Real Love, Relative Love

God alone is the giver of all bounties. When man acknowledges these blessings wholeheartedly, that is another name for the love of God.

Chapter two of the Quran tells us that the believers love God most (2:165). What does it mean to love God? Religious scholars generally say that ‘love of God’ means submission to God. On the other hand, the Sufis hold that loving God means having an intense love (Ishq) for God. Neither of these explanations is a correct interpretation of this verse of the Quran.

Love, in actual fact, is another name for a strong heartfelt attachment. When you develop a strong attachment for anyone, that is love. In this respect, God alone deserves to be loved by His servants.

Love, in relation to God, is another name for a thorough-going acknowledgment of God’s blessings. Therefore, without doubt, God alone deserves this kind of love from man.

There are two kinds of love—real and relative. For various reasons, in the life of this world, an individual may develop love for another creature, even sometimes for an animal, or even any inanimate object, such as his home. But no love of this kind exists after death. All of a sudden, man is cut off from all such relationships. For all such feelings are relative, produced on the basis of temporary reasons. And the moment the reasons are no longer there, they vanish instantly. On the contrary, the love of God is real love—feelings produced for real reasons, and when these feelings are engendered in man they are everlasting. Death cannot put an end to them. God gave man existence, and an extremely favourable world to live in, with a sophisticated kind of life support system. Such being the case there are innumerable things in this world—all put there for man’s benefit. God alone is the giver of all these bounties. No other being has been instrumental in the granting of these blessings. When man acknowledges these blessings wholeheartedly, that is another name for the love of God.