Verses which include two-way affections and reciprocal love...
Verses which include two-way affections and reciprocal love: the love of God for the believers, the love of the believers for God; and the love of the believers for each other: Say "if you love Allah, follow me, and-Allah will love you, and forgive you your sins." (Al `Imran, 3 : 31) Allah will assuredly bring a people He loves, and who love Him. (al-Ma' idah, 5: 54) Surely those who believe and do deeds of righteouness - unto them the All-merciful shall assign love.
( Maryam,19:96) And He has sent between you love and compassion. (ar-Rum, 30: 21) And it is love which Ibrahim wanted for his offspring,[^17] and which the last Prophet also sought by the order of God for his kinsmen. [^18] From what we have been told from hadith, the spirit and essence of religion is nothing but love. Burayd al-`Ijli said: "I was in the presence of Imam al-Baqir (as), and there was a traveller from Khurasan who had traversed that long journey on foot.
He had the honour of meeting the Imam. His feet, which were showing through his shoes, were cut, and he had taken his shoes off. He said: "By God, the only thing that brought me from whence I have come is love of you, the Household (of the Prophet)." The Imam said: "By God, if a stone loved us, God would unite it with us, and join it to us.
Is the religion other than love?" [^19] A man said to Imam as-Sadiq (as): "We have named our children after you and your fathers; will this action be of any benefit to us?" He said: "Yes, by God; is the religion other than love?" Then he gave the verse If you love Allah, follow me, and Allah will love you as evidence. [^20] Basically, it is love which brings obedience: the lover does not have the power to refuse the wishes of the one he loves.
Adapted from Nicholson's translation of Rumi, Mathnavi, bk. 1 [^17]. Ibrahim, 14:37 [^18]. ash-Shura, 42:23 [^19] Safinatu 'l-bihar, vol.l, p.102 (under Hubb). [^20]. ibid, p.662 (under Sama) Previous…