How Deep is Your Love for God
By Zaid Shakir | 2026-01-16T05:54:10.570652+00:00 | Topic: Allah
How Deep is Your Love for Your Creator?
Imam Zaid Shakir
Opening Praise and Testimony
All praises are due to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds. All praises are due to Allah who has guided us to this path and He has made no crookedness therein. Alhamdulillah, Allah describes us, describes the believers in the Quran in a very challenging way when He says:
The Nature of True Love for Allah
أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ
So Allah says: amongst the people there are those who take likenesses that they worship as they should worship, that they love rather as they should love Allah. And their love is manifested in their worship of those likenesses, their obedience to those likenesses in a way that they should worship and obey Allah. إِنَّ الْمُحِبَّ لِمَنْ يُحِبُّ مُطِيعٌ - the one who loves someone obeys them. So they obey those likenesses out of their love for them as they should obey Allah.
وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَشَدُّ حُبًّا لِلَّهِ - this is the point we wanted to make. Allah describes the believers : وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا - those who believe are more intense in their love for Allah. They love Allah more than they love anything or anyone else. وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَشَدُّ حُبًّا لِلَّهِ مِنْ حُبِّهِمْ مِنْ أَيِّ شَيْءٍ آخَرَ - they love Allah more than they love anything else.
Examining Our Love for Allah
So we should ask ourselves, because we would see ourselves as believers: how intense, how deep is our love for Allah? Right, there is a popular song back in the day, some of you are old enough to remember: how deep is your love? How deep is your love for Allah? How deep is our love for Allah? And when it comes down to making those critical and important choices and decisions in our lives, are those decisions informed by the love of Allah, and that love being greater than anything else? Or are those decisions informed by the love of the house more than we love Allah, by the love of the car more than we love Allah, by the love of the children more than we love Allah, by the love of the spouse more than we love Allah, by the love of the job more than we love Allah?
We should ask ourselves, and if we find indeed it is the case that we love those things more than we love Allah, therefore the decisions we make concerning them are decisions that amount to rebellion against Allah. We need to take stock of our faith. Most of the issues we are confronted with, at the end of the day, it's not a crisis of hijab, it's not a crisis of selling liquor in the store, it's not a crisis of going into interest - pure, clear interest for the sake of the house. It's a crisis of faith, because faith informs those decisions. It's a crisis of love, because love informs those decisions.
(Quran 2:165) وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَشَدُّ حُبًّا لِلَّهِ
The Foundation of Love: Gratitude for Blessings
But love has foundations. Our Prophet ﷺ has related to us in the compilations of Imam al-Tirmidhi, Imam al-Hakim and others, he said:
(Jami' al-Tirmidhi 3789, Al-Mustadrak by Al-Hakim)
That you should love Allah based on what He has extended to you and presented to you of His blessings.
Recognizing Our Blessings in Comparative Context
Look how blessed we are, brothers and sisters. There are some people who think Muslims in America right now - we have it hard, it's so hard. But they only think that way because, as is the case in many instances, there is no comparative framework. When we view things in isolation, it's easy to distort their true implications. So we say: oh look how people talk about us, and look at the bad media that we get, and look how people are discriminating against us on the job, and look how people look at us - oh there goes one of them - and they start whispering. There goes one, you think there's a bomb under that big dress? We have it hard.
But when we start looking at the plight of Muslims elsewhere, we look at the Muslims in Halab right now, or other parts of Syria - a situation that Ban Ki-moon, who hasn't done much to alleviate the situation, but in describing it he said it is worse than a slaughterhouse. It is worse than a slaughterhouse what's happening in Halab right now - barrel bombs and bunker busting bombs being dropped on crowded apartment complexes filled with innocent civilians.
