The Concept of Divine Love
We learn of 99 names of the attributes of God from the Qur’an, some of these being
Rahman Most mercifulRahim Most compassionateWadud Most LovingAs-Salam Most peace lovingRafiq Most GentleGhafoor Most forgivingJameel Most beautiful
As these names suggest, God’s love for His servants is boundless. It follows that His servants should in like manners show great love and compassion for one another. The Hadith endorses this by exhorting all human being to adopt a divine code of ethics based on love and respect for the Almighty and regard and consideration for fellow human beings.It is certainly incumbent upon all of the faithful to foster a loving, caring attitude towards others and to recognize that, in showing love and compassion to their fellow men, they are following a course of right action, for which they will be rewarded by God in the Hereafter. They must see love as a virtue—a quality to be nurtured and developed.However, love in Islam is in a different plane from love as defined by secular philosophy. In the latter case, the concept is derived from a study of human being in relation to their worldly lives.
That is why love is given the status of an absolute good in philosophy. But this notion is flawed by a contradiction. This philosophy, which upholds human love as the greatest virtue, cannot provide any explanation for the evils of this world. Viewing evil as an ideologically insoluble problem. It disassociates it entirely from the broader context, in which it may be seen as the obverse side of the coin of love.
Islam, on the contrary, deliberates upon evil as occurring in the absence of love. On the one hand Islam holds love to be a very great virtue, while on the other, it castigates those who commit evil as the greatest culprits in the eyes of God, who will punish them for their misdeeds and deprive them of His love.
The concept of love in Islam is closely associated with the concept of reward and punishments. But the most significant factor in this is God’s predisposition to show compassion. He may reward good deeds and punish the wrong-doer, but there is always scope within His scheme of things to look upon sincere repentance and to show His divine mercy. According to a Hadith, God said: "My mercy prevails over My wrath."Once the Prophet of Islam saw a woman cooking food over a fire, while holding a baby in her arms. The Prophet asked his companion whether they thought it possible for this woman to throw her baby into the fire. They replied never, that could not happen.
The Prophet replied that God loved His servants more than this woman loved her child.
Many illustrations of this point are to be found in the Qur’an and Hadith. Thanks to this over-archiving attribute of Mercy—as we are told in the Qur’an—those performing an act of virtue will be rewarded ten fold or more but the evil doer will be given punishment only in equal measure and one who sincerely repents will more over, be forgiven.God’s compassion is so great that no sin is above forgiveness. However much a servant sins, if at any stage before his death he truly repents and seeks God’s pardon, all his sins will be forgiven. However in God’s court, it is sincerity which is of prime value, not lip service.
According to a Hadith our deeds are judged by intentions and parse.In this connection a very revealing anecdote has been recorded in books of traditions. It is as follows:
There was once a man so aggressive by nature that he became involved in many murders—99 to be exact. Eventually he realized that he should abandon his aggressive ways and seek forgiveness from his Lord. So he went to a religious scholar and told him that he had already killed 99 people. Could he expect salvation? The scholar replied, "No, after committing such great misdeed, you stand no chance of being granted forgiveness and salvation." The man was enraged at this and killed the scholar there and then.
Sometime afterwards, he went to another scholar and again told him the whole story. This scholar was wiser than the first. He told him that he should not despair of receiving God’s mercy. He advised the man to leave the settlement where he lived, as it was inhabited by criminals. That was why he was also turned into a criminal. He suggested that he settle in a certain neighborhood inhabited only by good people, under whose influence he would be reformed. So the man set off to enter the society of good people, but he was still on his way, he was overtaken by death.
The Hadith tells us how this man’s case was presented to the court of God where it had to be decided whether he should be forgiven or punished. God asked His angel to measure the path to see whether at the time of his death he was closer to the good neighborhood or the bad. The angels took the measurement and informed God that he had been nearer to good neighborhood. At this God pardoned him and he was ushered into paradise.
God is Adil the Just. So justice demands that people be held to account. But since God loves His servants, He gives them the benefit of the doubt and loses no opportunity to grant them salvation.
There is another very interesting story recorded in the books of Hadith about a woman of bad character who neglected her devotions to God. One day, she was walking along a deserted road where she found a dog dying of thirst. There was no water to be seen anywhere, so she walked some distance to search for a pond or a well. Finally, she found a well, but there was nothing with which drew up water from it. So she tied one of her shoes to her shawl, lowered it into the well and brought up water in it. She did this several times, each time dropping water into the dog’s mouth. In this way, thirst was quenched and it happily walked off, wagging its tail.
God was so pleased at this act of mercy that He forgave the woman her sin.
This aspect of Islam has been particularly developed among the Sufis, for whom the very basis of Islam is in love. Many of their sayings on this subject are regularly quoted. An excellent example is a couplet by Hafiz, the great Sufi poet:
We have not studied/paid attention to dwelt upon the stories of Dara and Sikandar (emperors, heroes).
Ask us only about the stories of love and compassion.
Nizamuddin Aulia, the great sufi poet of the 11th century, is said to have told one of his disciples when he brought him a gift of scissors, (a product of his hometown): "The gift you have brought is not a good one! Scissors are meant for cutting asunder. But our task is not to set people apart from one another. You should have brought if you really wanted to bring one, is that of a needle and thread, as their job is to unite.
The first verse of the Qur’an: ‘In the name of God, the most beneficent, the most merciful,’ has been repeated 114 times throughout the text. This shows that Mercy and Compassion are the most important of God’s attributes. Besides these 114 times, these words occur at many other places in the holy scriptures.
The main title the Qur’an accords to the Prophet of Islam is a ‘Mercy for all mankind.’
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