Love in the Quran

According to the verse of surah Āl-i ʿImrān, what is important is performing our responsibilities and remaining steadfast on the truth; whether or not we are successful. This is because the verse says that God loves the patient and does not say that He loves the victorious. ¹⁵

Three Types of Patience

In Islamic teachings, patience is of three types:

Love in the Quran: God Loves the Mutawakkilin

وَمَا اخْتَلَفْتُمْ فِيهِ مِن شَيْءٍ فَحُكْمُهُ إِلَى اللَّـهِ ۚ ذَٰلِكُمُ اللَّـهُ رَبِّي عَلَيْهِ تَوَكَّلْتُ وَإِلَيْهِ أُنِيبُ ﴿10﴾

Whatever thing you may differ about, its judgement is with Allah. That is Allah, my Lord. In Him, I have put my trust, and to Him do I turn penitently. ¹⁷

Mutawakkilin (متوکّلین) are the ones who have tawakkul (توکُّل). Tawakkul literally means to declare weakness and put one’s trust in another. ¹⁸

In the Islamic context, it means not to trust any cause except God as a person considers Him to be the only and unparalleled cause who is invincible and the causality of every cause comes from Him. As a result, it is to entrust the management of one’s affairs to Him as one has cut off any hope in apparent causes. ¹⁹

Tawakkul is the result of belief in God’s Lordship. ²⁰

Love in the Quran: God’s Love for the Muqsiṭin

…وَإِنْ حَكَمْتَ فَاحْكُم بَيْنَهُم بِالْقِسْطِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّـهَ يُحِبُّ الْمُقْسِطِينَ ﴿42﴾

… But if you judge, judge between them with justice. Indeed Allah loves the just. ²¹

Muqsiṭ (مقسط) is one who practices qisṭ (قسط) which refers to justice.

However, the difference between this and the other word that the Quran uses for justice, that is, ʾadl (عدل), is that qisṭ refers to clear and manifest justice. This is why a scale and measure of weight is referred to as qisṭ because it visualizes justice for you so that you can see it apparently. ²²

Following the Prophet Entails God’s Love

قُلْ إِن كُنتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللَّـهَ فَاتَّبِعُونِي يُحْبِبْكُمُ اللَّـهُ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ ۗ وَاللَّـهُ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ ﴿31﴾

Say, ‘If you love Allah, then follow me; Allah will love you and forgive you your sins, and Allah is all-forgiving, all-merciful.’ ²³

According to this verse, if we love God and want Him to love us as well, we must follow and obey the Holy Prophet (peace be on him and his household).

A person who loves God has no goal but that, God loves him too. However, God does not consider all love to be real. Real love in His eyes is that which is sincere and alongside accepting His religion which is the religion based on monotheism and the way of Islam.

Islam is the religion that has been legislated for the Holy Prophet and he is the one who calls towards it.

If we want our worship to be sincere and to be based on true love, we must follow this religion – the base of which is love and which crystallizes sincerity and submission, is God’s straight path, and is the fastest way to reach Him.

If we do this, then God will also love us and this is the greatest and best news for the lover of God. ²⁴

Love in the Quran: Love for God

Another one of the aspects of love that is discussed in the Quran is the love for God. A couple of instances of this will be covered below.

Love in the Quran: the Believers’ Ardent Love for God

وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَن يَتَّخِذُ مِن دُونِ اللَّـهِ أَندَادًا يُحِبُّونَهُمْ كَحُبِّ اللَّـهِ ۖ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَشَدُّ حُبًّا لِّلَّـهِ ۗ…

Among the people are those who set up compeers besides Allah, loving them as if loving Allah—but the faithful have a more ardent love for Allah… ²⁵

The use of the word love in relation to God is in its real sense not a figurative use to mean obedience and this is evidenced by this verse and others. It also shows that love for God has varying degrees of intensity.

The disbelievers are admonished in this verse not simply because they have divided their love between the idols they worship and Allah, the creator and necessary being, but because of what this entails. They believe that the idols can bring benefit and repel harm and they seek help from them; this stops them from obeying God.