We look at what's happening to Muslims in Yemen right now - blockaded, no food can get in, and then everything that a bomb can fall on from the limited infrastructure that's in that country in the first place, one of the poorest countries on earth. But their people's character is amongst the richest character on earth. At the end of the day, that's what really counts. الْحِكْمَةُ يَمَانِيَةٌ وَالْإِيمَانُ يَمَانٍ - but look what's happening in Yemen: hospitals bombed, schools bombed, marketplaces bombed, even mosques being bombed, innocent people being bombed in their homes.
What's happening in Kashmir right now - one of the most intense phases of the Indian occupation of Kashmir. The people are witnessing, going through hell on earth. Or you can name the other places. When we look at those places, we realize how good we have it. We realize how good we have it.
Contrasting Our Security with Global Suffering
They're starving in Yemen - we're searching for a diet plan. They have no security whatsoever - we go to sleep safe and secure. There's probably no one in this room right now who's had their privacy invaded by the police kicking down their doors and storming into their house and dragging out their womenfolk in their pajamas. We don't even imagine that happening. We don't go to bed thinking: wow, what if the police or the army or the national guard, or even some drug cartel - even look beyond the Muslim world, look what's happening in Mexico right next door - people caught in the crossfire of these drug wars, innocent people being beheaded. If there was a beheading Olympics, ISIS wouldn't even get a medal. The medals would go to Mexico and Honduras and Guatemala.
This is reality, and not to talk about it in those ways that some people might mistake as being flippant, but just to make the point: people are suffering, Muslims are suffering, others are suffering. But we don't worry about that. None of us - it's never crossed our mind, even in the worst, the aftermath of this misguided fool in New York and New Jersey planting these bombs and the people getting all riled up, being whipped up by the media - even in those periods of tension, none of us would ever think that someone's going to kidnap a family member and take them, drag them off somewhere and chop their heads off. We wouldn't even begin to think that way, brothers and sisters.
The Greatest Blessings: Security and Sustenance
And why are those thoughts so far from our consciousness? They're removed from our consciousness because Allah has extended His blessings to us, and two of the greatest blessings:
Then let them worship the Lord of these sacred precincts, who has fed them and driven hunger away from them, and from fear - وَآمَنَهُم مِّنْ خَوْفٍ - الَّذِي أَطْعَمَهُم مِّن جُوعٍ . So we don't think that way because Allah has driven hunger away from us and Allah has driven fear away from us, and so we don't entertain these thoughts.
But the thought we should entertain is: how deep is our love for Allah, knowing that Allah has extended His favors to us to that degree?
Love Allah for what He has extended to you from His blessings لا إِلهَ إِلَّا الله - this is a huge part of our religion: love.
The Prophet's Teaching on Love
The Prophet ﷺ said:
(Sahih al-Bukhari 15, Sahih Muslim 44)
None of you truly believes until I am more beloved to him than his father, than his son - meaning his parents, than his children - وَالنَّاسِ أَجْمَعِينَ - and all of humanity.
So just as we ask the question concerning Allah - وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَشَدُّ حُبًّا لِلَّهِ - we can ask the question concerning the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
The Signs of Love: Four Levels
One of our great forebears, Sahl ibn Abdullah al-Tustari, may Allah have mercy on him, he says something very, very profound if we reflect on it. He said:
The sign of the love of Allah is the love of the Quran.
When we love - especially when we're younger, when we get old we get crusty and we manifest love in different ways - but when we're young and passionate and we get a letter, I guess these days you would get a text message from your beloved: "I love you" and tells you the reasons why, "I love you because you're the greatest thing since apple pie, that is why my love for you will never die," and she goes on with her poem. You don't delete that text message. Every five minutes you look at it: SubhanAllah, she said some apple pie! SubhanAllah. Twenty minutes later: SubhanAllah.
Because a lover loves and cherishes the words of their beloved. And if we love Allah, we understand that His words are the Quran, His speech is the Quran. The Quran is like that text message you get from your beloved. It's like that love note they slipped into your book and you open the book after class and you found this note and it says that whoever loves you, and you just cherish it and put a little perfume on the note and you smell it every once in a while. That's the love note from Allah.
