loving Him cannot be interpreted as merely loving His Messenger, so too it cannot be interpreted as merely loving deeds done for Him, even though loving Him necessarily entails loving His Messenger and loving deeds done for Him.
Furthermore, using love for something to mean merely loving to obey it, rather than loving the thing itself, is unknown in the language, whether literally or figuratively. Interpreting the wording in this way is therefore also sheer distortion.
In our discussions of major principles, we have established in several places that nothing other than Allah may rightly be loved and desired for its own sake, just as nothing other than Allah can exist independently. There is no Lord but Allah, and no deity worthy of worship except Him: He is the One worthy of worship, who deserves to be loved and glorified for His own sake with perfect love and glorification.
Every child is born upon the natural disposition. For He, glorified is He, has created hearts with the innate recognition that, among all they love and desire, there is nothing in which they can find rest and their ultimate end except Allah alone. Whatever a beloved person loves—whether something eaten, worn, seen, heard, or touched—he finds within himself that his heart seeks something beyond it and loves something else, which it worships, turns to, and finds rest in; and he sees things resembling it among these categories.
For this reason, Allah Most High says in His Book:
“Surely, in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest.”
In an authentic hadith, Iyād ibn Himār reports from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, that Allah Most High said:
“I created My servants inclining to pure monotheism, but the devils led them astray, forbade them what I had made lawful for them, and commanded them to associate with Me that for which I had sent down no authority.”
Likewise, in the two Sahīh collections, Abū Hurayrah reports that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:
“Every child is born upon the natural disposition. Then his parents make him a Jew, a Christian, or a Magian, just as an animal gives birth to an intact offspring. Do you find any of them mutilated?”
Abū Hurayrah would then say: “Read