"Say: "if your fathers and your sons, your brethren and your wives, your kinsfolk and the property you have acquired, the commerce you fear may slacken and the dwellings which you love if these are dearer to you than God and His Apostle and striving in His way, then wait till God brings His command; God does not guide an ungodly people." -Holy Qur'an 9:24
This ayah clearly indicates that the love of God has precedence over everything and whatever that one may love in one's life. The Holy Qur'an points out in another verse that the believers "love of God is greater than that of anything else, but that some people love certain things as much as they love God:
And there are some among men who take for themselves objects of worship besides God. Whom they love as they love God, and those who believe are stronger in love for God..." - Holy Qur'an 2:165
That is, God is the source of all love just as He is the source of all that exists. That love is an attribute of God is affirmed implicitly by numerous Qur'anic verses. Hence love for God is the foundation of belief, the foundation on which man is to establish the principles of his faith. This is also affirmed by reason. It may be noted that Allah because He has done good to you and He has bestowed favors upon you.
Fudayl ib al-Yasar a disciple asked Imam Al-Sadiq whether love and hate derive from faith, he replied: "Is faith anything but love and hate?"
It is also narrated that Imam Al-Baqir stated that "Religion is love and love is religion".
As these statements and traditions indicate, love plays an important role in Islamic doctrine. Hence it deserves our close attention in order that we may discover the real meaning of the concept.
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