 بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم الحمد لله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على أشر في الخلق أجمعين نبينا وحبيبنا وإمامنا محمد ابن عبد الله وعلى آله وأصحابه أجمعين والتابعين ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين وبعد خلق أمامك ووضعها جدا أو لأنها أمامك but they have proven it beyond they have proven it beyond the mere statement you would know they love you without that utterance and the utterance would only be a reassurance right the utterance would only be a reassurance so if people were to say I love you for example لديهم already proven it to you over time then that is just a reassurance. من الله سبحانه وتعالى help us today I want to speak about true love. In actual fact there is one true love. And it is the love of Allah سبحانه وتعالى by extension the love of Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم because if you do not love one you would not be able to love the other. So a person who says I love Allah سبحانه وتعالى that statement would include the love of Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم because you could only love Allah سبحانه وتعالى through your love of Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم. And this is why it is the only love whereby you are never let down. So many people are let down by those who claim to love them. You say I love you. She says I love you. They say I love you to one another and they are the first ones to let you down to cheat to actually break your heart. This is why we say from the very beginning your heart and your mind are the two most powerful organs that you have never let anyone have full control over them besides Allah سبحانه وتعالى. The moment you've given someone your heart they have the capacity to break it to destroy it to crush it into the last piece and you won't know what has struck you. But when you give it to Allah سبحانه وتعالى that can never happen. He will only build it when it has been broken by others. Remember this. So the true love is that of Allah سبحانه وتعالى. How do I show that love? How do I show that love to Allah? I have none other than Allah سبحانه وتعالى telling me what to do to show that love. Now before I get to the verse of the Quran let me explain to you how we operate as human beings. It's because of the environment we live in the culture that we have throughout the globe and the norms that we've been following for a long long time. What we do is if we really love someone and we claim to love them we don't want to hurt them. Do you agree? If they were to tell us something we would do it immediately. We would go out of our way to make sure that they are happy. We would like to spend maximum time with them. If you love someone you want to spend a lot of time with them even if they are irritated with you you still want to spend more and more time with them because you know that you know I love this person I want to prove something to them. If you cannot afford something you go out and work hard to earn in order to be able to come back and to give them what they like even if they haven't asked for it سبحان الله You want to get for your beloved the latest of this and the latest of that and you want to make sure that they smile and they feel close to you سبحان الله and you would never do something to hurt their feelings if you really love them. Well let's now go to the verse where Allah سبحانه و تعالى speaks about the love of Allah Would you ever hurt your beloved? The answer is no. Why then do we transgress against Allah? Would we not like to spend time with the beloved? Why then do we not like to spend time with Allah when it comes to تراويح when it comes to the night prayer when it comes to the recitation of the Quran imagine if the person you love the most gave you a book and told you this is my book you would read it in one night you would make sure that you read the whole book the following day you would tell them or the same night you would tell them do you know what you've written this you've written that I know this I know that and you would like to know their likes and dislikes you wouldn't like to feed them or to even offer them something they wouldn't like when it comes to Allah سبحانه و تعالى we are guilty of not applying rules that are even similar although they should be far higher in the case of Allah سبحانه و تعالى so take a look for example at the Quran how many of us read the book yet we claim to love Allah how many of us are agitated when the Imam takes two minutes too much and we get upset how many of us get angry when the tarawih is taking a little bit longer how many of us when we are listening to a lecture that draws us closer to Allah سبحانه و تعالى we don't want to hear about it because it's taking too long how many of us when it comes to illicit relationships we are prepared to spend the whole night on the phone and on WhatsApp and video calling and so on and so forth knowing that it's wrong in the eyes of Allah but because we love someone we don't mind spending the entire night with them but when it comes to Allah we don't even want to spend the portion of the night with Him and we keep saying I love you oh Allah and I love Allah and this is why we are crushed to pieces because we don't realize develop your relationship with Allah Allah is the owner of the solution of the problems that you have Allah is the owner of the hearts of those whom you may claim to love Allah owns the heart Allah will ensure that your heart is protected because guess what ultimately He has more control over your heart than you have over it yourself اللهم يا مقلب القلوب ثبت قلوبنا على ديني oh Allah oh you who has the ownership of the turning of the hearts turn our hearts towards your Dean