Is there evidence in the saying of Allah the Exalted, “And those who believe are more intense in their love for Allah,” that the believers love Allah more than the polytheists do?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, regarding His saying, Glorified and Exalted is He: "And among the people are those who take others besides Allah as equals"
The Shaykh:
So they are other than Allah.
The questioner:
[Al-Baqarah 2:165] Is it a valid interpretation that the believers love Allah more intensely than the polytheists love Allah?
The Shaykh:
Yes, I have explained it in this way: the believers are more intense in their love for Allah than the love of the polytheists for Allah. Each group loves Allah, both the believers and the polytheists, but the believers’ love is pure, so they are more intense in their love for Allah, while the polytheists’ love contains shirk (associating partners with Allah), so it is deficient and invalid.
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, regarding His saying, Glorified and Exalted is He: "And among the people are those who take others besides Allah as equals"
The Shaykh:
So they are other than Allah.
The questioner:
among the people are those who take other than Allah as equals [to Him]. They love them as they [should] love Allah. But those who believe are stronger in love for Allah.
يَتَّخِذُ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ أَندَادًا يُحِبُّونَهُمْ كَحُبِّ اللَّهِ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَشَدُّ حُبًّا لِّلَّهِThe Shaykh:
Yes, I have explained it in this way: the believers are more intense in their love for Allah than the love of the polytheists for Allah. Each group loves Allah, both the believers and the polytheists, but the believers’ love is pure, so they are more intense in their love for Allah, while the polytheists’ love contains shirk (associating partners with Allah), so it is deficient and invalid.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [471 /641] هل في قوله تعالى (والذين آمنوا أشدا حبا لله) دليل بأن المؤمنين أشد حبا لله من المشركين؟ — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.