Day 27: Earn Allah’s Love
INTRODUCTION:
After the early centuries of Islam, the concept of wilayah has been misunderstood to the extent that there came a time when the attributes of the wali is not what is mentioned in the Qur’an and hadith. It is actually by claims: word of mouth and alien actions. We look at the person, his attitude and worship of Allah and we are shocked to see a big difference. How, then, can this person be a wali? He is not a closer servant of Allah.
The real servant of Allah will not abuse wilayah and use it for self promotion because it is not what he claims but what is in the heart and love of Allah. The true Awliya’ullah are shy to claim that they are closer to Allah because this contradicts with the idea of ikhlas (sincerity). To attain Allah’s love, we have to strive for it as depicted in the hadith below…
INSPIRATION:
Abu Hurairah, radiyallahu 'anhu, reported that the Messenger of Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wasallam, said: "Allah the Almighty has said: 'Whosoever acts with enmity towards a closer servant of Mine (wali), I will indeed declare war against him. Nothing endears My servant to Me than doing of what I have made obligatory upon him to do. And My servant continues to draw nearer to Me with supererogatory (nawafil) prayers so that I shall love him. When I love him, I shall be his hearing with which he shall hear, his sight with which he shall see, his hands with which he shall hold, and his feet with which he shall walk. And if he asks (something) of Me, I shall surely give it to him, and if he takes refuge in Me, I shall certainly grant him it.’"
[Al-Bukhari]
REFLECTION:
- The awliya' of Allah are those who are obedient and perform the good deeds which make them closer to Allah.
- The servants of Allah can be classified into two categories vis-a-vis:
- The first category are those who get closer to Allah by fulfilling the obligations and avoiding the prohibitions. This is the minimum level of wilayah expected from the believers.
- The second category of people are those who are closer to Allah by being competent in their worship and strive to be close to Allah. This category of people are not satisfied only by performing the obligations and avoiding the prohibitions but they go further by performing the voluntary acts.
- Allah declares war against the one who acts with enmity towards His awliya’. This is a message to all Muslims and people not to harm others.
- The closer a servant is to Allah, the more he’s granted a special status in the sight of Allah. This status will lead to whatever he asks of Allah, Allah will give him and his du’a will be attended to.
- As for the one who loves Allah, his heart is purified and he always remember Allah. He always seeks and strives to do good deeds and acts that will get him closer to Allah.
CONCLUSION:
The Prophet, sallallahu 'alayhi wasallam, used to say the following du’a: "O Allah I ask You that You love me and the love of those who love You and to enable me also to love every act and deed that may bring me closer to You". He used to seek refuge of Allah to be saved from things such as poverty, ignorance, the turmoil of the grave, sadness and depression of this life, and various diseases.
As Muslims we have to realise the
importance of this portion of the hadith. It is better that we learn from the Prophet, sallallahu 'alayhi wasallam, what to seek refuge of Allah from. We should try to memorise some hadiths which are in the form of du’a. In that way we will be granted the love of Allah while aspiring to attain the status of awliya’.
