An important question: Loving is not voluntary. I have a natural need to love delicious foods and fruits, my parents and children, my spouse and friends, virtuous people, life, youth, this world, spring, and beautiful things. Why should I not? How can I appropriate all such instances of love only to the Divine Being and His Names and Attributes?

Answer: Listen to the following four subtle points.

First subtle point: However involuntary loving is, you can direct it to a certain object. For example, by convincing yourself that something beloved is ugly, or an obstacle to or only a mirror for an object worthy of true love, this feeling of love can be diverted to the true object of love.

Second subtle point: You can love such things, but do so in Almighty God's name and for His love's sake. Loving delicious foods and fruits because they are favors and bounties of Almighty God, the All-Merciful and All-Compassionate, means loving the Names the All-Merciful and Giver of Bounties and is a sort of thanksgiving. Love, when done in the All-Merciful One's name and not the carnal self's name, is reflected by lawful earning, contentment with what is lawful, and consuming in gratitude and reflection.

Loving and respecting one's parents on behalf of the Mercy and Wisdom that equipped them with affection and tenderness, and that raised you through their compassionate hands, are included in God's love. If done for Almighty God's sake, you must show your parents much more love, respect, and care when they only can cause you difficulty. The verse: If either or both of them reach old age with you, do not say to them "Uff!" (17:23), which tells children to love and respect their parents in five ways and degrees, shows how important parents' rights are in the eyes of the Qur'an and how degrading and detestable filial ingratitude is.

Since a father typically prefers his children to be superior to him, children cannot claim rights against him. There can be no justifiable cause of dispute between parents and children, for a dispute arises either from envy or a violation of rights. A father never envies his children, and children cannot claim rights against him. Even if they consider his treatment of them wrong, they cannot rebel. Those who do so, or who annoy him, are cruel and ungrateful.

Loving one's children with utmost care and compassion, as they are the All-Compassionate, All-Munificent One's gifts, is included in one's love of Almighty God. The sign that such love is for God's sake is to show "becoming patience" at their death and not to wail in despair and rebelliousness against Destiny. One should submit to God, believing that judgment belongs only to Him, and think: "My child was a loveable creature of God whom He placed in my custody. His Wisdom required Him to take the child from me and to a far better place. Even if I have one apparent share in that servant of His, thousands of true shares belong to Him."

Your love for friends, on account of their being believing friends of Almighty God who do good deeds according to the principle of loving for the sake of God, also is included in love of God. In addition, this is true of the love you feel for your spouse, your companion in life, because he or she is a sweet gracious gift of the Divine Mercy. Do not set your heart on his or her transient good looks.

A woman's greatest charm and beauty lie in her lovable good conduct accompanied with the kindness and grace particular to womanhood, and in her elevated, serious, and sincere compassion. That beauty of compassion and good conduct increase until she dies. It is through the love and respect for her compassion and good conduct that one can observe her rights to the end. If she is loved because of her physical beauty, she is deprived of her rights and the love and respect due to her at a time when she needs them most.

Loving virtuous people like Prophets and saints because they are approved servants of Almighty God, and in His name and for His sake, are included in His love. If you love your life because it is a most valuable capital given by Almighty God to gain eternal life, a treasury containing the faculties with which to acquire all kinds of virtues and perfections, and if you spend it in His service, then this love is included in love of Almighty God, the True Object of Worship. Loving the prime of youth because it is a sweet, fine gift of Almighty God, and thus spending it in His way is a sort of lawful love wedded to gratitude.

Loving nature reflectively, especially in spring, because it is a realm displaying the most beautiful inscriptions of the All-Wise Maker's light-diffusing Names and the most splendid and embellished works of His art, means to love Almighty God's Names. If you love the world only because it is the field to sow for the Hereafter, the mirror of the Divine Names, the collection of Almighty God's missives, and a temporary guest-house, then this love is also in Almighty God's name—provided you are not under your carnal self's influence.

In short, love the world and its creatures not for themselves but in the name of their Creator and the meaning they contain. Do not say: "How beautiful they are!" Rather, say: "How beautifully they have been made!" In your heart, do not love that which is not Him. Do not set your heart on that which is not Him, for the heart is the Eternally-Besought-of-All's mirror and belongs to Him. So pray to Him: "O God, provide me with love of You and the love of what will make me near to You."

And so if all the types of love mentioned so far are in God's name, then they give a painless, pure pleasure and are the means of a union that does not allow separation. In addition, they cause your love of God to grow and can be considered gratitude that gives pure pleasure and a reflection that is itself pure love.

For example, if a noble king grants you an apple in his presence, you will receive two sorts of pleasure and feel two kinds of love. The first type is your love for the apple because it is an apple. Thus you receive as much pleasure as an apple can give. Such a love is not in the king's name, but arises from your love of yourself, for you love the apple because of the pleasure it gives you. This kind of pleasure is transient and ends when you finish eating the apple. Moreover, the king may not be pleased with such an attitude.

