قال رسول الله صلی الله علیه و اله وسلم: اوثق عری الایمان ان تحب فی الله و ان تبغض فی الله
Our subject today is about love and hate, or like and dislike. Once, the Holy Prophet (p.b.u.h) surrounded by his companions in the mosque, ask them “what do you think the most reliable handhold of faith is?” Some responded that that it is Salat (prayer). Others said that it is fasting. The third person said that it is pilgrimage (Hajj), and others said it is Zakat. The Prophet after listening to all these, said that everything that you have said and mentioned has a merit. But, the most reliable handhold of the faith is for you to love for the sake of Allah and when you have hate or hatred, that is based purely because Allah dislikes that. Normally, we communicate with our fellow members of the community, our members of our families by these two elements, these two emotions, by these two reactions. Either we love someone, we like them, or we hate someone, either because of themselves or because of their attitudes or actions. So, the basis for all these emotions, all these actions and reactions should be only and purely, solely to match with what pleases Allah Subhanahu wa taalaa, to match what with what pleases Allah, or what Allah is not pleased with. That is the only measure.
Of course, when you experience good moments, when you are in a particularly pleasurable place or occasion, you say that “I wish my brother, my friend, my relatives, were with me attending this moment and this time. It is very normal and for your information, brothers and sisters, something like that happened by a person who was in the camp of Imam Ali (a.s) when he headed towards a battle of Jamal (the camel in Basra). Of course, he advised them, he tried to stop them from the behaviour that they accuse the Imam (a.s) of having a share in the blood of Uthman, and he knew, and they all knew that this accusation was false. Anyway, when Imam Ali (a.s) and his army gained victory over those after deviation, those after corruption, those who spread all wrong rumours and accused the Imam of something which he never did, when the Imam attained that victory over his opponents, a gentleman came to him and said, “O commander of the faithful, I wish that my brother was with us to witness this victory and to see how we ended up to overcome those who created all these wrong accusations.” The Imam asked him one question and said, “Does your brother share with us the loyalty to Allah?” And when he responded in an affirmative way, the Imam said, “then he most certainly has witnessed this victory and not only him, indeed many future generations to spring from the loins of men and wombs of women will share with us this joy. What does it mean? Which means that, when people share with you the same belief, the same manner, which means that you are following the path of Ahlulbayt (a.s) and they are sincere in their faith, when there is a glad moment, a joyous time, and you wish they were with you to share this very pleasant moment, of course they will have such opportunity, by Allah. Not only those who exist in our time, even the generation to come in the future.
Brothers and sisters, this explains to us something very important. That if someone does something wrong and people approve of his work, they will be held accountable for those wrongdoings exactly in the same way of the original one who committed that. When the superpower, the politicians who do every wrong thing, every immoral thing, they become the source of bloodshed, injustice, atrocity and all wrongdoings, those who share with them the same policy and approve of that, or sometimes they say, “Oh well done”, they will share the same liability and accountability with them.
And that is why in Ziyarat Ashura , when we ask Allah to withdraw his mercy from those who killed Imam Hussain (a.s) , those who prepared, those who heard about this after hundreds of years, they read that someone like Yazeed, a despotic ruler, assassinated, killed and slaughtered Imam Hussain, the very grandson of the messenger of Allah, and they feel happy about it, pleased about it. They share the same love and like with it. And nowadays you see that many people, when they watch something on the Internet, they are asked to press like.
Brothers and sisters be aware, that when you press like, you will share the same responsibility with the wrongdoer himself. Then, Allah in order that we make sure that we are obedient to him, when He mentions certain actions that He Almighty dislikes them, we in order to be in the same path and acting in the same manner, we have to keep away, to refrain from those actions. Let us search in the Quran about few actions and behaviours and attitudes that Allah clearly says that He dislikes. In one occasion, Allah says that He does not love, does not like the aggressors. In a second occasion, He Almighty says that He does not like those who make mischief. In the third verse, Allah mentions about those who do not have any strong belief, those who are not believers. And most importantly in the fourth verse, Allah says that He does not love those who are unjust. So, those who act opposite to justice, those that all their activities can be summarised in one word, and that is injustice, Allah does not love them, and does not love those who love them, those who are loyal to them or approve of the work. In another verse, Allah says that He does not like, does not love those who are proud and boastful. And in the way of expenditure, Allah as in one occasion we explained, moderation in everything, moderation even in giving charity, donating. So, always this moderation is highly recommended in the Quran and it is one of the good principles of morality indeed. Allah says that He does not love the extravagant and in the in the end another example I have chosen only a few of them, but these are the most important in my opinion, in my finding that Allah does not love those who are arrogant. So, if we try to summarise this and conclude, from Allah’s words, Allah Almighty’s in the Quran, we see that He does not approve, does not like, does not love those who are arrogant, aggressors, mischief makers, unjust, those who are proud and boastful, those who are sinful, those who are extravagant and arrogant. This means that those who love Allah, those who want to walk in the path which is pleased and approved by Allah, must avoid this type of attitudes, and this is the lesson brothers and sisters for our day. We have to be careful, whenever we do something as we are provided by free will, and Allah granted us the ability to analyse, to weigh, to make some sort of conclusion and in the end, to follow the command of Allah and act upon it, to avoid associating with those who always act in disobedience to Allah, immorality, and every type of bloodshed and arrogance, injustice.
May Allah enable us all to walking this path, to teach our families, our children and to educate others about these Islamic principles.