WEBVTT

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LOVING FOR Allah'S SAKE

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That is the good news which Allah gives to His servants who believe and do right actions.

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Say, I do not ask you for any wage for this, except for you to love your near of kin.

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If anyone does a good action, we will increase the good of it for him.

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Allah is ever forgiving, ever thankful.

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The believer's entire life is devoted to Allah.

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He lives for Allah, works for Allah, and loves for Allah's sake.

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A believer who knows Allah and sees His great mercy towards Him,

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who realizes that He exists through Him, that He lives through Allah's mercy,

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and that everything He loves and enjoys comes from Allah,

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naturally attains the nobility of loving Allah and loving for His sake.

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The great difference between believers and other people with regard to love

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is revealed in the Quran as follows.

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Some people set up equals to Allah, loving them as they should love Allah.

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But those who believe have greater love for Allah.

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As revealed in the verse, those who associate partners with Allah and, in their own minds,

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attribute to other beings qualities that belong entirely to Him,

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love these beings as they should love Allah.

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This is a love founded on associating partners with Allah.

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In other words, on shirk.

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Believers, however, know that everything that exists belongs to Allah and comes from Him,

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and they love Allah most.

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This great difference, arising from believers' recognition of Allah as the one and only,

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makes their understanding of love entirely different from that of other people.

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The Quran reveals that those who associate partners with Allah cannot bear to hear Allah mentioned as the one and only.

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When you mention your Lord alone in the Quran, they turn their backs and run away.

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The truth the believer recognizes is this.

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Nothing possesses any beauty of its own.

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Allah creates everything, and it is He who gives all things the qualities they possess.

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Since a person, for example, has not designed and created his own face,

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the beauty in that face belongs to Allah.

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Allah has temporarily bestowed this beauty upon a human being whom He has created from nothing.

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Only Allah has the power to recreate this beauty in an even more perfect form in the hereafter.

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To remind people that He Himself is the true owner of beauty,

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He will also bring these beings to an end through death and through the last day,

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which is a more universal death.

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Creation anew will take place in the hereafter.

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For this reason, the believer loves all the beauty he encounters,

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knowing that it belongs to Allah and that its original is in the hereafter.

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Therefore, his love is directed above all towards Allah,

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who gives him everything he loves and is its true owner.

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Those who do not believe possess a love that is the complete opposite of this love the believer has,

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which is founded on faith in Allah.

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Their love is based on associating partners with Allah, on shirk.

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In the Quran, this kind of love is described in the words of the Prophet Ibrahim .

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Ibrahim said,

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You have adopted idols apart from Allah as tokens of mutual affection in this world.

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But then, on the day of rising, you will reject one another and curse one another.

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The fire will be your shelter.

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You will have no helpers.

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Bediuzaman Said Nursi also describes those who possess this kind of love through an illuminating example.

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A man holds the mirror in his hand towards the sun.

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According to its capacity, that mirror receives from the sun a light,

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a radiance containing the seven colors and a reflection.

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To that extent, it has a relationship with the sun and converses with it.

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If he directs that shining mirror towards his dark house or his private garden beneath a roof,

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he can benefit from the light only to the extent of the mirror's capacity,

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not the power of the sun.

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The other man, however, puts the mirror aside and goes directly out into the sunlight,

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beholds its splendor and understands its greatness.

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The believer directs all his love towards Allah.

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Loving Allah means loving the beings in which Allah's attributes are reflected,

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knowing that these names belong to him.

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He has aalid US thanks to our group.

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And he gave him even his love towards Earth.

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In order to