However, the believers are praised because their intense and ardent love for none but God entails that they solely obey and follow God. ²⁶

Love in the Quran: Love for the Holy Prophet

The praise of the believers and admonishment of the disbelievers is related to love, the consequence of which is obedience to God. Therefore, if a person loves another due to their obedience to God and because he/she invites one to God’s obedience, then the admonishment of loving other than God does not apply to this case.

Consider the following verse:

Say, ‘If your fathers and your sons, your brethren, your spouses, and your kinsfolk, the possessions that you have acquired, the business you fear may suffer, and the dwellings you are fond of, are more beloved to you than Allah and His Apostle… ²⁷

In this verse, love for the Holy Prophet (peace be on him and his household) is associated with love for God and indicates that even though love for God and love for the Prophet are separate, because love for the Prophet is due to love for God and the affect of this love is obedience to him which is that same as God’s obedience, it is not admonished. ²⁸

A People Who God Loves and They Love Him

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مَن يَرْتَدَّ مِنكُمْ عَن دِينِهِ فَسَوْفَ يَأْتِي اللَّـهُ بِقَوْمٍ يُحِبُّهُمْ وَيُحِبُّونَهُ أَذِلَّةٍ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ أَعِزَّةٍ عَلَى الْكَافِرِينَ يُجَاهِدُونَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّـهِ وَلَا يَخَافُونَ لَوْمَةَ لَائِمٍ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ فَضْلُ اللَّـهِ يُؤْتِيهِ مَن يَشَاءُ ۚ وَاللَّـهُ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ ﴿54﴾

O you who have faith! Should any of you desert his religion, Allah will soon bring a people whom He loves and who love Him, [who will be] humble towards the faithful, stern towards the faithless, waging jihad in the way of Allah, not fearing the blame of any blamer. That is Allah’s grace, which He grants to whomever He wishes, and Allah is all-bounteous, all-knowing. ²⁹

This verse speaks of a people and nation whom Allah loves and they love Him; in contrast to those who are mentioned at the start of the verse who turn away from God and desert religion.

The qualities mentioned for these believers in this verse are the following:

1. Leniency, humbleness, and kindness towards the believers
2. They are hard on the disbelievers.
3. They fight in God’s way.
4. They do not allow the fear of the blame of others into their hearts. ³⁰

The reason why these attributes are mentioned is not because those whom God loves are limited to only those who have these characteristics; rather, it is due to the connection to the discussion in verses before it.

The requisite of loving God is that one must put God before everything that is connected to themselves; including wealth, status, family, and so forth. Therefore, the people whose coming is promised in the verse do not love any of the enemies of God and only love God’s special servants due to their love for God. ³¹

Who is Referred to as the People Who Love God and They Love Him?

According to a narration from Muhammad bin Ali al-Baqir (peace be on him), these people are Ali bin Abi Talib (peace be on him) and his followers.

Also in narrations it has been reported that in the Battle of Khaybar (خيبر) when the commanders of the Muslim army were unsuccessful in conquering the enemies’ fortresses, the Holy Prophet (peace be on him and his household) said: By God! Tomorrow I will give the flag to someone who God and His Prophet love and he also loves God and the Prophet, and who will bring victory. He then gave the flag to Ali, peace be on him (the next day). ³²

Love in the Quran: Iman is Beloved to the Believers

وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ فِيكُمْ رَسُولَ اللَّـهِ ۚ لَوْ يُطِيعُكُمْ فِي كَثِيرٍ مِّنَ الْأَمْرِ لَعَنِتُّمْ وَلَـٰكِنَّ اللَّـهَ حَبَّبَ إِلَيْكُمُ الْإِيمَانَ وَزَيَّنَهُ فِي قُلُوبِكُمْ وَكَرَّهَ إِلَيْكُمُ الْكُفْرَ وَالْفُسُوقَ وَالْعِصْيَانَ ۚ أُولَـٰئِكَ هُمُ الرَّاشِدُونَ ﴿7﴾

Know that the Apostle of Allah is among you. Should he comply with you in many matters, you would surely suffer. But Allah has endeared faith to you and made it appealing in your hearts, and He has made hateful to you faithlessness, transgression and disobedience. It is such who are the right-minded— ³³

That faith or Īmān (إیمان) is beloved to the hearts of the believers is a blessing from God. Making faith beloved means that He has made it attractive and adorned it such that it pulls the hearts towards itself and as a result, the hearts of the believers do not easily give it up or turn away from it to other things.

