31: The Gift of Love
And you do not truly believe unless you love one another"
[Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)]
Emotions have a considerable effect on our lives.
The feelings and thoughts that we harbor in our minds ...
- color our perceptions
- influence our attitudes
- mold our motives,
- dictate our actions
- eventually dominate our lives
We are therefore instructed to keep ...
- our emotions in check
- our attitudes good
- our thoughts pure
so that our actions may be worthy of being considered as 'ibaadah /worship.
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) suggested that positive attitude and good consideration is regarded as
part of the best 'ibaadah.
Love is Essential
The very fact that ...
- the most pervasive of all the attributes of Allah in the Qur'an is rahmah / compassion & mercy [Qur'an 7:155]
- Allah [Q 1: 1-3], the Qur'an [Q 17:72], the Prophet [Q 21:107] and the basic bond of the most fundamental human relationship [Q 30:21] is referred to as rahmah / compassion & mercy
- Prophet Jesus / 'Isa (pbuh) referred to the greatest commandment as being the one that states,
"Love God with all thy heart and all thy soul and love thy neighbor as thy self."
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said ... Al-hubbu asaasee ("Love is the foundation of my existence")
"The idea of love has left a wider and more indelible imprint upon the development of human culture in all its aspect than any other single notion." [Encyclopedia of Religion]
... all this indicates the significance of love and the need to cultivate positive emotions in ourselves
and to manifest compassion in our daily lives. We will find that when eventually we look back on life, the
moments we cherish the most will always be those when we have done things in the spirit of love.
"The best portion of a good man's life is his little, unremembered acts of kindness and of love."
[Poet, William Wordsworth]
Ugliness of the World is due to the Absence of Love
The worst disease of this day and age is that of people feeling unloved. There is so much hurt in this world despite so much capacity to show love. When love fills our heart and mind, we see a world that yearns to be loved.
- Be Loving, it is part of Faith
- Mawlana Jaluddin Rumi said that love is capable of revealing truth. The way of Prophets is the Way of Truth. If you truly want to live, be consumed by love; because by being consumed by love you truly live." What we feel in ourselves we often find reflected in our world.
- There is an old Sufi saying: "To be loved, be lovable".
- "A Believer loves and is loved. There is no goodness in one who neither offers love nor accepts love; And the best of people are those best to humanity." [Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)]
- "Suffuse the world with unobstructed loving kindness; standing, walking, sitting, laying down ... during all one's waking hours; remain mindful of the duty of this heart, this loving way of living that is the best way to live." [Buddha]
- "If faith is lacking, it is because there is too much selfishness, too much concern for personal gain. For faith to be true, it has to be generous and loving. Love and faith go together." [Mother Theresa]
- Do the Best you can With What you Have From Where You Are
- "Every day I live I am more convinced that the waste of life lies in the love we have not given and the powers we have not used." [Novelist, Mary Cholomondeley]
- "The majority of us lead quiet, unheralded lives as we pass through this world. There will most likely be no ticker-tape parades for us, no monuments created in our honor. But that does not lessen our possible impact, for there are scores of people waiting for someone just like us to come along; people who will appreciate our compassion, our unique talents; someone who will live a happier life merely because we took the time to share what we had to give. Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have a potential to turn a life around. It's overwhelming to consider the continuous opportunities there are to make our love felt." [Educationist, Leo Buscaglia]
- Mawlana Altaf Husain Hali expressed it so aptly when he said:
"It is for the love of one another that human beings have been created;
Otherwise there are innumerable angels doing ritual worship all the time." - "Life is short. Be swift to love! Make haste to be kind!" [Swiss Author, Henri Amiel]
There is an old native American saying ...