and don't away from it say amen amen so my brothers and sisters here we have the love of Allah سبحانه وتعالى Allah says to Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم قل إن كنتم تحبون الله فاتبعون يحببكم الله ويوفر لكم ذنوبكم والله وفور الرحيم oh Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم قلوا لهم إذا كنت تكلم أن تحبوا الله إذا كنت تحبوا الله سبحانه وتعالى then follow me and Allah will love you and He will forgive your sins for indeed He is most forgiving most merciful it's amazing how the messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم is informing us what Allah wants from us if we claim to love him Allah says you love me okay this is the messenger I chose I chose him as the best of creation I chose him as the most noble of all prophets I chose him as the Nabi who will be the final with the highest status and I chose that you be in his time in his era so if you are to adopt what he says and if you are to follow him then Allah will love you in return and as a result of that love He will forgive you for indeed He is most forgiving most merciful when you love someone and they love you you made a mistake you did something wrong and you say I'm sorry please forgive me out of love they'll say no problem don't even mention it agreed? no problem it's okay carry on don't worry forgiven forgotten because of love another thing if you love someone say for example they have a child and you love them and you want to marry them what happens to that child would you say listen I love you but not your child they would tell you well that means you don't love me enough isn't it you love me you love whatever comes with me by extension subhanallah otherwise that love is not true otherwise it is a limited love yes sometimes I do know that you do have people's children who make life difficult for the spouses that they may have chosen after divorce etc. but that is an exceptional case may Allah grant us forgiveness imagine with Allah subhanallah He is telling you you love me you've got to love what I love you love me you claim to love me you've got to love everything that I have given value to and importance starting with Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم you can never ever claim to love Allah subhanallah when you haven't loved what Allah chose to be beloved to him and whom Allah chose as the best of creation the most noble of all messengers subhanallah now if you love Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم there are certain things you will need to do when you hear his name you should not be ashamed to utter صلى الله عليه وسلم because we are taught that when you say صلى الله عليه وسلم the reward that goes to you who is saying it is ten times more than the value of the statement سبحان الله that is what Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم says من صلى علي وحدة صلى الله عليه بها عشرة whoever sends blessings and salutations upon me once Allah blesses them ten times in return ten times so if I want to bless myself what do I do سبحان الله I need to have an intention that I am sending blessings and salutations upon Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم and I need to do it as often as I can on a Friday the one who sends the maximum number of blessings wins a competition the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم says he who sends the greatest blessings and salutations upon me is more deserving of my شفاعة my intercession on the day of judgment سبحان الله you want the companionship of Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم learn to send blessings and salutations upon Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم but my brothers and sisters there is a statement that comes with it when we send blessings and salutations upon Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم it stems from the belief in the heart that he is the best of creation the most noble of all messengers so he is our messenger we will try our best to adopt everything he has said imagine you keep telling someone you love them and you keep going against what they like and what they have taught they will come a time when they will say hey listen you know what you're a hypocrite man you say and you love me you love me all the time what are you doing with this person and that person and what are you doing doing something that will harm me hurt me you know this thing makes me cry you know it breaks my heart to see you do x, y and z and you keep on doing it every day and your password is I love you may Allah forgive us it's a password that is used I see some of the youngsters are laughing and they keep on a little while later they do something nasty I love you come back hang on there's a limit to it sometimes especially with human beings with Allah سبحانه وتعالى for as long as you're alive there is hope for as long as you're alive there is a time to change Allah gives us beautiful opportunities Allah gives us a lovely occasions that are filled with greatness that is different from certain days for example there is a season where the blessings are multiplied like the season of Ramadan there are nights when the chances of your dua are being accepted are far greater such as the night of Layla to Qadr there are seasons like the 10 days of the Al-Hijjah where good deeds are more loved by Allah سبحانه وتعالى than outside of that season why does Allah do this for us it's such a big favor it's for us to go ahead and make use of it imagine every day you go to the store whole sale and every day you are purchasing what you need for the week or should I say for that day or whatever you would like to purchase from that particular store and one day you see and this happens with every store almost every