The Difference Between Natural Love and Lawful Love
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, how do we distinguish between natural love and religious, lawful love?
Answer:
The distinction is clear, my brother. Natural love is not something for which one is held accountable. You love your children, you love wealth, you love the people who are kind to you. This is natural love; it carries no reward and no sin. As for the love of Allah, that is worship. It is not natural. It is worship upon which righteous deeds are built, upon which the oneness of Allah (tawhid) is built, and so on. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, how do we distinguish between natural love and religious, lawful love?
Answer:
The distinction is clear, my brother. Natural love is not something for which one is held accountable. You love your children, you love wealth, you love the people who are kind to you. This is natural love; it carries no reward and no sin. As for the love of Allah, that is worship. It is not natural. It is worship upon which righteous deeds are built, upon which the oneness of Allah (tawhid) is built, and so on. Yes.
Source
شرح إغاثة اللهفان من مصائد الشيطان لابن القيم، تتمة فصل فيما في الشرك والزنا واللواطة من الخبث — islamhouse.com (46:53)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.