So those who love Allah, they love the Quran.
The sign of one's love for the Quran is the love of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, because the love of the Messenger of Allah is the key to Allah's love.
Following the Prophet is Key to Allah's Love
If we love someone, we love those things that enable that love and facilitate that love. If we know the one that sends us the text message - she loves green - we go find us a green shirt and we start loving green because she loves green. If she loves blue, find us a blue shirt, a matching blue taqiyah to go with the blue shirt, because she loves blue.
Allah loves His Habib ﷺ, and Allah says to His Habib, He addresses him:
Say to them, O Muhammad: if it be that you love Allah, then follow me. We cannot follow the Messenger of Allah without the Sunnah, and we can't love Allah or attain to the love of Allah without loving and following the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
Loving the Sunnah and the Akhirah
The sign of loving the Sunnah is loving the Akhirah لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ - because the Sunnah paves the way to Paradise, because the Sunnah is a reflection of our willingness and our desire to imitate our Prophet ﷺ. When someone loves someone, they imitate them. And our Prophet ﷺ, he loved the Akhirah so much so that when he was asked, would he prefer to remain in this world or to take his place in the Akhirah amongst those who preceded him, what did he say الرَّفِيقَ الْأَعْلَى - the highest host.
How many of us, if we were given the choice right now to stay in this world to enjoy the comforts we enjoy, to enjoy our homes and our cars and our jobs and our mates and our friends and spouses and children and parents and relatives and friends and neighbors and the good times that we enjoy and the trips to Yosemite and the trips to the beach - how many of us would say: no, I prefer the highest host?
Loving the Akhirah - which brings us back to something we mentioned initially: the lack of a love for the Akhirah again returns to a crisis of faith.
Faith in the Akhirah
Amongst the things we're to have faith in is the Akhirah. فَأَخْبِرْنِي عَنِ الْإِيمَانِ - the Prophet ﷺ was asked about faith, and he said:
(Sahih Muslim 8)
To believe in Allah and His angels and His books and His messengers and the Last Day, to believe in the divine decree, its good and its bad.
Strengthening Our Faith
So if there's a crisis of faith underlying many of the things before us, let us try to address and to strengthen and to buttress our faith. And to do that, the two greatest things we have to do that - or three we'll mention, there are many:
First: The Quran
The Quran - because the Quran connects us to Allah in a real way. We can have some abstract, vague conceptualization: there's a supreme being who created it all. We can engage in logical formulas; if we follow them to their logical conclusion, we have to conclude there must be a Creator. But a firm, living, dynamic
Attachment and Following the Sunnah
attachment and actualizing of that idea, when the idea becomes actualized so that it's real to the very depth of our being - that's something that comes about through an attachment to the Quran.
Second: Following the Sunnah
And then following the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ and studying his life. Because in studying his life, we see that the things we're wrestling with, they're the same things that he and his community in its early phases were wrestling with. And as we see the way that Allah, in many instances in very miraculous ways, resolved many of those crises, it strengthens our faith and it leads us to believe that whatever we're encountering will be resolved by Allah.
Third: Righteous Company
And the third thing we can mention is keeping the company of righteous people.
A person is on the religion of his or her companion, therefore let each and every one of you consider well the company that he or she keeps.
You cannot watch television all night and all this facade that's being put out there by these people who have no belief in any type of religion in many instances, and not have it erode our faith. One cannot keep the company of profligates, people who have no moral compass, every other word out of their mouth is a profane word, every thought, every encouragement they give us is an encouragement that pushes us towards the dunya, towards this world. You can't inundate yourself with those messages and nurture your faith.
One has to keep the company of righteous people. One has to look down upon those above them in the world and not up to them in longing for their dunya, and look up to those above them in religion so one can rise up to their level. Now we do the exact opposite. We look down on the people above us in religion, and to do that we just find some fault that we might point to: "Well, you know, she's not really all that. She knows the Quran, but I heard her backbiting one time, so why should I look up to her?"
