with a love in which no other rivals him. Such love is fitting only for Allah; no other may share in the love that is His due. He is loved for His own sake, and everything else rightly loved is loved only for His sake. Whatever is loved for the sake of anyone other than Him is falsely loved. Thus, this world is accursed, and everything in it is accursed, except what is for Allah Most High.
Since this is the nature of close friendship, it is clear that whoever denies that Allah is loved for His own sake denies close friendship with Him. Likewise, whoever denies His love for any of His servants denies that He takes a servant as a close friend, with the Lord loving him and the servant loving the Lord in the most perfect manner befitting a servant.
Similarly, they denied His speaking to Moses because they denied that any attribute or action could subsist in Him. Just as they deny that He possesses life, power or knowledge, or that He rises or comes, they likewise deny that He speaks or addresses anyone. This is the reality of their position:
“Those before them said the same. Their hearts are alike.”
But since Islam was manifest and the Quran was recited, and could not be denied by anyone professing Islam, they began to deviate concerning Allah’s names and distort words from their proper places. They interpreted the servants’ love for Him as merely their love of obeying Him or drawing near to Him. This is profound ignorance. For a person’s love of drawing near to the One he approaches follows from, and is an outgrowth of, his love for Him. Someone who does not love a thing cannot love drawing near to it, since drawing near is a means, and love of the means follows from love of the intended end. It is therefore impossible for the means to a beloved thing to be loved while the very thing sought through those means is not.