The Answer to Those Who Deny the Attribute of Love.
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The Shaykh : The second path. As for the conceptual aspects, it is clear that a single ruling can be indicated by multiple pieces of evidence. For example, the obligation of ritual purity for prayer: is there one piece of evidence or multiple? There are multiple pieces of evidence.
So, if you say that reason does not indicate the establishment of love between the Creator and the created, then revelation has indicated it with the clearest and most explicit evidence.
Second: the denial. What is the denial? It is that we deny your claim that reason does not indicate it, and we say rather that reason does indicate the establishment of love between the Creator and the created, as we mentioned earlier.
As for your statement that love only exists between similar things, it is sufficient for us to say: no acceptance, no acceptance, because denial is sufficient to refute the argument, since the original state is non-existence. So we say your claim that it only exists between similar things is denied; rather, it exists between dissimilar things. A man has an old, precise clock. He has not bothered to maintain it. Every day he goes to the shop to the repairman and says, "Fix it." The repairman says, "By Allah, this is my beloved; its strap is its adornment; it has never broken down." Does he love it or not? Then he gets a clock that costs a riyal a day to repair. Does he hate it or not? He hates it, and sometimes he breaks it because he does not want it.
Also, we find that animals love and are loved, or not? This man has a camel that kicks him, meaning it strikes him with its leg until he falls, yes. And if he leads it, it rebels against him. And if he rides it, it tires him out; it turns right, it goes left. And he has another camel that is docile. When it sees him, it lowers its head, yes, and relaxes all its joints, as if it is saying, "Ride, but do not speak." And when he rides it and calls for it to stand, it stands with ease and goes wherever he wants. Which one does he prefer? The second one. He loves it and it loves him; it is accustomed to him. This is something experienced and observed. So it becomes clear that this claim is denied and invalid. And with this we say, praise be to Allah, we testify to Allah that we affirm love between Allah and His servants, and we ask Allah to make us among His beloved. Yes.
So, if you say that reason does not indicate the establishment of love between the Creator and the created, then revelation has indicated it with the clearest and most explicit evidence.
Second: the denial. What is the denial? It is that we deny your claim that reason does not indicate it, and we say rather that reason does indicate the establishment of love between the Creator and the created, as we mentioned earlier.
As for your statement that love only exists between similar things, it is sufficient for us to say: no acceptance, no acceptance, because denial is sufficient to refute the argument, since the original state is non-existence. So we say your claim that it only exists between similar things is denied; rather, it exists between dissimilar things. A man has an old, precise clock. He has not bothered to maintain it. Every day he goes to the shop to the repairman and says, "Fix it." The repairman says, "By Allah, this is my beloved; its strap is its adornment; it has never broken down." Does he love it or not? Then he gets a clock that costs a riyal a day to repair. Does he hate it or not? He hates it, and sometimes he breaks it because he does not want it.
Also, we find that animals love and are loved, or not? This man has a camel that kicks him, meaning it strikes him with its leg until he falls, yes. And if he leads it, it rebels against him. And if he rides it, it tires him out; it turns right, it goes left. And he has another camel that is docile. When it sees him, it lowers its head, yes, and relaxes all its joints, as if it is saying, "Ride, but do not speak." And when he rides it and calls for it to stand, it stands with ease and goes wherever he wants. Which one does he prefer? The second one. He loves it and it loves him; it is accustomed to him. This is something experienced and observed. So it becomes clear that this claim is denied and invalid. And with this we say, praise be to Allah, we testify to Allah that we affirm love between Allah and His servants, and we ask Allah to make us among His beloved. Yes.