The second sort of pleasure and love are directly related to the king. If you love and respect the apple because it embodies the royal compliment to you, then this love is in the king's name and for his sake. The pleasure arising from such a compliment is far greater than the pleasure coming from eating the apple. Such an attitude is pure gratitude to the king for his gift, and the love shown for the apple is love for the king himself.

Likewise, loving bounties—all foods and fruits—granted to us because of themselves and the pleasure they give is a carnal love, for it is for the carnal self's sake. The pleasure coming from eating and drinking is transient and mixed with pain. If you love the bounties you receive on account of their being favors of Divine Mercy and fruits of Divine Bountifulness and Benevolence, and if you receive pleasure from them and have an appetite for them in appreciation of the Divine grace in them, this love is pure gratitude and pure pleasure without any pain.

Third subtle point:·Love of the Divine Names has degrees and levels. As pointed out above, sometimes you love the Divine Names because you love their works in the universe, because they are titles of Divine perfections, or because you are in limitless need of them due to your comprehensive nature.

For example, while you are seeking help in utter despair for your relatives or for poor, weak, and needy creatures, someone appears unexpectedly and does for them what you wished to do for them. How much would you love such a person for his munificence and benevolence, and always be thankful to him for those qualities? Similarly, consider the Names All-Merciful and All-Compassionate. By showing these Names, Almighty God favors your believing parents and ancestors, as well as your friends and beloved ones, in this world with all His bounties. Since He will make both you and them happy in Paradise, in the World of Eternal Bliss, through seeing Him and all paradisiacal pleasures and bringing you together, you may understand how much these two Names are worthy of your love, to what extent your spirit needs them, and how proper and necessary it is to say: "All praise be to God for His being the All-Merciful and All-Compassionate."

Also, with its creatures being its amiable residents and lovable adornments, the world is like a home for you. You feel a profound connection with it, and its conditions affect you deeply. Through reflection, you may perceive how much your spirit loves and to what degree you need the Names the All-Wise and All-Sustaining of the One Who has organized the world and it creatures and thus governs, grows, and sustains them with perfect wisdom. You also may understand to what extent your spirit needs the Names the Heir, All-Quickening, Permanent, Munificent, Giver of Life, and Benevolent of the One Who brings all of the deceased to whom you feel connected, and at whose decay you are grieved, out of the darkness of eternal extinction and settles them in a place far more beautiful than this world.

Since we are noble, elevated beings with comprehensive natures, we need 1,001 Divine Names in many circumstances of destitution. A manifold need is eagerness, a manifold eagerness is love, and a manifold love is adoration. In proportion to the degree of the spirit's perfection, love increases and flourishes in degrees according to the levels of the Divine Names' manifestations. Since the Names are titles with which the Majestic Being shows Himself, love of the Names turns into love of the Divine Being. Out of thousands of levels of manifestations of the Names the Just, All-Wise, Truth, and All-Compassionate, we present one as an example.

If you want to see the Names the All-Merciful, All-Compassionate, and Truth in full manifestation in wisdom and justice, consider the following comparison: Suppose that each company of a 400-company army has unique uniforms, rations, weaponry, and medicines. If these companies are situated together mixed with one another without the uniqueness of each being considered, and yet, out of his perfect compassion, based on his extraordinary power and miraculously encompassing knowledge, and with utmost justice and wisdom, a peerless king equips each with unique uniforms and weapons and provides them with appropriate foods and medicines without mistake or help, you may understand what a powerful, compassionate, just, and munificent king he is.

It is just in the same way that if you want to see the manifestations of the Divine Names the Truth, Merciful and Compassionate included in the All-Wise and All-Just, you can look at magnificent armies of plants and animals, which consist of countless different families, genera, and species. All of these set up their tents on Earth's face in spring, are mixed with each other, and have unique uniforms, provisions, weaponry, instructions, lifestyles, and demobilizations. Although they have no tongues with which to voice their needs and no power to meet them, see how the One with the Names of Truth, All-Merciful, All-Provider, All-Compassionate, and All-Munificent provides, maintains, and raises them in perfect justice and wisdom and without confusing and forgetting any of them.

Is it possible that another hand could share in this amazing order and all-comprehensive organization based on an absolute measure and balance? Who other than the Unique One of Unity, the Absolutely All-Wise and All-Powerful One, could share in this art, this regulation and government, and this raising and sustaining?

Fourth subtle point:·You ask: "What are the uses and results of my love for foods, selfhood, spouse, parents, children, friends, virtuous people, beautiful things like spring and the world if that love must be in line with the Qur'an's commands?"

Answer: It would take a comprehensive book to explain all of the uses and results of such a love. Therefore I will restrict myself to pointing out briefly its immediate consequences here and its permanent results in the Hereafter.