Does Allah Love Me?

Many of us at one time or another ask themselves these questions. Does Allah love me? If so, how can we be sure? If not, what am I doing wrong?

Let Allah Himself answer you : Allah, the most Kind and Merciful informs that: “Verily, Allah loves those who repent and those who purify themselves”. [S2.222]. Do you fall in this category? Ponder on these word for His Words are true and He means them.

So now you want to repent so that Allah will love you? That is good. How do we repent? Repentance is an obligation on every believer. Allah says: “O you who believe! Turn to Allah in sincere repentance!” [S66.8]. Repentance is the means of attaining success. Allah says: “And O believers, all of you, repent to Allah in order that you may be successful.” [S24.31]

The Prophet (saas) is reported to have said: “All the children of Adam (alaihissalam) are wrong-doers. And the best of them are those who repent”.

The Words of Allah that never fails to move me to tears is this: “Say: O My slaves who have transgressed against themselves (because of sins), do not despair from the mercy of Allah. Verily, Allah forgives all sins. Verily, He is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” [S39.53]

How beautiful are those words, how refreshing, full of compassion, how convincing and how warm and a strong reminder of His unfailing love for us who never think of Him and continuously sin day and night without thinking of repentance! While Allah has kept 99% of His mercy to Himself, then how can He not love us.

Contrary to what most people think that Allah’s love is conditional, i.e. only when we repent and keep ourselves clean then only He will love us, this is really a false thought. When a mother says to her child, “Oh, you behaved so well today, I love you for that”, does this mean that this mother loves the child ONLY because of good behavior? Is her love conditional? Think about it and then think about what the reaction of this child will be. To earn his mother’s love, he will try to behave well all the time. He needs his mother and her love, so naturally he will try to please her and he knows from her words that if he behaves well, she will love him more. This will ENCOURAGE him to behave better and better. The mother’s love is always there. Allah’s love is always there but He uses those words as an ENCOURAGEMENT so that we strive hard to earn His love by obeying Him in all matters.

While Allah answers the supplication of even the non-believers, how can we say that His love is conditional?

Allah’s love is something we do not deserve as human beings, but He gives it to us anyway. Sometime we instinctively feel we don’t deserve his love since we don’t do all the things that pleases Him. This is why at times we feel that He does not love us. We feel guilty of our wrongdoings. And since He knows us better, He comforts us, makes us feel good with His beautiful words, telling us NOT to despair for He forgives ALL sins. Is this not LOVE unrecognized by us? Glory be to Him in Whose Hands is our lives. If He loves us only if we repent then most of us do not have hope of reaching Paradise. It is only through His Mercy and love that we will reach that level.

We can demonstrate this by this story of a prostitute whose sins were forgiven because she gave drinking water to a thirsty dog. After she drank from a well, she saw a thirsty dog to which she gave some water. This lady’s sins were forgiven purely by Allah’s mercies.

Allah is patient, He always gives us time, lots of time, to recognize the error of our ways, and to put things right, to ask for mercy. Is this not love? Allah, the Most Kind and Merciful says in Hadith Qudsi, “When Allah decreed the Creation He pledged Himself by writing in His book which is laid down with Him: My mercy prevails over my anger.”

Allah’s love and mercy extends beyond humans, but this is another topic however suffice to say, that game hunting of birds or animals just for the pleasure of the sport and not for a real need is forbidden in Islam; when a Muslim slaughters an animal or a bird for eating, he has to sharpen his knife and treat the animal gently and never feel the pain; even we are taught never to cut down trees and plants needlessly. So if Allah’s mercy is such for animals, then how much more for us humans.

So I conclude this essay by saying that next time you feel like asking : Does Allah love me, be sure the answer is YES, He does. He loves us and we must strive harder to earn greater love from Him. And what’s more, He loves those who are merciful to others.

Ask yourself: Do I love Allah? If so, then what stops you from repenting and keeping clean? If not, do you want Allah to love you without you loving Him? That doesn’t make sense. I don’t know about you but I noticed that we tend to instinctively love someone who, in turn loves, us? So ask again do I love Allah?

May Allah’s mercy descend into our homes and in our hearts, always. May He we all show greater mercy to one another, especially to those over whom we have some authority? May Allah guide our leaders to show mercy to their citizens, our employers to their workers, our parents to their children. And May He reward us all, according to the best of our deeds. May we all, set a good example to other communities inside and outside of Islam, everywhere. Ameen. Peace and blessings of Allah on Muhammed the last and final messenger, the best of mankind, on his household, his companions and all those who follow him.