within the scope of worship.

Second: religious love, which itself is of two kinds:

1. Love of Allah, the Most High. This is the greatest of all acts of worship. Ibn al-Qayyim writes:

   To worship the All-Merciful is the utmost of love,
   Coupled with the servant’s humility—these are the two poles;
   Around them the orbit of worship continues to revolve,
   So long as those two poles remain in place.

   Worshipping the All-Merciful is the culmination of loving Him—the very peak of love—and every form of worship turns upon it. It is, therefore, a mighty branch of worship, and it is impermissible to love anyone alongside Allah: “Yet among people are those who take others besides Allah as equals; they love them as they should love Allah” (Quran 2:165). This constitutes shirk (associating partners with Allah) in love, the gravest form of worship. Hence the verse continues: “But those who believe are stronger in their love for Allah” (Quran 2:165).

   Believers love none but Allah, and their love for Him is more intense than the idolaters’ love for their idols, for love of Allah is unbroken in this world and the next. Love for any other deity, however, will be cut off in the Hereafter, and hostility will arise between the false objects of worship and their worshippers: “When people are gathered together, they will become their enemies and will deny their worship” (Quran 46:6); and, “You have only taken idols instead of Allah as a bond of affection among yourselves in this worldly life; then on the Day of Resurrection you will disown one another, curse one another, and your refuge will be the Fire” (Quran 29:25).