those that love You and all of those actions that would bring me closer to being loved by you.”

    Looking at our actions, characteristics and beliefs, this book will help us become better people, citizens and believers that are deserving of Allah's endless, infinite and ever-lasting love.

    Made up of 30 short and spiritually enriching chapters, this book is a reminder that throughout our lives, the Creator's love is always there, increasing through everyday actions such as showing generosity or remaining consistent with unnoticeable good deeds.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherKube Publishing Ltd
    Release dateApr 7, 2020
    ISBN9781847741363
    Allah Loves
    Author

    Omar Suleiman

    Imam Omar Suleiman is the Founder and President of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, and an Adjunct Professor of Islamic Studies in the Graduate Liberal Studies Program at SMU (Southern Methodist University). He is also the Resident Scholar at Valley Ranch Islamic Center and Co-Chair of Faith Forward Dallas at Thanks-Giving Square. He holds a Bachelors in Accounting, a Bachelors in Islamic Law, a Masters in Islamic Finance, a Masters in Political History, and is currently pursuing a PhD. in Islamic Thought and Civilization from the International Islamic University of Malaysia.

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    • 5/5
      Short and precise! With verses from Quran and authentic Hadith.
      Loved it!
    • 5/5
      Amazing book. One of the best I have come across so far. Covers every aspect of islam in our daily lives.
    • 5/5
      As a hindu if I read quoran i don't understand it but on this book the principles are so wonderfully explained leading me to believe one God irrespective of religion
    • 5/5
      Almighty Allah continue to bless sheikh Omar S for his work and looking forward to more books

    Book preview

    Allah Loves - Omar Suleiman

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     Introduction 

    The Prophet Muhammad ( peace be upon him ) said that one of the supplications of Prophet D ā w ū d ( peace be upon him ) was that he would say, اللَّهمَّ إِنِّي أَسْأَلُكَ حُبَّكَ , O Allah I ask You for Your love, وَحُبَّ مَنْ يُحِبُّكَ , and the love of those who love You, وَالْعَمَلَ الَّذِي يُبَلِّغُنِي حُبَّكَ , and all of the actions that would bring me closer to being loved by You.

    Our aim should constantly be to pursue Allah’s pleasure; pursue the reward that He has promised. Furthermore, one should avoid the things that He has told us to stay away from, but to know that one is loved by Allah, that is the pinnacle. To strive and remain constantly focussed on that goal to pursue Allah’s love and to meet Him in that state of love is the most special and sacred level that a human being can attain. In thirty short chapters this book will look at who, and what qualities and characteristics Allah loves and how we may become people who are loved by Allah and do things that Allah loves.

    1 Allah Loves

     Piety 

    The most frequent references in the Qur’an to the love of Allah come in relation to taqw ā , piety. Surah al-Baqarah starts with this beautiful ā yah :

    الم۔. ذَلِكَ الْكِتَابُ لاَ رَيْبَ فِيهِ هُدًى لِّلْمُتَّقِينَ

    Alif. Lam. Mim. This is a Book in which there is no doubt, it is a guidance for people of taqwā.

    People of taqwā, people of piety, are the ones Allah loves. He says in the Qur’an: فَإِنَّ اللهَ یُحِبُّ الْمُتَّقِینَ, And Allah loves the people of piety.

    The very first command that Allah gives to humanity in the Qur’an is:

    يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اعْبُدُواْ رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ وَالَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ

    O humanity, worship your Lord who created you and created those who came before you so that you may have taqwā, so that you may be conscious of Him.

    Specifically, with regards to fasting, Allah declares to us that:

    كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ

    Fasting was prescribed upon you the way it was prescribed to those before you so that you may attain taqwā, so that you may attain piety.

    One may ask how is this connected to Allah’s love?

    The starting point is how we understand Divine in the first place. Allah created us not to hate us, but to love us. Allah created us not to fail, but to succeed. Allah created us not to burn in Hell but to go to Heaven. He gave us everything that we needed to attain His reward. He has given us all the essentials needed to attain His pleasure but do we clearly understand and comprehend the fact that we are on this path back to Him, that we don’t want to do anything that will compromise His love for us?

    There is an ongoing debate about what the true meaning of taqwā is: does it mean to be in fear of Him, or to be conscious of Him? What does piety even mean? What does it mean to be God-conscious? How can I fear Him if I need to love Him? If you translate for example اَللهُ یُحِبُّ الْمُتَّقِین as God loves those who fear Him, then this would need further explanation. Ibn al-Qayyim said that when you fear something, you run away from it, but when you fear Allah, you run back to Him. And so the fear of Allah is not the kind that would cause you to flee from Him but to come back to Him because that fear is not like the fear of anything else. Taqwā is inadequately understood when defined only in a context of fear.

    So how do we merge fear and love? We fear losing His love and that is actually why Ramadan is such an effective way for us to learn how to not lose His love. In Ramadan, we observe carefully how and what we consume. We physically make sure that we don’t consume anything that is going to nullify our fast. Likewise, in our daily lives we make sure that we don’t consume anything that would spiritually nullify Allah’s love for us. We pay closer attention to ourselves. The narration that really encapsulates this is that from ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) who said that, "Taqwā is like a person who’s walking on a path again and again, and on this path back to Allah there are thorny bushes on the way, when they witness these thorny bushes close to them, they pull themselves in tighter to make sure that the thorns don’t tear their clothes or prick them. And ʿUmar’s grandson, ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, said that Taqwā isn’t praying long into the night, it isn’t fasting long into the day; it is that you abandon everything that is displeasing to Allah. Everything beyond that is iḥsān, is excellence."

    Tying taqwā to the love of Allah is very important. Are we showing Allah that we want to be loved by Him? Are we demonstrating it by our deeds in a translatable way, that we’re not going to do anything that is going to dissatisfy His pleasure? Imam al-Ghazālī said something very profound, The greatest consequence of sin is not the punishment that comes with it, but the distance that comes between you and Allah. If we were created by God to return to Him in a state that is pleasing to Him and if He has given us everything that is needed to do so, then to demonstrate our desire to be loved, we should show caution with things that compromise that love. Taqwā is that constant effort and mindset that we are steering back to Allah, and the most practical way to deal with this is, that when we’re thinking about saying something that is displeasing to Allah, we stop ourselves because we don’t want to earn His displeasure. When we see something, and we don’t stare at it because we know it could earn the displeasure of Allah. When we’re about to do something that could earn the displeasure of Allah, we stop ourselves because we know that the greatest consequence is distance from Him. Indeed, the greatest way to be loved by Allah is to show we fear losing that love.

    May Allah allow us to never compromise our love for Him, and may Allah entrench within us taqwā, that God-consciousness, and may Allah keep us in His favour. Āmīn.

    Indeed, the greatest way to be loved by Allah is to show we fear losing that love.

    2 Allah Loves

     Repentance 

    As discussed in the previous chapter, with taqw ā or piety, we have to avoid the thorny bushes that are on the road to Allah. We are meant to go back to Allah, but these obstacles keep getting in the way. We are inevitably going to be pricked by a thorn and there’s absolutely nothing we can do about it. The Prophet ( peace be upon him ) said, Every single one of the children of Adam is a sinner. Every single one of us is going to commit sins, is going to get pricked. We’re going to fall behind and the best amongst us are those who are going to come back to Allah, وَخَيْرُ الْخَطَّائِينَ التَّوَّابُونَ , the best of those who make mistakes are the ones

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