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LOVE AND DEVOTION WITH SAINTS

We have said that love and devotion is not only carnal and biological; there is another kind of love and attraction, which is found in a higher phenomenon, basically lying beyond the sphere of matter and materialism. It emanates from an instinct superior to that of biological preservation. This in fact is the line of distinction between the human and the animal worlds. To love human merits and glories and be fond of human beauty and charm is abstract love and for that reason human:

Love which is after a complexion,

Is not love, it ends in humiliation,

Because the love of the dead is not durable,

As the dead never reverts to us.

The love of the Living in the body and in the vision

Gives them both, freshness more than a budding flower has.

Love that Alive Who always exists,

Who is cup-bearer of wine of life.

Adopt His love all Prophets,


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From Whose Love achieved all their aims and glories.

And it is this love which in the many verses of the Quran has been described as, "Mohabat and Vod or Movaddat" such verses can be divided into a few categories: -

(1) The verses which describe the merits of the believers and the intensity of their love with God or with their co-believers:

Those who believe are serious in Allah's love. Those, who were settled before the migrators in homes, are settled in the realm of faith, they wel­comed the emigrants and felt no indignation in their hearts for what they parted in favour of migrators, rather gave them preference, may be they needed it more.

(2) The verses which describe Allah's love with the believers:

2.222 God loves the penitent and the pious.

3.148 God loves the virtuous.

5.13

9:4,7 God loves those who practise continence.

9:1.8 God loves the pious.

49.9 God loves the just.

60.8

(3) The verses, which describe both-ways love and love in reciprocity Love of God towards the faithful and love of the faithful towards God, and love of the faithful towards each other.


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3.31 Say: If you love Allah, follow me so that God may love you and forgive your sins.

5.54 Allah will raise a nation whom He loves and they love Him.

19.96 Those who have become the believers and have done good deeds, Allah the merciful bestows love on them.

30.21 Allah ordains compassion between you and your spouses and confers love.

And it is the very same love and affection, which Ibrahim wished for his posterity, and which last of the Prophets besought from Allah Almighty for his kith and kin. What is deduced from traditions is that the pith and substance of faith is nothing other than love. Bareed Ajli says, "I was in that session of Imam Baqir when a traveler came from Khorasan. He had covered that long distance on foot. He appeared before the Imam. When he removed his footwears, his feet were ruptured and split. He said: 'By God, but for your love nothing has brought me here'. The Imam said, 'I swear by Allah, even if a stone loves us. God will resurrect it along with us and install it in our vicinity on the day of the Judgment'. The Imam also said "Is faith anything other than love"?

One man said to Imam Sadiq, "We name our children after your and your fore-fathers' names; has this practice got any benefits for us"? The Imam replied: "Yes, by God faith is nothing but love". Thereafter he recited, "If you love Allah, obey me (Prophet) so that Allah may love you".


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Basically love and affection would generate obedience. The lover does not have the will to betray the wishes of the beloved. We see with our own eyes that a youthful lover would forego everything for the sake of his beloved, and would sacrifice everything for the sake of his beloved. The obedience and worship of Allah by a man is proportionate to love and devotion he has for God; as Imam Sadiq has said," You disobey God and yet profess love with Him. Because friend is one who obeys whom one claims to be his friend'.