Question: What do “hubb-i fillah” and “bughd-i fillah” mean?
ANSWER
They mean loving someone only for the sake of Allahu ta’âlâ and feeling enmity only for the sake of Him. It is declared in the following hadîth-i sharîfs:
(The most valuable worship is loving for the sake of Allah and disliking for the sake of Allah.) [Abû Dâwud]

(Three things increase the taste of îmân: loving Allahu ta’âlâ and His Prophet (‘alaihis-salâm) more than everything else; loving for the sake of Allah a Muslim who does not love you; and disliking enemies of Allahu ta’âlâ.) [Tabarânî]

(In the Hereafter, everybody will be with the people they loved in the world.) [Bukhârî]

(If your acts of worship were equal to those of Jabrâ’îl “alaihis-salâm,” neither your acts of worship nor your good deeds would be accepted unless you love Believers for Allah’s sake and unless you consider disbelievers to be evils for Allah’s sake.) [Ey Oğul İlmihali]

Allahu ta’âlâ asked Hadrat Mûsâ (Moses ‘alaihis-salâm):
“O Mûsâ! What have you done for Me?”
“O my Lord! I have performed namâz, fasted, given zakât, and made remembrance (dhikr).”
“O Mûsâ! The namâz you have performed is incumbent on you and a means for your attaining Paradise; the fast you have observed protects you from Hell; the zakât you have given gives you shade during the Judgement Day; and the remembrance (dhikr) you have made gives you light in the darkness of the Day of Reckoning. That is, all of them bring benefits to you alone. What have you done for me?”
“O my Lord! What should I have done for You?”
“Have you had love for My friends and have you stayed away from My enemies only for My sake?”

Thereupon, Hadrat Mûsâ understood that the best of all good deeds and worships performed for Allah was loving for the sake of Allah (hubb-i fillah) and feeling hostility (bughd-i fillah) for the sake of Him. (Maktûbât-i Ma’thûmiyya)

Allahu ta’âlâ declared to Hadrat ‘Îsâ (Jesus “alaihis-salâm”): (Even if you do acts of worship that equal those done by all creatures on the earth and in heavens, it will be of no value unless you love whom I love and unless you feel hostility towards My enemies.) [Kimyâ-i sa’âdat]

Hadrat Imâm-i Rabbânî writes:
For adapting oneself to Muhammad “alaihis-salâm” completely and flawlessly, one needs to love him completely and without defect. The symptom of complete and perfect love is to bear hostility against his enemies and to dislike those who dislike him. Love cannot include sloth. The love for two opposites cannot settle in the same heart together. To love one of two opposites entails enmity towards the other. (First Volume, 165th Letter)

The symbol of true îmân’s existence in the heart is to bear hostility against disbelievers and to annihilate the things that are peculiar to them and that are the symptoms of disbelief. For Islam and kufr are opposites, antonyms of each other. To esteem one of them means to insult, to blame the other. Allahu ta’âlâ commands Hadrat Muhammad, His beloved Prophet (sall-Allahu ’alaihi wa sallam), to perform jihâd, to wage war against disbelievers and to treat them severely. Allahu ta’âlâ declares that disbelievers are His and His Prophet’s (sall-Allahu ’alaihi wa sallam) enemies. To love the enemies of Allahu ta’âlâ and to cooperate with them draws one towards being hostile against Allahu ta’âlâ and His Prophet. One thinks of oneself as a Muslim, expresses the word tawhîd, and says “I believe” and performs namâz and every kind of worship, but on the other hand, cooperates with disbelievers. Yet one does not know that these loathsome actions of one’s (for example, not loving the friends of Allah or loving the enemies of Allah saying “They have such and such good deeds”) will extirpate one’s being a Muslim and îmân. (First Volume, 163rd Letter)

Hadrat Muhammad Ma’thûm writes:
Love necessitates that you love the friends of your darling and be at odds with the enemies of the darling. This love and this enmity are not within the power of faithful lovers; they cannot help themselves. This happens by itself without striving, without taking pains. The friend’s friends seem beautiful, and His enemies seem ugly and evil. Also, the love that occurs within those who are seized by the pretty appearance of the world requires this same process. Unless people who say that they love keep away from the enemies of their darlings, they are not regarded as people of their word. They are called liars. Love necessitates that you love all things of the darling. Our superiors declared, “If you are not offended by the one who offends your master, a dog is better than you are.” It causes one to be away from Allahu ta’âlâ if one loves the enemies of Allahu ta’âlâ. Unless there is enmity, there will be no love. Not to love disbelievers is commanded clearly in the Qur’ân al-karîm, and it is fard for us to obey the Holy Qur’ân. (First Volume, 29th Letter)

