The conception of love in the moral values of the Qur’an

ADNAN OKTAR'S LIVE INTERVIEW ON TEMPO TV
(January 28^th, 2009)

You can read the transcript of this video

ADNAN OKTAR'S LIVE INTERVIEW ON TEMPO TV
(January 28^th, 2009)

ADNAN OKTAR: The conception of love in the Qur’an; Allah wants us to love and fear Him. If someone does not love and fear Him, may Allah forbid, then Allah takes away the light of love in his heart, his power of love. I mean no matter how hard he tries, whatever he may do, he can neither love nor get anyone else to love him. He loses two powers at once, in other words, not just one. He loses the power to love and also the power of being loved. But since believers approach all things with a love and fear of Allah and look around them with the passionate love of Allah, they see the manifestation of Allah everywhere. That is why they are capable of feeling an ardent love. When a believer looks at a child, he sees the beauty that Allah creates in the children of the Paradise. He regards the child as the radiance of Allah, the manifestation of Allah. He delights in it. Feelings affection, compassion and a desire to protect arises in his heart. But it is Allah Who bestows that love. Allah refers to giving the Prophet Musa (as) a lovableness from His presence. That means that human beings are not lovable through any virtue of their own, but because Allah bestows it upon them. For instance, Allah bestowed an extraordinary beauty on the Prophet Yusuf (as). It came about through the will and creation of Allah, because if people were to be affected, they would have been so affected on first seeing the Prophet Yusuf (as). But they were not affected when they first saw him in the well. Allah says in a verse about Prophet Yusuf (as) that “..considering him to be of little worth.”. But later on, women were so affected by the Prophet Yusuf (as) as to slash their own hands. “Surely Allah is beyond that,” they say, “but he must be an angel.” They compare him to an angel. They were extraordinarily affected by him. But if a believer does not bear and approach matters with Allah’s mercy, then there can be no love in his heart. For instance, sometimes when people are preparing to get married, the girl says it is an extraordinary situation for her. She says she has fallen in love for the first time in her life, that she has never seen such a person, that she has literally been hypnotized and that she has found the man of her life. And because that poor fellow is desirous of being liked, he naively believes her, as this is a feeling that satisfies his pride. He never looks into the reason behind it or asks why that person loves him. He never wonders whether she would love him if he had no car or home of his own, or if his salary were less than it is. He just believes her out of a naive excitement that comes from having met someone who has discovered him at last. He is amazed at that discovery. He is amazed that nobody had discovered him before but now that she did. But the fact is that subconsciously the woman hates him for his stupidity, for his failure to see the truth. Because she regards him as prey, like a fly caught in her web, like a tiny fly. And he wriggles around there just like a fly. And she slowly weaves her web around him. He naively believes, the poor thing, that he has really affected her, that he is quite extraordinary, that there can be nobody else like him and all that kind of thing. But this is mutual suffering. She is just fooling herself, as she knows in her heart of hearts that it is his possessions that have affected her and that she will hate him in the event these cease to exist. Subconsciously, she develops a deep hatred for him. The woman automatically finds him repulsive and disgusting. But women use their wills under such circumstances, and they put up with the other party and the prospect of advantage overcomes their disgust, since money, cars and fine clothes will be forthcoming, and since she finds these more desirable and since the enjoyment these will give her, is greater than the disgust he will cause her. In putting up with him, she tries not to let him feel this, of course. She employs various means of covering up that she is only putting up with him. They have various ways of appearing lovable to one another. She says she has prepared a special dinner for him and has been waiting for him, while he tells her he has found a beautiful ring. They then embrace one another like in the movies. Posing and pretending for a lifetime is so painful. I mean, for a woman to live in the pretence that she loves someone when she does not, all for gain, and for a man to give the impression of being loved when he knows he is not, to pretend he is deceived when he does not believe it, for them both to pretend they love the other, like an actor and actress, is one of the most painful things in the world. It is one of the worst torments Allah inflicts on people. Whereas in true love a person seeks neither property, nor possessions nor this, nor that. If a woman sees a manifestation of Allah in a man, if she sees the mind of Allah in him, a woman will be literally hypnotized by that man. Allah gives such a power to that man. The wife of Pharaoh was extraordinarily affected by the Prophet Musa (as). She left the Pharaoh and married the Prophet Musa (as) in the desert, travelling with him for 40 years. The Prophet Musa (as) had no property. He gave her just hardship and tribulation. But she saw the manifestation of Allah in the Prophet Musa (as), for which reason she felt a powerful love for him. That is known as passion. As for our Prophet (saas), the wife of one of his slaves divorced him and married the Prophet (saas). Because she saw the radiance, beauty and manifestation of Allah in him. She saw much more in him. She saw a much greater, much more intense manifestation in him than in her own husband. Allah says to our Prophet (saas), you were ashamed of this and kept it hidden from people and concealed it in your heart, but Allah knew it. And He says that Allah’s command has now come to pass. By a verse of the Qur’an Allah enabled that woman to divorce that servant, and she married our Prophet (saas). Our Prophet (saas) was reluctant. He told his later wife, “Carry on as you are, do not get divorced.” He wanted her marriage to continue. But things came out when Allah sent down His revelation and Allah’s command was obeyed. In other words, this is a passion. In other words, the woman did this excellent thing because of her passion for the manifestation of Allah. We see many examples of this in history. This manifestation of Allah was seen in other prophets, too. And also in our own Prophet (saas). Loving for Allah’s approval is something else again. It is a profound delight. There is a special power in people in that regard, a feeling like a sixth sense. It resembles neither seeing nor touching nor hearing. It is an indescribably intense delight, a profound force. We call it passion. People imitate love and passion on the streets, I hear that on the television. They say they are in love. When I ask according to what criterion, meaning would that love persist if they had no job or money, they say they would get divorced. That means it has nothing to do with love.

2010-01-23 12:42:14

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