People Worth Envying

Those who make God the object of their love and the centre of all one’s feelings and emotions, also become God’s beloved. This is the highest level of faith.

According to Sunan Al-Baihaqi, there is a tradition recorded in different books of Hadith which says: “‘So, I tell you of those who will neither be prophets nor martyrs but on the day of judgement the prophets and the martyrs will envy them, because of their rank with God. There they will be on the pulpit (raised platform) of the light.’ The Prophet was asked who they would be. The Prophet said, ‘They are those who make efforts to bring people to love God, and so enable them that God loves them and they walk the earth as the well-wishers of others.’” (Shu‘abul Iman of Al-Baihaqi, Hadith No. 405)

Who are these people whom even prophets would envy? They are those who discover God in such a way that God becomes their beloved, who live in the love of God. There is no being greater than God, therefore, no act can be greater than the love of God. When one lives in the love of God, he will also try to give to others what he has discovered for himself. He will expend all his energy in the effort to make others also discover God in the same way, so that the realization of God may become embedded in their hearts, and God becomes the Being whom they love most, and who is the centre of all their feelings and emotions. Those who make God the object of their love in this way, also become God’s beloved–this is the highest level of faith.