Some âyat-i karîmas making it harâm to love disbelievers purport as follows:
(Those who believe in Allahu ta’âlâ and the Day of Resurrection do not like the enemies of Allahu ta’âlâ and His Prophet, even if those disbelievers are the fathers, brothers, and other close relatives of Muslims.) [Sûrat-ul-Mujâdala 22]

(Whoever takes disbelievers for his friends has cut himself off from the friendship of Allah.) [Sûrat-u Âl-i ‘Imrân 28]

(O you who believe! Do not take Jews and Christians for friends; they are friends of each other (in their animosity towards Islam). He who takes them for friends is one [a kâfir] of them. Allahu ta’âlâ does not guide the (ones who have become) unjust (to themselves by taking disbelievers for friends) people.) [Sûrat-ul-Mâida 51]

(O you who believe! Do not take My enemies and yours for friends!) [Sûrat-ul-Mumtahina 1]

Allahu ta’âlâ praises the Ashâb-i kirâm in His Book as in the following: “They are hard against disbelievers but compassionate among themselves” (Sûrat-ul-Fath 29).

It addition to them, the following is declared in hadîth-i sharîfs:
(If a person does not love Allahu ta’âlâ and does not know enemies of Allahu ta’âlâ as his enemies, his îmân will not be true. If he loves Believers for Allah’s sake and knows disbelievers as enemies, he will attain the love of Allahu ta’âlâ.) [I. Ahmad]

(If a person loves Allah’s friends and dislikes His enemies, his îmân will be perfect.) [Abû Dâwud]

(Become close to Allahu ta’âlâ by doing hostility towards the disobedient!) [Daylamî]

(In the Hereafter, a person will be resurrected with the people he loves and makes friends with.) [Tabarânî]

One day, some people said to Khalîfa ’Umar (radiy-Allahu ta’âlâ anh): “There is a Christian from the people of Hîra here. He has a very strong memory and beautiful handwriting. He will be very useful for you if you employ him as a secretary for yourself.” He refused and said, “I cannot make friends with a non-Believer,” quoting the âyat-i-karîma below.

Hadrat Abû Mûsa al-Ash’arî narrates:
One day I said to Hadrat ‘Umar: “I have a Christian secretary. He is a great hand.”
The Khalîfa chided me saying, “Why don’t you employ a Muslim secretary? Haven’t you heard the âyat ‘O Believers! Do not like Jews and Christians’”?
“His religion is his and his service as a secretary is mine,” I said.
Upon this, the Khalîfa retorted, “Do not honour a person degraded by Allahu ta’âlâ! Do not cherish a person scorned by Allahu ta’âlâ! Do not get close to a person repelled by Allahu ta’âlâ!”
“I am administering (official matters of) Basra with his
help,” I explained.
The Khalîfa commanded, “Now do what you would do if the Christian died! Replace him immediately!”

Our religion commands us not to love disbelievers, but at the same time, Islam makes it harâm [prohibited] to harass them and hurt their feelings. In fact, disliking them and hurting them are two different things. We can conduct commerce with them, but we cannot deceive them or do any harm. It is necessary to treat them well as it is necessary to treat all people well. What is more, it is permissible to invoke du’âs upon them in order for them to find the right path and become Muslims.

In Islam, there is no superiority of one race over another. As a matter of fact, a hadîth-i sharîf says, “All people are equal (in being a human) like the teeth of a comb” (Ibni Lâl).

For this reason, it is not permissible to deem yourself to be superior to others, be they disbelievers. For a disbeliever may become a Muslim and thus attain endless bliss. As for a Muslim on the other hand, (s)he may fall into disbelief and consequently go to Hell. May Allah protect us against being so!

