Love Part 3

Love is The Solution!

If you look at the world today, everyone agrees that there are four categories of people that are marginalized: women, children, the elderly, and animals. The solution to our problems is not in rules or regulations; we have enough of that. Rather, it is in re-activating these core values of Islam. That is the solution to our individual problems, the problems of the Ummah and the problems of Humanity.

Today you have different feminist groups or agendas, and they talk about fighting for Women’s Rights. But there is no feminist in the world and there will be none up to the Day of Qiyaamah, or any person championing the Rights of Women who can bring you the statement, the likes of what was uttered by the Prophet ﷺ when he said the best of you, خِيَارُكُم, “the best of you are those who are the best to their womenfolk.” But not only was it an instruction, the Nabi of Allāh practiced upon what he preached. He said: ‘I am the best of you when it comes to treating my womenfolk.’

When the noble wife of Rasoolullah ﷺ, Maymoonah رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنهَا,  was towards the end of her illness, she told her family, ‘I have one desire’ They said, ‘What is it?’ and this was many years after the demise of Rasoolullah ﷺ, she said, ‘Take me to the place where I spent my first night with my beloved husband ﷺ’. Rasoolullah ﷺ taught us how to show love for women.

He taught us love for children. The Nabi of Allah SAW went into Sajda, and the Sajda became so long that the Sahaba feared that the Nabi of Allah SAW had passed on. When some of them lifted their heads to see what was happening, they realised that the Nabi of Allah SAW was delaying his Sajda because his grandchildren were playing on his back.

He taught us the love for animals. Today we have institutions wherein governments have indicated budgets for animal rights. Rasoolullah ﷺ travelled with the Sahaba and they stopped to perform Salaah. The Nabi of Allah went to get ready. One Sahabi saw a bird with a few chicks and the chicks looked cute, so took the small birds away. When the Nabi of Allah came back, the mother was fluttering her wings, He asked: ‘Who has caused inconvenience to this bird? Return the children immediately’. Return these baby birds to the mother, do not cause inconvenience to any creation of Allah.

When it came to the elderly, the Nabi of Allāh said,

اَلبَرَكَةُ مَعَ أَكَابِرِكُم

The barakah is with your elderly

It’s difficult to look after people when they are elderly, both emotionally as well as physically. When people become old, they become stubborn and obstinate and are often unreasonable. However, you should do it because your Barakah and the Barakah of your progeny is in looking after your elders.

They say the solution to the problems of Humanity is in peace. There is no doubt about this. But what is peace? Is peace the mere absence of violence?

Peace is a holistic concept wherein you must be in a state of peace emotionally, mentally and physically. You must live with each other in a harmonious way. The environment should radiate with peace. All actions must be conducted in a peaceful way. That is the kind of peace you can never achieve if you do not have love.

When the Nabi of Allāh was sent to Arabia as a messenger, it was an environment that was dominated by violence, oppression, and force. How did the Nabi of Allah SAW conquer not only the people of Arabia, but the hearts of the people of Arabia in twenty-three years? Not by the might of the sword but through love, compassion, tolerance, and leniency; the core values of our Deen. We have forgotten the verses where Allah says, وَاخْفِضْ جَنَاحَكَ لِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ ‘Lower your wing for the Believers.’

Be tolerant. Be easy-going. Be lenient. One day Nabi ﷺ said to the Sahaba, ‘Should I not inform you of that person, who is Haraam for the fire of Jahannum and the fire of Jahannum is Haraam for him?’ The Sahaba RA replied, ‘Of course, Ya Rasoolullah!’ He said:

عَلَى كُلِّ قَرِيبٍ هَيِّنٍ سَهْل “That person who remains close to people.”

‘Ya Aaishah’, the Nabi of Allah said to his wife, ‘إِنَّ اللَّهَ رَفِيقٌ يُحِبُّ الرِّفْقَ’,

‘Allah is soft, Allah is loving; Allah wants you to be soft, Allah wants you to be loving.’

صِلْ مَنْ قَطَعَك

Build ties with those who are breaking ties with you.

وَ اعْفُ عَن مَّنْ ظَلَمَك

Forgive those who do wrong to you.

وَ اَحْسِنْ إِلَى مَنْ أَسَآءَ إِلَيْك

Be good to those who are not good to you.

There is also the Sunnah of Rasoolullah ﷺ. The Sunnah of love.

Allah says, ‘You will be my Beloved if you love others for My sake.’ The Nabi of Allah said, ‘You are not a true Believer, حَتَّى يُحِبَّ لأَخِيهِ مَا يُحِبُّ لِنَفْسِهِ, until you love for the next person what you love for yourself’.

The Nabi of Allāh said: اَلْمُؤْمِنُ يَأْلَفْ وَ يُؤْلَفْ ‘a Muslim is such that he loves people and because he loves people, they love him.’

وَ لَا خَيْرَ فِي مَن لَا يَأْلَفْ وَلَا يُؤْلَفْ

‘There is no goodness in that person who doesn’t love others and as a result they don’t love him.’

May Allāh make all of us from amongst those who can rediscover this value and this quality of love, this Sunnah of love. Aameen.

{Extracted and adapted from Volume One of the book In Pursuit of Purpose by Ml Sulaimaan Ravat}