The same applies to “worship and obedience.” If it is said of someone who is obeyed and worshipped that a person loves obeying and worshipping him, then this love follows from love for him. Otherwise, someone who does not love him does not love obeying and worshipping him. Whoever acts for another only to obtain recompense from him or to avert punishment is merely exchanging something with him or ransoming himself from him, not loving him. One cannot say that such a person loves him and explain this as love of obeying and worshipping him. For even if love of the intended end entails love of the means, or something other than love of the means, this would warrant using the two expressions “love of recompense” and “love of safety” to express love of the deed. Love of Allah, however, has no connection with merely loving recompense.

Do you not see that when someone hires a worker for payment, the worker cannot be said to love him merely on that account? Indeed, a man may hire someone who has no love for him whatsoever—even someone who hates him. Likewise, someone who ransoms himself through a deed to escape another’s punishment cannot be said to love him; rather, he hates him. Thus, Allah’s description of His believing servants as loving Him cannot mean merely that they love the deeds through which they attain certain created ends, without their Lord being loved at all.

Furthermore, the word “worship” encompasses love together with humble submission, as explained earlier. Hence, the heart’s love for human beings has different degrees. The first is “attachment”: the heart’s attachment to the beloved. Then comes “ardent longing”: the heart’s pouring itself out towards the beloved. Then comes “abiding love”: love that endures. Then comes “passionate love,” and the last of