store unless a person is really you know miserly what happens they will have a sale they will have a discount they will have a promotion what for to encourage you to buy to encourage you to stock up a little bit to encourage you to make use of it look at the airlines there are tickets going across the globe sometimes you have a sale and they sell you tickets for 100 200 grand 500 grand where are we flying we're flying anywhere in the world for so much they have these flash sales in order for you to make use of if you are interested in that wallahi as muslimin we are all interested in jannah tulfer dos do you agree we want jannah we want paradise there are flash sales that keep coming and Allah says you want my love here this is an opportunity come close subhanallah whoever walks close to Allah Allah comes to him rushing it's amazing so this is why Allah has given us a beautiful day every week which is different from the rest of the days of the week what is it known as a friday agreed if a friday does not soften you how can you claim this link with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala my brothers and sisters good news to those who come early on a friday and who sit because the connection with the jumu'a is a connection with Allah why because Allah gave the jumu'a it's value and you gave the jumu'a it's the value that Allah gave it it's your connection with Allah this is love you love what Allah loves when Allah created love subhanallah he created a portion of it that descended 99 portions of that mercy mercy in actual fact he kept with him for the day of judgment subhanallah and this is why when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala speaks of the truest of love he gives us the example through the blessed lips of Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم of a mother and he says do you see Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم says do you see this mother ever casting this baby that she is suckling into the fire and the Sahaba said no so he says do you know that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala loves you way beyond the love that this mother has for this child every one of us is loved by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so loved that it is more than the love of a mother for the child why that example because that is the truest love on earth between human beings the mother's love subhanallah I know there are exceptions I know there are some mothers may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala all forgiveness I know some have dumped their children some have abandoned them some have done so many things but that is human nature sometimes and the weakness where shaitan comes to entrap us my brothers and sisters never lose hope in the mercy of Allah you can always go back people may not forgive you but trust me Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the sins committed between you and him he will forgive you no matter what that's the love of Allah and this is why when Allah speaks about the صحابة رضي الله عنهم do you know what he says رضي الله عنهم ورضو عنه وأعد لهم جنات رضي الله عنهم Allah has become pleased with them and they are pleased with Allah now this pleasure includes love because Allah cannot be pleased with you if he doesn't love you subhanallah so that goes to show that true love includes to be pleased with I'm happy with Allah and Allah is happy with me and Allah says as a result of that pleasure we have prepared paradise for them may Allah grant it to us so my aim and your aim is جنة الفردوس Allah chose a messenger to come to us to teach us what is required of us in order to get closer to Allah so therefore engage in that which the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم has taught when you consider the month of Ramadan sacred it's a sign of the love of Allah and it's a sign that you love Allah don't we get excited that Ramadan is coming masha'Allah this evening perhaps the chances are great that this evening the moon will be sighted insha'Allah and just between the sighting of the moon and the beginning of the tarawih is such a massive transformation that the entire environment changes in that one hour and few minutes everything changes it's a transformation given from Allah do you want to know why it's the love of Allah that is manifest that comes out loud and clear those who are drunkards they promise I'm not going to drink so Allah says I'm going to transform the environment for you I'm going to give you a better feeling those committing adultery they promise Allah no more adultery so what happens Allah says I'm the owner of sustenance what you eat during this month because you are so close to me I'm going to ensure that it tastes different you will value the savouries that you put into your mouth Subhan Allah why do you value them because you promised Allah not to commit sin now you've become closer to Allah that samosa is the same one but guess what it tasted so beautiful the reason is I'm now close to the owner of sustenance Subhan Allah the barakah that is in the food is way beyond our comprehension and this is why some people gain weight in Ramadan have you seen that because they think that now that I've abstained from food through the day the qadah starts at night just like we eat 20 rakat of salah we've got to go in and 20 kilos of food no more that's not how it works my brothers and sisters remember it is it is the month of love the love of Allah is true and it is shown actually you it is made manifest when you respect the rest of the creatures of the same Allah it is made manifest when you look at others do not be filled with hatred it is a disease and a sickness if someone is doing something bad