Allah Most High tells us that whoever loves anything besides Allah as he loves Allah has taken rivals besides Him. Such a thing is a rival in love, not in creation or lordship. No one on earth has ever affirmed a rival of the latter kind. Rivals in love, however, are another matter: most people on earth have taken rivals besides Allah in love and veneration.

He then says: “But those who believe are stronger in their love for Allah.” There are two interpretations of the comparison intended in this verse:

First: Those who believe love Allah more intensely than those who take rivals love their rivals and deities, whom they love and venerate besides Allah.

Second: Those who believe love Allah more intensely than those who associate rivals with Him love Allah. The believers’ love is devoted exclusively to Him, whereas the love of those who take rivals has been partly claimed by their rivals. Undivided love is stronger than love shared with others.

These two interpretations depend on the two interpretations of His words, “loving them as they love Allah”:

First: They love them as they love Allah. This affirms that they love Allah, but theirs is a love in which they associate rivals with Him.

Second: They love their rivals as the believers love Allah. He then explains that the believers’ love for Allah is stronger than the love that those who take rivals have for their rivals.

Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him, favoured the first interpretation. He would say:

They were condemned precisely because they shared their love between Allah and their rivals, rather than devoting it exclusively to Allah as the believers do. This is the equating mentioned in Allah’s account of them in the Fire, when they say to their deities and rivals, who have been brought into the punishment alongside them: 26: 97, 98 “By Allah, we were clearly astray when we equated you with the Lord of