unknownmuslimah:

What is love and how is it important in Islam?

I believe Love is a luxury & one shouldn’t marry for LOVE alone because to me, Love is a changeable emotion. As quickly as you fall in love, you can fall out of love. Then what? Either the relationship ends or it becomes toxic. If love is your primary connection, the glue is gone. When love wanes, the marriage gets shaky; when the romance stops, the nuptials die. Yes, love is strong but, due to the fact that it can evaporate, it is not something that can stand alone as the basis for a long-term relationship.

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Anything built on a foundation of love is subject to crumbling. What you need is mutual respect, shared goals and compatibility way more than you need love to have a sustainable, lasting relationship. We all want to be desired and loved. But the fact is if you want to have a long, strong and healthy relationship then ingredients are :

2 Cup respect

1 Cup shared goals

3 Cups compatibility

1 Tablespoon love

½ teaspoon attraction (and this I believe optional)

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Ibn Taymiyah’s Rule of Love-

⁣❝When you love someone for the sake of Allāh, it is Allāh who you truly love. So whenever you remember that person in your heart, you are reminded of your true love (Allāh) and this automatically increases your love for that person.❞ ⁣

⁣In another place Ibn Taymiyah explains that when you love someone for a specific reason (what they do for, what they give you, how they make you feel, etc) you don’t really love them, you love that thing they offer, and once that thing is gone, so is your love. ⁣

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To give us an idea of how important this topic is: Love is at the core of religion; it is a pillar of worship. It is your creed to love Allāh and His Messenger ﷺ more than anyone else or anything else. ⁣

And in a ḥadīth, Rasūl Allāh ﷺ tells us that there will be seven groups of people who will be shaded on the Day of Judgement, one group consists of people who loved one another purely for Allāh. ⁣(Bukhaari 620, Muslim 1712)

May Allāh make us from them.

Via Striving Muslimah