Explanation of the Author's Statement: Chapter: The Saying of Allah the Exalted: “And of the people are those who take besides Allah equals whom they love as they love Allah”

The Shaykh : The author (may Allah have mercy on him) made the verse the title, and thus we know what this title is. In reality, we can say that it means the chapter on love. Know that the foundation of all deeds is love; a person does not act except for what he loves, either to gain a benefit or to ward off a harm. — If you move back a little, so that you are not with these people or those people, and come closer to these people so that you are pure with them — I say that everything revolves around love. Therefore, when you do something, why? Because you love it, whether you love it for its own sake or for the sake of something else. A person's love for this delicious, savory food is love for its own sake, and his love for bitter medicine with a foul smell is love for the sake of something else. Likewise, when you leave something, what is the basis of your leaving it? It is love. Therefore, all of a person's actions and desires are built upon love. It is, then, the foundation of everything; it is the foundation of everything. If a person has love for Allah in his heart, and for reaching His honor and His Paradise, he will follow the path that leads to that, which is the worship of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). Worship, then, what is its foundation? It is love. In fact, it is the reality of worship, for if you worship Allah without love, your worship becomes a shell with no spirit. The original foundation, the entire foundation, is love. This is why the polytheists, when they loved their gods, this love led them to worship them besides Allah or along with Allah. The author pointed to this by saying: But we divide love before beginning to explain the verses and hadiths.
We say that love is originally divided into two categories: love of worship and love other than worship. Love is either love of worship, meaning love intended for worship and glorification, or love other than that, meaning it is not love of worship. The first, which I mean by love of worship, is not valid except for Allah (Mighty and Majestic). Whoever loves someone other than Allah with love of worship is a mushrik (one who associates partners with Allah) committing major shirk (associating partners with Allah). As mentioned before, worship is humility, submission, and glorification, and it is that a person’s heart holds a reverence and glorification of the beloved that necessitates obeying His command and avoiding His prohibition. This is love of worship, which is specific to Allah (Mighty and Majestic). Some scholars refer to it as specific love, and it is not valid except for Allah. As for love that is not worship, it is divided into categories:
One of them is that what brings it about is love for Allah (Mighty and Majestic), meaning that the motive for this love is love for Allah. This is love in Allah and for Allah, whereby a person loves what Allah loves of actions, persons, places, and times. This is a branch of the first, a branch of what? The first, love of worship. Did you note that?
We said the second category has types. The first is that the motive for this love is love of worship, and this is in loving what Allah loves of actions, persons, times, and places. This type is attached to the first type, the category of what? Worship, because love for Allah is in the category of love in Allah, as it is a branch of it. From this is a person’s love for the messengers (peace and blessings be upon them), the prophets, the truthful, the martyrs, and the righteous. From this is a person’s love for doing good. Yes, a person’s love for doing good; he loves, for example, prayer, as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: He loves zakah (the obligatory alms). Yes, he loves purity and the like. Likewise, he loves this place because Allah loves it, such as our love for the Ka'bah, the mosques, Uhud, and the like. Likewise, a person’s love for what Allah the Exalted loves of times, meaning the times in which He loves the work, such as a person’s love for the ten days and Ramadan and the like, because it is a time of worship, so it is like a place of worship. I say that this type is what? It follows the first category, which is love for Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He).
The second type: from this type that is not love of worship, the second type is love of compassion and mercy, such as a person’s love for his child, and a person’s love for the weak among the poor, the young, the sick, and the many, and the like. A person loves them with love of compassion, tenderness, and mercy. Did you understand or not? Good.
The third type of this category: love of reverence and glorification, not worship, such as a person’s love for his father, his teacher, and the elder among the people of good, and the like. This is love of reverence and glorification, but it is not love of worship. A person does not feel that he loves his father as he loves his Lord; rather, he finds a difference between the two worships, a difference that a person tastes in himself. No one speaks while I am explaining; a person tastes it in himself. This type is considered not to be of the type of worship, like the type before it.
The fourth type of the second category: love necessitated by nature. What is it? It is not love of reverence or glorification, nor tenderness or compassion, such as a person’s love for food, drink, clothing, dwelling, riding, and marriage, and the like. This is love of what? Love necessitated by nature. Reverence and glorification do not motivate it, nor do compassion or tenderness, but because his nature inclines to it. A person’s love for sleep when tired. The important thing is that it has many instances. These are four types, all of which do not fall into the category of worship. But the noblest of them is the first type, love for Allah and in Allah. This is the noblest of these types. As for the rest, they are considered from the category of permissible (mubah). If what necessitates worship is associated with them, they become worship. For example, a person’s love for his father out of reverence and glorification, if it is associated with worshipping Allah with this love in order to fulfill his duty to his father, this love becomes worship and beneficial. Likewise, a person’s love for his child with love of compassion and tenderness, if it is associated with what necessitates fulfilling the command of Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) by reforming this child, raising him, and attending to his interests, it becomes worship. Likewise, natural love, such as a person’s love for his food, drink, marriage, dwelling, riding, companion, and friend, if he intends by it to seek assistance in worshipping Allah (Mighty and Majestic), then this is considered worship. For this reason, two things from this world were made beloved to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): women and perfume. They were made beloved to him because that is the requirement of nature, and because of the great benefits that follow, some of which al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar alluded to in *Fath al-Bari* in the chapter of al-Bukhari: “Chapter on the Multiplicity of Women”. He addressed the multiplicity of the Messenger’s (peace and blessings be upon him) wives and mentioned the great benefits therein. Likewise, perfume is loved by a person because it suits the pure soul. And Allah is pure and does not accept except what is pure. And because it energizes the soul, relaxes it, and opens the chest. So, if a person takes it as a means of drawing near to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), it becomes worship. This is what comes to my mind now regarding the categories and types of worship. So, worship: what is the first? We divide it into two categories: love of worship and love other than worship. As for love of worship, it is not to be except for Allah alone (Glorified and Exalted is He), and it is not permissible for anyone to love anyone with love of worship and glorification of worship except Allah alone, who has no partner. As for other than worship, it is in these four types. Love necessitated by the first category, which is love for Allah, is love necessitated by love for Allah, which is love in Allah and for Allah. It is mentioned to you that a man, a worshipper who is good to Allah’s servants, is in a country far from you, whom you do not see or know, and you love him. This love is why? For Allah (Mighty and Majestic). For Allah. This love, I said, is in reality a branch of the first category, so it is worship, as will come, if Allah wills, in the hadiths.
And the second is love of the second type: love of compassion, mercy, and tenderness, such as a father’s love for his child, and a person’s love for the weak, or not? And the poor, the orphan, and the like.
And the third category: love of reverence and glorification, but it is not worship, such as a person’s love for his father, his teacher, and the elderly shaykh (scholar) among the Muslims, and the like.
The fourth: The fourth type is a love that nature demands, such as the love of eating, drinking, clothing, and marriage, and the like. We said that these things may become an act of worship depending on the purpose and the intention; otherwise, their original status is that they fall under the category of the permissible, for which no reward or reward is decreed, nor is it considered a sin or a punishment. However, if they are intended as an act of worship for Allah and to draw near to Him, they become an act of worship.

The questioner : O Shaykh ... .

The Shaykh : The evidence is the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him): Therefore, it is an act of worship because it is a means to that. The scholars said: "What is necessary for the completion of an obligatory act is itself obligatory" and they said: "Means have the rulings of their ends" This is a matter on which there is consensus. Now, let us return to explaining the verses.