salahdin
Junior Member
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
Love of Allah
Author: Salih al Munajjid
Ñ Performing optional acts of worship is another means for one to achieve the lofty
rank of loving Allaah. Abu Hurayrah, may Allaah be pleased with him, reported that
the Messenger of Allaah sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said:
“Allaah the Exalted has
said: 'I will declare war against he who shows hostility to any pious worshipper of Mine;
and the most beloved thing with which My slave draws closer to Me is what I have
enjoined upon him; and My slave continues to draw closer to Me through the
performance of optional deeds (e.g., prayers and other acts of worship which are
additional to those which are obligatory) until I love him. When I love him I become his
hearing with which he hears, his sight with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes
and his leg with which he walks; and if he asks (something) of Me, I (will certainly) give
it to him, and if he asks My protection (or refuge), then I will protect him.” [Al-
Bukhaari].
This narration clarifies that Allaah's love of a slave is attained by the slave
doing two things:
Performing obligatory acts of worship; and drawing close to Allaah
by performing optional acts of worship in addition to the obligatory acts. When one
becomes beloved by Allaah, this love pre-occupies him and keeps him away from
everything except that which would please his beloved; in fact, such a person would
not even have time to think about such matters.
One might argue that most Muslims do indeed perform optional acts of worship, but
they also commit sins and have shortcomings regarding their obligatory acts. We say
that this is true, but the solution for them is not to abandon their optional acts; rather,
they should maintain them because they make up for the shortcomings in their
obligatory acts. However, they must work on improving themselves and maintain and
increase whatever obligatory acts they are currently performing. The narration
mentioned above indicates how great the rank of prayer is in Islaam; and the highest
in rank after the obligatory prayers are the optional night prayers. Almost every
obligatory act of worship has a corresponding optional one that can be performed, so
if one falls short in any of them, he can find a way to compensate for the shortage, but
this does not mean that one should busy himself with optional acts of worship whilst
neglecting the obligatory ones.