Everybody will be together with whomever they love
Question: Since, in the Hereafter, everybody will be together with whomever they love, if one loves both the good people deserving Paradise and the evil ones deserving Hell, where will one go in such a case?
ANSWER
Loving the good and the evil means mixing something clean with something dirty. The mixture, as a result, becomes dirty. If one loves both our Master the Prophet and the credal state of Abû Jahl, one will go to Hell.

When a person said, “I love Allah and His Messenger,” our Master the Prophet stated:
(In the Hereafter, you will be with whom you love.) [Muslim]

Islamic scholars explain the hadîth “Everybody will be together with whomever he loves” as follows:

If one loves a pious Mu’min, has a credal state like his/hers, tries to perform acts of worship as (s)he does, and regards the friends of Allah as friends and the enemies of Allah as enemies, then one will be in the Jannat (Paradise) with the person one loves.

On the other hand, if one likes Muslims, but at the same time, if one likes non-Muslims and their credos, in such a case, one will go to Hell with non-Muslims. The meaning of “Everybody will be together with whomever they love” is not that one will reach the grade of the person one loves, but that one will be with the good people in Paradise on account of one’s love for them. All people will be in different grades that are in accordance with their luster of and strength of îmân. (Maktûbât-i Rabbânî, Hadîqa)

In order to be with pious people in the next world, it is necessary to love and to be with them in this world and to follow the path guided by them. It is related in hadîth-i sharîfs:
(In the vicinity of ‘Arsh, on the seats made of nûr will be people shining like nûr. Prophets and martyrs will yearn to be like. They are those who love one another for the sake of Allah, who meet one another for the sake of Allah, and who visit one another for the sake of Allah.) [Nasâî]

(Allahu ta’âlâ declares: Those who visit one another for My sake earn My love; those who love one another for My sake deserve My love; those who spend in charity for My sake merit My love; those who help one another for My sake attain My love.) [Hâkim]

(Allahu ta’âlâ declares on the Day of Resurrection: "Today when there is no shelter except Mine, I will shelter in My Mercy those who have mutual love for the sake of My Glory.") [Muslim]

(If a person makes friends with people for the sake of Allah, Allahu ta’âlâ promotes him to a high grade in Jannat that he cannot obtain through any of his deeds.) [Ibn Abî ad-Dunyâ]

(Of the two friends who love each other for the sake of Allah, the better in the sight of Allah is the one whose love for his friend is greater.) [Hâkim]

Hadrat ‘Îsâ said, (Earn Allahu ta’âlâ’s love by bearing hostility against the enemies of Allah! Become close to Allah by keeping away from them! Seek Allah’s love by getting angry with them! Take those for friends who remind you of Allahu ta’âlâ when you see them, who cause you to increase your good deeds with their speech, and who guide you to goodness!)

Allahu ta’âlâ declared to Hadrat Mûsâ:
(If a friend of yours does not urge you to My love, he is a foe of yours.) Again He declared to Hadrat Dâwud: (Look for friends for yourself! Do not make friends with those who run counter to you in loving Me because those are your enemies; they darken your heart and try to estrange you from Me.) [Imâm-i Ghazâlî]

(Allahu ta’âlâ stated: I love those who love one another for My sake, who gather together and disperse for My sake, who visit one another for My sake, and who provide one another with food and drink for My sake.) [Imâm-i Mâlik]

(There are seven types of people who will be under the Shade of ‘Arsh on the Day of Resurrection. Those who love each other and meet and depart from each other for the sake of Allah are one of those types of people.) [Bukhârî]

Is it possible to have such a love for Allah?
Question: Some people claim that they love Allah, but at the same time, they become intimate with atheists without feeling any discomfort at it. Is it possible to love Allah in such a manner?
ANSWER
It is stated plainly in the Qur’ân al-karîm and in hadîth-i sharîfs that Allahu ta’âlâ is hostile against disbelievers. Is it possible for a person who sympathizes with His enemies to love Him? If disbelievers were not enemies of Allahu ta’âlâ, Bughd-i-fillâh [enmity for Allah’s sake] would not have been wâjib [here wâjib means fard]. It would not have been the most superior way to make one attain the Consent of Allahu ta’âlâ and the most effective cause of perfection of îmân.

