The Difference Between Love for the Sake of Allah and Love Alongside Allah

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Question:
This questioner says: Honorable Shaykh, what is the difference between love for the sake of Allah and love alongside Allah? Please clarify this for us, may Allah reward you.

Answer:
Love alongside Allah is shirk (associating partners with Allah), as Allah the Exalted said:

And [yet], among the people are those who take other than Allah as equals [to Him]. They love them as they [should] love Allah.

وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَن يَتَّخِذُ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ أَندَادًا يُحِبُّونَهُمْ كَحُبِّ اللَّهِ

[Al-Baqarah 2:165]

They combined in their love between Allah and the idols. This is shirk because worship must be pure for Allah (Mighty and Majestic). Loving Allah is worship, and it is not permissible to associate anyone else with Him in it. This is love alongside Allah, which is shirk. As for love for the sake of Allah, it is obedience, and it is that you love those whom Allah loves, namely the awliya (close friends of Allah) and His beloved ones (Glorified and Exalted is He). This is among the foundations of faith and of the religion: love for the sake of Allah and hatred for the sake of Allah. And the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

There are three things for which whomever has them, then he has tasted the sweetness of faith: The one for whom Allah and His Messenger are more beloved than anything else; whoever loves someone and he does not love him except for the sake of Allah, and whoever hates to return to disbelief after Allah has saved him from it, just as he hates to be thrown into fire.

ثلاث من كن فيه وجد بهن حلاوة الإيمان أن يكون الله ورسوله أحب إليه مما سواهما، وأن يحب المرء لا يحبه إلا لله، وأن يكره أن يعود في الكفر بعد إذ أنقذه الله كما يكره أن يطرق في النار.

Jami` at-Tirmidhi 2624Sahih (Darussalam)

Yes.

Source قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 6498- الفرق بين الحب في الله والحب مع الله - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

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