Closing Reflections
May Allah bless us, may Allah strengthen us. May Allah bless us to reflect on the words of our predecessors who are dealing with things we are dealing with. The human condition doesn't change. The human condition doesn't change. There's nothing new under the sun, as they say. Everything's being recycled. Recycling was invented before California passed a law about 20 years ago. Everything's being recycled, so we can benefit from them, from their wisdom, from their experience.
I say this saying and I ask Allah's forgiveness for me and you and for the rest of the believers. I ask Allah's forgiveness.
Second Khutbah
Recap: The Questions We Must Ask
So to recap, brothers and sisters: ask yourself, how deep is your love for Allah?
Ask yourself - ask ourselves, I need to ask myself also - how deep is our love for the Quran? How deep is our love for the Prophet ﷺ? How deep is our love for the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ? How deep is our love and our longing for the Akhirah?
That's around where we meet Allah.
(Sahih al-Bukhari 6507, Sahih Muslim 2683)
The one who longs and loves to meet Allah, Allah loves to meet him or her.
Balancing Our Worldly Aspirations
So these are the things we should long for. We shouldn't be longing for the ultimate house - we should long for decent quarters. We shouldn't long for the ultimate car - a decent car we should long for. There's nothing wrong with that if we have the means to purchase it, but not the ultimate car, just a decent, good, solid car. We shouldn't long for the ultimate clothing, just enough to clothe our nakedness and to adorn us to a sufficient degree, but not diamond-studded kind of Liberace jacket or an Elvis cape that you had to kill a hundred minks to get. The minks deserve to live! Just something decent, not extreme. We're a balanced nation.
Two Stories on Balanced Living
We shouldn't aspire to dress like paupers, say: "Well, I'm a Sufi." That has nothing to do with tasawwuf. We'll stop with this story.
The Story of Imam Abul Hasan al-Shadhili
Ibn Abul Hasan al-Shadhili, who lost his eyesight in his adulthood, so at this point he couldn't see, but he dressed in a dignified fashion. And one day he perceived there was a shabbily dressed person based on his conversation. He comes to Imam Abul Hasan and he says: "You're supposed to be the Zahid and the great Shaykh and Sufi, and look at these clothes you're wearing."
And Abul Hasan, he said to him: "My decent clothing, my nice beautiful clothing, are an aspect of my other- worldliness. Because when people see me, they don't think I need anything from their dunya, so they don't offer it to me. But when they see you in your shabby dress, they offer you their dunya."
He didn't say it, but nowadays someone might say: put that in your abstinence pipe and smoke it!
May Allah give us understanding.
The Story of Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani
Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani - and in the West it's said Imam al-Qurtubi, there's different versions, but the deeper wisdom in the story, what's important - he was in the souk on a horse, a regal horse, and he was nicely dressed. And there was a Jew who was selling oil, and the oil was splashing and the dust from the souk is mixing with the oil, and he's a wretched mess. And he looks at Imam Ibn Hajar, or in the West Imam al-Qurtubi, and he says: "You know, I don't understand this. Your Prophet," - he might not have said that - he says:
(Sahih Muslim 2956)
The world is a prison for the believer and it's paradise for one who rejects the faith. He said: "What kind of paradise am I in and I'm in this wretched condition, and what kind of prison are you in and you're on this fine horse with these nice clothes?"
And the Imam said to him, he said: "The wretchedness you'll experience in hell will make what you're in now seem like you're in heaven, and the joys that I'll enjoy in Paradise will make the state that I'm in now seem like I'm in prison."
It's all a question of perspective. May Allah bless us with a good perspective on things.
Closing Supplications
أَقِمِ الصَّلَاةَ
يَرْحَمُكُمُ اللَّهُ