This time around the year, the stir of celebrating Valentine’s Day begins as social media is flooded with posts about Valentines drawing people into the false glory of love. The interesting thing is that Valentine’s Day is all about the concept of love, yet no one knows – what love really is. No one has been able to really define it holistically. So what is true love?
People and psychology have attempted to define it as willingness to priotrize another’s happiness over your own, a fleeting sense of attachment and care, a choice to commit to someone through emotions and actions, or some combination of the fore-mentioned.
As Muslims, our definition will always be what has been defined to us in light of the Qur’an and Sunnah. Love has been mentioned in the Qur’an for us in this ayah:
وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَشَدُّ حُبًّا لِّلَّـهِ
But those who believe are stronger in love for Allah.
[Al-Baqara:165]
When we say the kalimah, we submit to our Creator – mind, body and soul. This is true belief and a person who truly commits to Rabb has a heart that is filled with iman (faith). Everything else becomes less in priority than what pleases Allah Ta’ala as He becomes the prime focus. Everyone around us then comes after our loyalty to Him.
As we learn in the hadith about the Prophet ﷺ would be amongst his family but as soon as he heard the call to prayer, he would become a stranger to his family and head out for salah.
In another ayat of the Qur’an, we are told:
قُلْ اِنْ كَانَ اٰبَاۗؤُكُمْ وَاَبْنَاۗؤُكُمْ وَاِخْوَانُكُمْ وَاَزْوَاجُكُمْ وَعَشِيْرَتُكُمْ وَاَمْوَالُۨ اقْتَرَفْتُمُوْهَا وَتِجَارَةٌ تَخْشَوْنَ كَسَادَهَا وَمَسٰكِنُ تَرْضَوْنَهَآ اَحَبَّ اِلَيْكُمْ مِّنَ اللّٰهِ وَرَسُوْلِهٖ وَجِهَادٍ فِيْ سَبِيْلِهٖ فَتَرَبَّصُوْا حَتّٰي يَاْتِيَ اللّٰهُ بِاَمْرِهٖ ۭ وَاللّٰهُ لَا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الْفٰسِقِيْنَ
Say, [ O Muhammad ], “If your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your wives, your relatives, wealth which you have obtained, commerce wherein you fear decline, and dwellings with which you are pleased are more beloved to you than Allah and His Messenger and jihad in His cause, then wait until Allah executes His command. And Allah does not guide the defiantly disobedient people.”
[At-Tawbah: 40]
When we love, we commit to follow, come what may. We commit to the sacrifice that the relationship should bring in all circumstances. That strong feeling of love transforms to action to try and please the one we love. True love requires validation, constant reminders and rekindling of the relationship without betrayal of any form. We are quick to say, “We love Allah Ta’ala and His Messenger ﷺ,” but when it comes time to prove it, we fall short of the commitment to our Rabb. Do we truly understand what true love is?
The people of Gaza as Muslims have shown us what being true is. They have shown us by being true to their Creator. It is not just a display for one day in a year or like the many of us – just for one Ramadan. This profound proclamation of love for their iman has been manifested and is globally acknowledged leaving all other Muslims amazed and in awe of how faithful they really are in their claim of loving Allah (عَزَّوَجَلَّ).
From the children to the elderly alike, all have persevered immensely under all forms of torture and pain. The Muslims of Gaza have truly given us an example of what it is to say: لا اله الا الله (there is no God but Allah) and then to happily sacrifice everything for this belief. Without food, shelter, medical aid, they are facing suffocating conditions while they are amidst bomb explosions, destruction and deaths in multitude. Most of their farmland has been destroyed. [1] Innocent children are being massacred. In these dire condition, how is it possible to keep the faith? Yet, we see faces that are content and pleased even in this arduous circumstance with death looming above their heads.
In a recent Instagram clip, a man who had lost all his family, was being interviewed. He was inquired about his loss, and his reply was, “I have Allah and that is all that matters.” SubhanAllah! This is true imaan. This is how the contentment still is evident on their faces as they lose everything that was close to their hearts. They know they are being compensated for it in the world that is permanent. They know their Rabb is there for them. They do not play victim or blame or question their Rabb. They just submit, accept and grow stronger in their faith day by day. We see young children calling out the name of Allah (عَزَّوَجَلَّ) and raising their voices to proclaim their iman. This is how Islam began. With the persecution came the perseverance and the preservation of the iman of the oppressed.
Those who suffered in the early Islamic days in the Makkan period, in the hands of the mushrikeen of Makkah, were those whose ranks Allah (عَزَّوَجَلَّ) elevated. We have example of Bilal (رَضِيَ ٱللَّٰهُ عَنْهُ) who was dragged on the hot sand under the scorching sun to denounce his faith and all that came out from his mouth was “Ahad, Ahad” (Allah is One), for Allah (عَزَّوَجَلَّ) is One and Only. This was the intensity of the persecution that was faced. What is our efforts as Muslims and how do we break under our daily pressures of life with weakened iman?
Faith remains and iman grows for such people and this is what we see in Gaza today. It is evident in their speech, their passion to die in Allah (عَزَّوَجَلَّ)’s way for they are being oppressed. They know the reality of this worldly life and there is no gain in it. They know that the final rest is with Allah (عَزَّوَجَلَّ) and they will soon meet Him. They are prepared to leave everything behind, lose all ties as they witness the deaths of their loved ones. They truly understand the verse of the Qur’an where Allah (عَزَّوَجَلَّ) says:
إِنَّ اللَّهَ اشْتَرَىٰ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ أَنفُسَهُمْ وَأَمْوَالَهُم بِأَنَّ لَهُمُ الْجَنَّةَ ۚ يُقَاتِلُونَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ فَيَقْتُلُونَ وَيُقْتَلُونَ ۖ وَعْدًا عَلَيْهِ حَقًّا فِي التَّوْرَاةِ وَالْإِنجِيلِ وَالْقُرْآنِ ۚ وَمَنْ أَوْفَىٰ بِعَهْدِهِ مِنَ اللَّهِ ۚ فَاسْتَبْشِرُوا بِبَيْعِكُمُ الَّذِي بَايَعْتُم بِهِ ۚ وَذَٰلِكَ هُوَ الْفَوْزُ الْعَظِيمُ
Indeed, Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their properties [in exchange] for that they will have Paradise. They fight in the cause of Allah, so they kill and are killed. [It is] a true promise [binding] upon Him in the Torah and the Gospel and the Qur’an. And who is truer to his covenant than Allah? So rejoice in your transaction which you have contracted. And it is that which is the great attainment.
[At-Tawbah: 24]
May Allah (عَزَّوَجَلَّ) give us the firmness in our imaan and the steadfastness to hold on tight to our Deen. May Allah (عَزَّوَجَلَّ) ease the trials of the people of Gaza and relieve them of their oppression. Aameen.
[1] https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/gaza-now-worlds-worst-hunger-crisis-and-verge-famine
