and the particular after the universal—both of which depart from the plain sense of the words. One may not abandon the obvious meaning unless there is clear proof that a different sense is intended. Just as it is impermissible to interpret love for Him as nothing more than love for His Messenger, so too it may not be reduced to a mere love for the deed itself, even though loving Him necessarily entails loving His Messenger and the deeds done for His sake.

Moreover, to speak of “loving something” while intending nothing but “loving obedience to it,” rather than loving the thing itself, is unknown in the Arabic language, whether literally or figuratively; construing the verse that way is sheer distortion. We have already established in several of the major doctrinal principles that nothing besides Allah may be loved or sought for its own sake, just as nothing besides Allah exists by itself. There is no Lord but Allah and no god besides Him. A god (ilah) is the One worshipped who deserves, in His own right, to be loved and magnified with perfect love and veneration.

Every human being is born upon the innate disposition (fitrah). The Almighty has fashioned the hearts so that, of all the things they love and desire, nothing can truly bring them peace except Allah alone. Whatever a person may love—food, clothing, pleasing sights, or pleasant touch—he still senses within himself that his heart is searching for something beyond all of that, yearning for something else that he reveres, turns to, and in which he finds repose, glimpsing traces of it in those various objects. Hence Allah says in Surah al-Raʿd: “Surely, in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest” (13:28).

Muslim relates from ʿIyāḍ ibn Ḥimār that the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—narrated from his Lord: “I created My servants as hunafāʾ (upright monotheists), but the devils turned them away, made unlawful for them what I had made lawful, and commanded them to ascribe to Me partners for which I sent down no authority.” Likewise, al-Bukhārī and Muslim report from Abū Hurayrah that the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—said: “Every newborn is born upon the fitrah, but his parents make him a Jew, a Christian, or a Magian, just as an animal is born whole—do you see it born mutilated?” Abū Hurayrah would then recite, if you wish, the verse: “So set your face toward the religion upright—the fitrah of Allah upon which He has created mankind. Let there be no change in Allah’s creation; that is the upright religion…” (al-Rūm 30:30).

Furthermore, every attribute of perfection that the heart is naturally disposed to love belongs to Allah in absolute perfection, and whatever beloved quality exists in anything else is, in truth, from Him. He therefore alone deserves to be loved in reality and in fullness. To deny that the servant can love his Lord is, in fact, to deny that He is a deity worthy of worship; and to deny that He loves His servant would entail denying His will, which, in turn, entails denying that He is Lord and Creator. Thus the denial of this mutual love amounts to denying that He is the Lord of all worlds and the God of all worlds—a view held only by the followers of negation and repudiation.

For this reason the two previous communities, according to what they have transmitted from Moses and Jesus, agreed that the greatest of all commandments is to love God with all one’s heart, mind, and purpose. This is the very essence of al-hanifiyyah, the creed of Abraham, which forms the foundation of the Torah, the Gospel, and the Quran. Denying it is borrowed from the teaching of the Sabians, the adversaries of Abraham the Friend; anyone who espouses it—whether philosopher, theologian, or jurist—has taken it from them, and it later re-emerged among the Bāṭinite Qarmaṭah of the Ismāʿīlī sect.

That is why the Friend, the leader of the monotheists, said—as Allah relates in Surah al-Shuʿarāʾ—“Have you considered….”