And God has also made corruption and sinning and their consequences to be hateful to the hearts of the believers. ³⁴

Love in the Quran: Love for the Ahlul Bayt (أهل البیت)

ذَٰلِكَ الَّذِي يُبَشِّرُ اللَّـهُ عِبَادَهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ ۗ قُل لَّا أَسْأَلُكُمْ عَلَيْهِ أَجْرًا إِلَّا الْمَوَدَّةَ فِي الْقُرْبَىٰ…

Such is the good news that Allah gives to His servants who have faith and do righteous deeds! Say, ‘I do not ask you any reward for it except the love of [my] relatives’… ³⁵

The verse is stating the reward for the Holy Prophet (peace be on him and his household) and that is love for his close relatives. This love comes back to the matter of answering the call and invitation of the Holy Prophet to Islam.

The relatives that the Prophet is speaking of in this verse are the Ahlul Bayt (peace be on them) and there are many narrations that support this.

Another set of narrations from the Prophet that have also been unanimously reported are those that guide us to turn to the Ahlul Bayt in understanding the Quran, the principles and branches of the religious teachings, and their reality, such as the Hadith of Thaqalayn (حدیث الثقلین) and Hadith of the Ark (حدیث السفینة). This would leave no doubt regarding the fact that the obligation of love for the Ahlul Bayt and establishing that as the reward for prophethood is solely to make this love a means to refer people to the Ahlul Bayt and that they become those to whom people refer for knowledge.

Therefore, the love that has been explained as the reward for the prophethood of the Prophet is, in fact, nothing beyond prophethood and the call to religion and its endurance. As a result, the content of this verse is no way contradictory to other verses that deny reward for prophethood. ³⁶

Who are the Ahlul Bayt?

The Ahlul Bait refers to Lady Fatimah, the daughter of the Holy Prophet and the 12 infallible Imams.

Love in the Quran: Love Between Spouses

وَمِنْ آيَاتِهِ أَنْ خَلَقَ لَكُم مِّنْ أَنفُسِكُمْ أَزْوَاجًا لِّتَسْكُنُوا إِلَيْهَا وَجَعَلَ بَيْنَكُم مَّوَدَّةً وَرَحْمَةً ۚ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لِّقَوْمٍ يَتَفَكَّرُون ﴿21﴾

And of His signs is that He created for you mates from your own selves that you may take comfort in them, and He ordained affection and mercy between you. There are indeed signs in that for a people who reflect. ³⁷

One of the instances of love in the Quran is the love between spouses.

The word used here for love is mawaddah (مودة) and as mentioned, it is love expressed in actions.

Zawj (زوج) refers to a male and a female that have become a pair and in this verse refers to a husband and wife. ³⁸

As the verse indicates, this love between a husband and wife is a Divine gift that cannot be achieved through wealth, beauty, or status. The relationship between a husband and wife must be based on love and mercy, and these are the two factors for the endurance of peace in a married life. ³⁹

Although in the verse (since it is talking of a husband and wife) mawaddah is used for the love God placed between them, it is better that we consider it general as well. ⁴⁰

Summary of Love in the Quran

As we can observe in this article, love in the Quran is discussed from various aspects. One type of love in the Quran is God’s love for the believers and since God is eternal and perfect, His love is the only true and enduring love and knowing that He loves us brings us peace of heart and tranquility, as He is always there and will never leave us alone.

Another type of love is the love that believers have in their hearts for God which can also include loving those who guide towards Him and remind us of Him like the Ahlul Bayt

A third love is the love that their hearts hold for faith in God, and finally there is the love that spouses feel in their hearts for one another.

Although of course there are other types of loves as well such as the love that believers hold for each other such as the relationship of brotherhood mentioned in the Quran which is discussed in the Quran Quotes article.