you dislike the deed but as for the individual they are your brothers and sisters remember this they are your brothers and sisters in faith they share with you the shahada they may be involved in sin they may be difference of opinion but that does not make you hate the individual rather you keep on having hope that this person will quit the sin you keep on trying in the most beautiful way you fulfill their rights as Muslimin and you need to ensure that your heart is filled with a good feeling when you see others my brothers and sisters I want to spend the moment explaining the term love for the sake of Allah people abuse the term you know you look at a girl for example it is happening online a lot where they say wow sister I love you and then you are like worried how is the reaction going to be so you quickly say for the pleasure of Allah and you did not say for my own pleasure as well you quickly add for the pleasure of Allah on the statement in order to halalize if I can coin that term in order to halalize the statement you just added for the pleasure of Allah Subhan Allah so I love you for the pleasure of Allah by the way because you know you're in Niqab I've got the beard that's what it suits may Allah forgive us I tell you the pleasure of Allah what does it mean when you see anyone doing anything for the sake of Allah it should ignite in your heart a love for them because they are trying to please Allah that's love for the sake of Allah if I enter the masjid I need to look for the most common factors between myself and everybody else so as I walk in I see someone reading salah and he's reading long salah in the corner if I'm an evil person I'm going to think look at that uncle he's a show off this is Riyadh it's and this means it's very bad uncle stop reading long salah and going long into such that because you're just showing off that's a negative person that's a person who's in the clutches of the devil and shaitan but the true mu'min you see someone reading salah and you greet them with such importance because to you they are a VIP of Allah they are trying their best to earn the pleasure of Allah you see a sister in an age where it is so difficult to even cover the hair and she's covered it properly and you know that she faces challenging comments from society and community and you just for the pleasure of Allah there is a love in your heart you say may Allah make it easy a dua comes from the heart for those whom you may never communicate with just by seeing them while you're driving and you see masha Allah look at this family subhan Allah all my brothers and sisters they are muslims muslims masha Allah ya Allah protect them ya Allah make it easy for them ya Allah sustain them ya Allah give them and they don't even know you said that that is love for the sake of Allah that is love for the sake of Allah when you walk into the masjid and you start hating the people who are reading salah just because they raise their hands a little bit more or they don't that is a clutch of the devil that has actually gotten hold of you but you need to enter the masjid and ensure that all those who are here ya Allah we share in common the Shahada all of us bear witness that you alone are worship all of us bear witness that Muhammad is أفضل الخلق وأكرم الرسول خاتم الأنبياء والمرسلين صلى الله عليه وسلم therefore we love each other for the sake of Allah in this way you are true you are genuine today it's become material when you gain something from someone either to quench your lusts and desires or something material to be able to get from them so that you can live a more luxurious life that's when you start saying that I love you but the true I love you is when you're not gaining anything from a person it's a feeling within the heart of genuineness towards the poorest person who might even be begging on the streets and I'm not encouraging begging but I'm just giving you an example that even the poorest of the poor the darkest of the dark and you love them for the sake of Allah you give them importance to say you know what this person is trying and the pleasure of Allah today a face looks pretty and the first thing that comes to your tongue is I love you you don't love me no you don't you know why true love has nothing to do with what you look like my brothers and sisters true love even if someone is out of shape according to us and even if they are for example not that grand looking that the whole world turns around to give them a second look we still love them because of their dedication their sacrifice this is why I call on every one of us you know when you get married Masha'Allah you're excited because there's a honeymoon and so on and everyone's married and everyone's Subhanallah so happy it's new you know as you grow older and you have children and you have the middle age spread Masha'Allah and the love handles become love pouches and so on do you know what happens if you can still feel the love due to the dedication to one another and to your result and children then you are a true human being then you are a true مؤمن you feel the love this is my spouse I love my spouse look at what sacrifice she has gone through or he has gone through going out in the morning coming back just to serve us smiling at us and yet there's so many other in inverted commerce prettier people but we are dedicated yes we love everyone as human beings we love the Muslim we mean with a special form of love but there is a different type of love between spouses and family members your parents and your children that love is from Allah Allah connected you in some way remember if you do not learn to love correctly then you will shatter your heart in that which you think is love but it's not love