Question: What is the sign of the love of Allah? Who cannot understand the love felt for Allah?
ANSWER
The love of Allah manifests itself through seven signs:
1. The lovers of Allahu ta’âlâ do not fear death. They are always ready for death and wait for it, because lovers meet the Beloved and strangers return to their homeland with death. But it is not contrary to the love of Allah to be unwilling to die immediately with the intention of serving Islam for some more time.

2. The lovers prefer the ones the Beloved loves to the ones they themselves love.

3. The lovers think of and remember the Beloved every moment.

4. The lovers like everything the Beloved likes.

5. The lovers secure themselves against all obstacles and remember the Beloved much. They sacrifice their sleep. Allahu ta’âlâ told Hadrat Dâwud:
(He who claims to love Me but sleeps until the morning is a liar, for the lover wants to converse with the Beloved. Abandoning unawareness, he remembers Me and attains to My conversation.) [Ma’rifatnâma]

6. All of the acts of worship (ibâdat) are easy for the lovers. They hold fast to them with pleasure.

7. The lovers consider the friends of the Beloved as friends and the enemies of the Beloved as enemies. As a matter of fact, a hadîth-i sharîf declares:
(The solidest basis of îmân is to love for the sake of Allah and to feel hostility for the sake of Allah.) [Abû Dâwud]

A person who accepts îmân and fully enjoys the taste of it loves Allahu ta’âlâ very much. The Qur’ân al-karîm purports:
(The Believers’ love of Allah is very strong.) [Sûrat-ul-Baqara, 165]

For adapting oneself to Allahu ta’âlâ completely and flawlessly, one needs to love Him completely and flawlessly. The symptom of complete and perfect love is to consider His enemies as enemies and to dislike those who dislike Him. Love cannot include sloth.

Lovers, being crazy about their darlings, cannot do anything against them. They cannot come to mutual agreement with those who act against them. The love for two opposites cannot settle in the same heart together. To love one of two opposites entails enmity towards the other.

The love in humans is not dependent upon the five senses, as is the case with animals. Those who deny the sixth sense demote humans to the grade of animals. What differentiates humans from animals is their such properties as mind, nûr, and spiritual heart. The eye of the heart of a human is stronger than the physical eyes. The beauty understood by the mind is greater than the beauty seen by eyes. For this reason, the pleasure derived from the honorable things that cannot be perceived through the five senses but understood only through the spiritual heart is greater. Those who believe that there is nothing other than the five senses and thus demote humans to the grade of animals cannot understand the love felt for Allah.

The following prayer of our master the Prophet emphasizes the importance of the love of Allah:
(O my Rabb! Grant me Your love, the love of those whom You love, and the love of those deeds that will make me earn Your love. And make Your love in my sight dearer than the cold water desired by a person with a raging thirst.)

The lovers of Allah are bewildered with a love which they do not know, which they do not understand. They cannot get to sleep, nor can they stop their tears. In everything they do they tremble with the fear of Allah. They struggle to do the deeds that will make them attain Allahu ta’âlâ’s love. If the love is intense, it is termed ‘ashq. It is necessary to love Allah with ‘ashq.

Yûnus Emre says the following on this issue:

Let the incognizant know ‘ashq is like the sun.
A heart that is devoid of ‘ashq is like a stone.

A heart of stone yields what? His tongue emits poison.
Words are like a war, talk as he might in a soft fashion.

A heart with ‘ashq burns, softens, resembles a candle,
But hearts of stone darken, resemble a severe winter.

The symptom of love
When people asked Hadrat Sahl what the symptom of love was, he stated:
The symptom of having the love of Allah is to love the Qur’ân al-karîm. The symptom of loving the Qur’ân al-karîm is to love the Prophet. The symptom of loving the Prophet is to follow the Sunnat. The symptom of following the Sunnat is to love the Hereafter.

The symptom of loving the Hereafter is to expel the love of the world from the heart and to take a dislike to the world. The symptom of taking a dislike to the world is to be content with as much property as to take you to the Hereafter and to prepare yourself for the Hereafter.