In His saying, the Exalted: "And those who believe are more loving of Allah," does this mean: more loving of Allah than the polytheists are of their gods?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, what is the stronger position in interpreting the saying of Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He:[Al-Baqarah 2:165] Does it mean that they love Allah more than the polytheists love their gods, or more than the earth?
Answer:
There are two opinions. The first opinion is that the believers are more loving of Allah than the polytheists are of Allah, because the love of the believers is pure, while the love of the polytheists is mixed. The second opinion is that the polytheists do not love Allah at all, but rather they love their idols as they love Allah, the Mighty and Majestic,[Al-Baqarah 2:165] meaning they love their idols only with a love equal to the love of the believers for Allah, the Mighty and Majestic. Yes.
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, what is the stronger position in interpreting the saying of Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He:
But those who believe are stronger in love for Allah
وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَشَدُّ حُبًّا لِّلَّهِAnswer:
There are two opinions. The first opinion is that the believers are more loving of Allah than the polytheists are of Allah, because the love of the believers is pure, while the love of the polytheists is mixed. The second opinion is that the polytheists do not love Allah at all, but rather they love their idols as they love Allah, the Mighty and Majestic,
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
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [929 /1350] في قوله تعالى "والذين آمنوا أشد حبا لله" هل معناه: أشد حبا لله من المشركين لآلهتهم؟ — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.