Allah is Love

“To Allah belongs the most beautiful names.” (Qur’an 7:180)

God is Al-Wadud, the Origin of Love. God does not start loving you to stop loving you, because His Love is Eternal and has no beginning to have an end. Love is not something God does, love is something God is. Love is a part of God's Essence; you cannot separate love from God, any more than you can separate water from the ocean. God is not motivated or moved by human emotions, good deeds, or sins. We are given the choice to respond to Allah’s love by loving and worshiping Him, but our unwillingness to honor Allah does not change His love for us, as Allah is entirely “independent of His creatures.” (3:97) Whereas the human being can be kind, God is Kindness (Ar-Ra’uf); where we can be merciful, God is Mercy (Ar-Rahman). God is not just forgiving, He is Forgiveness (Al-Ghaffur); He is not just peaceful, He is Peace (As-Salam). God’s love and attributes do not change in response to our choices because God is not reactive. He is the cause of everything in existence.

The Prophet (pbuh) explains that if every single human on Earth reached the height of spiritual piety or if they were all the worst of existence, it would not add or take away anything from Allah’s sovereignty. The Prophet (pbuh) continues to say that if Allah chose to fulfill the prayer of every single human being at once, it would not decrease what Allah has “any more than a needle decreases what is in the ocean when it is put into it.”4 As C.S. Lewis said, “A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.” Allah’s love for us never diminishes. What changes is our ability to be receptive to Divine Love.

Practice: When we are kind and loving to others reflecting God’s Love upon the Earth, we are more able to receive the unconditional love of God. Reach out to someone you love with a call or text and just let them know what they mean to you.