Their fundamental error is that the person who said,
“Love is a fire that burns away everything other than what the Beloved wills,”
meant by Allah’s will His religious, legislative will, which signifies His love and pleasure. It is as though he had said, “It burns away from the heart everything other than what Allah loves.” This meaning is sound. Perfect love entails loving only what Allah loves; if you love what He does not love, your love is deficient. As for His decreeing and ordaining such a thing, He hates and detests it, is angered by it, and forbids it. If I do not share His hatred, aversion, and anger toward it, then I do not love Him; rather, I love what He hates.
Following the revealed law and undertaking jihad are therefore among the greatest distinctions between those who love Allah and His allies, whom He loves and who love Him, and those who claim to love Allah while considering only His all-encompassing lordship or following innovations contrary to His law. Such claims to love Allah are of the same kind as the claims of Jews and Christians to love Him. Indeed, these people’s claims may be worse than those of Jews and Christians because of their hypocrisy, which places them in the lowest depths of the Fire. Conversely, the claims of Jews and Christians may be worse than theirs if these people have not reached the same degree of disbelief. The Torah and the Gospel contain teachings about loving Allah on which they agree; indeed, they regard this as the greatest commandment of the Law.
Thus, the Gospel relates that the Messiah said:
“The greatest of the Messiah’s commandments is to love Allah with all your heart, mind, and soul.”
Christians claim that they fulfil this love and that their asceticism and worship are expressions of it. Yet they are devoid of love for Allah, since they did not