Weighing Emotions on the Sharia Scale
In Islamic ethics, a person’s love (muhabbah) and anger (bughz) should be shaped entirely by the desire to please Allah, not according to personal interests or selfish desires. Abdülkadir Geylani (q.s.) explains how a believer should control the feelings in their heart: “If you feel aversion towards someone; evaluate their actions according to the Book and Sunnah.” If the actions of that person are in accordance with the Quran and Sunnah, and yet you still dislike them, then it is the trickery of your nafs (ego). In such a situation, one should hate their own nafs and pray to Allah to awaken love for that righteous servant. Otherwise, harboring unjustified hatred makes one an enemy of Allah’s friends and leads to spiritual ruin.
Divine Jealousy: Not Associating Partners with Allah
Allah the Exalted has created the heart of His servant as a place of observation for Him and desires that no other thing than Himself should have absolute (supreme) love there. He is “The Most Jealous and Almighty” 19, 20. When someone ties their heart to a transient being, wealth, position, or a person (to the degree of associating partners with Allah) with excessive affection, divine jealousy intervenes. In accordance with the secret, “I created mankind and jinn only that they might worship Me,” every transient love associated with the love of Allah in the servant’s heart becomes a means of torment and disappointment for them 19, 20. When the Exalted sees that his servant is inclined towards someone other than Himself, He is jealous of him and takes that false love away from him 19, 20.
Purification of Love and Union
A perfect believer loves people, things, or blessings only as a trust created and permitted by Allah. Geylani (q.s.) warns against the most subtle (latent) form of shirk, saying: “May the heart be cleansed from shirk, similitudes, family, wealth, children, pleasures, desires, seeking sainthood, miracles, position, and rank.” When the heart is purified from these false loves, from the idols of its own nafs, absolute love for Allah settles there. A servant who only loves Allah and only becomes angry when the boundaries of the Sharia are violated (when the law is transgressed) 21, 22, has been freed from the captivity of their nafs and has reached the pinnacle of divine pleasure – a true guardian of Islam (muwahhid).