so what happens for so many years and suddenly you take a look at something pretty and your entire life is destroyed because you didn't know how to dedicate that love in the right channel you didn't know what true love was I've known and I'm sure we all know of so many examples of people who shattered their lives and the lives of their children simply because they didn't know how to appreciate what Allah placed in their lives how long are you going to live for how long am I going to live for I don't even know if I'm going to see tonight but what I do know is the pleasure of Allah سبحانه وتعالى the way he has taught me to love I need to be dedicated in it and true in that love you love your mother don't you yes I do would it make a difference if she looked this way or that way or fat or not fat or dark or not dark would it make a difference no why? because that's my mother well the same should apply to the mother of your children سبحان الله I'm not saying waste yourself and justify it by saying مفتي منك said so no take care of yourself but remember to make people feel appreciated is a great act of worship that only a few have mastered remember that to make people feel appreciated is one of the biggest gifts you can give each other in your social circles and relationships starting with your family members many of us our own children they get hooked on to bad habits because we've never shown love and affection and appreciation to them today we have to repeat the words I love you I hope we mean them but we have to repeat them with a rosary sometimes to make sure that they've it's been uttered enough times for them to reassure I love you look at them again I love you you know I love you don't you do you love me back wow these are the type of statements people utter these days and they need to be uttered because people are weak the hearts have become weak remember ultimately we turn to Allah سبحانه وتعالى ultimately it is the love of Allah that will save us from the calamities of the dunya and the akhirah so when you fulfill your Salah it should stem from love not from just fulfilling something look I give you for example if I come here for Salah like this evening I have a problem okay I have a problem what is the problem one hand I have the people who are who are here سبحان الله and I wouldn't like to delay because I know everyone has the you know timing and everyone has responsibilities and everyone has so many things to do and so on but on the other hand I have something important I know of a hadith where the prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم says on the day of judgment the people of the Quran will be asked to read in the same way they used to read in the dunya in the world so if I'm going to rush through my tarawih there's a problem because in front of Allah I'm only going to be able to read the way I read when I was given an opportunity on earth so do I rush to please the people or do I read eloquently to please Allah so that when I'm on the day of judgment in front of Allah I'm not embarrassed to say I can't read in any other way وارتقي وارتل كما كنت وارتل في الدنيا the hadith says keep on going up and only recite the way you used to recite on earth wow I'm stuck so this is why Allah سبحانه و تعالى teaches us to create a balance you read in a in a pace that is beautiful of late I've been watching a lot of clips of tarawih online and one thing that has amazed me is the pace has slowed down throughout the globe because people have now realized you know what we gather everything but we don't get the reward in the month of Ramadan enough for us to actually earn the pleasure of Allah we're on edge when you love Allah you don't care what time it takes just like your سطح وزر الله سطح وزر الله very low example but that of your girlfriend you don't care what time of the day it is you don't care how long she talks to you for because why that's my cheek come on the cherry of the cake سبحان الله أستغفر الله may Allah forgive us أستغفر الله something haram and unacceptable we're ready to spend the whole night with سبحان الله and something I can't even say something but the deity who made you you're not prepared to spend another 20 minutes with سبحان الله and I've marked the massage it across the globe not just here where the slower they are the less musallis they are سبحان الله I think maybe we sift through those who are deserving and those who are not it's your opportunity this year we're going to make it with a difference plan from now we're going to go to the masjid with the slowest recitation I didn't hear and I mean for that I didn't hear and I mean plan from now we're going to go to a masjid where the recitation is eloquent and beautiful okay we can say I mean to that I mean Wallahi don't forget these words and I know they've all heard what has happened so if we're a little bit slower you know it's for the sake of Allah سبحانه وتعالى my brothers and sisters we want the love of Allah we really on the day of judgment we want to be the closest to Allah سبحانه وتعالى and by default that is the case we will be the closest to Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم so indeed my beloved brothers and sisters I don't want to say but as I always say I still have a whole month to say what I want to say so insha'Allah I hope to be seeing you my brothers and sisters every single night perhaps starting from tonight insha'Allah it seems like if we were to see the moon then tonight we will commence may Allah سبحانه وتعالى grant us mutual love and may this love be a means of entry into Jannah may this love really be a means of closeness for all of us in this dunya as well as in the best of places in the Akhira جزاكم الله خير صلى الله عليه وسلم