A person who loves should love whomever the darling loves and hate whomever the darling hates. This state of love and hostility is not within one’s will. It is a consequence of love. In this case, will and acquisition, which are necessary in other sorts of behavior, are not needed. It is an involuntary state. Friend’s friends will look amiable. And friend’s enemies will seem unlovely. If one claims love for someone, one will not be believed unless one estranges oneself from the darling’s enemies. If one does not do so, one will be called a hypocrite. Shaikh-ul-Islâm ‘Abdullah-i Ansârî says: “I do not like Abu-l-Hasan Sam’ûn because he annoyed my master Hidrî. If a person annoys your master and you are not upset by this, you must be lower than a dog.”

Allahu ta’âlâ purports in the fourth âyat of Sûrat-ul-Mumtahina, “Take lessons from the statements made by Ibrâhîm (‘alaihissalâm’) and those Believers who were with him! They said to the disbelievers: ‘We are far from you and your idols. We dislike your religion. There is enmity between you and us until you believe in Allahu ta’âlâ.’” And the âyat-i karîma following it purports, “These statements of theirs contain lessons for you and for those who wish the Consent of Allahu ta’âlâ and the blessings in the Hereafter.”

Hence, this tabarrî [keeping away] is necessary for those who wish to attain the Consent of Allahu ta’âlâ. Allahu ta’âlâ purports, “To love disbelievers means not loving Allahu ta’âlâ. One could not love both of two opposites.” If a person claims to love someone and at the same time does not keep away from that person’s enemies, this claim will not be believed. The twenty-eighth âyat of Sûrat-u Âl-i ’Imrân purports: “Allahu ta’âlâ threatens those who love disbelievers with His torment.” This grave threat shows how critical the offense is. (Maktûbât-i Ma’thûmiyya, volume 3, letter 55)

In order to have a valid and correct îmân [belief], some essentials are as follows:
1. To take a middle path between khawf [fear] and rajâ’ [hope], that is, one must have fear of Allahu ta’âlâ’s punishment as well as hope of His Mercy.

2. To have îmân before the soul reaches to the throat and also to have îmân before the sun rises in the west.

3. Not to use and say things that are symptoms of kufr [disbelief].

4. To love or not to love only for the sake of Allah. It is an act of kufr to take disbelievers for friends.

5. To correct your belief in accordance with the credal tenets of Ahl as-Sunnat belief. (Riyâd-un-Nâsihîn)

Question: It is written in the book Endless Bliss, “It is one of the fundamentals of îmân to love Muslims and not to love disbelievers.” Is this really included in the six fundamental principles of îmân?
ANSWER
Of the fundamental principles of belief, what ranks first is to believe in Allah. However, in order to have belief in Allah, it does not suffice only to say “Allah exists.” It is a condition to love Allah as well. Loving for the sake of Allah (hubb-i fillah) and feeling hostility for the sake of Allah (bughd-i fillah)—that is, loving Muslims for the reason that they are Muslims and not loving disbelievers for the reason that they are disbelievers—are two conditions of this love. As is seen, six fundamentals include loving Allah, loving those whom Allah loves and not loving His enemies.

An âyat-i karîma purports:
(Those who believe in Allahu ta’âlâ and the Day of Resurrection do not like the enemies of Allahu ta’âlâ and His Prophet, even if those disbelievers are the fathers, brothers and other close relatives of Muslims.) [Sûrat-ul-Mujâdala 22]

Some hadîth-i sharîfs declare:
(The basis and the most dependable symptom of îmân is hubb-i fillah and bughd-i fillah, that is, loving for the sake of Allah and feeling hostility for the sake of Allah.) [Abû Dâwud, I. Ahmad, Tabarânî]

(If a person does not know enemies of Allah as his enemies, his îmân will not be true. If he loves Believers for Allah’s sake and knows disbelievers as enemies, he will attain the love of Allahu ta’âlâ.) [I. Ahmad]

(Dîn is to love for the sake of Allah and to feel hostility for the sake of Allah.) [Abû Nu’aym, Hâkim]

(Three things intensify the flavor of îmân:
1. To love Allah and His Messenger more than everything else,
2. To love for the sake of Allah a Muslim who does not love you,
3. Not to love disbelievers [even if they love you].) [Tabarânî]

Question: It is narrated that when some people asked a scholar what he learned from his master, he gave this answer: “I learned hubb-i fillah and bughd-i fillah, that is, I learned whom I would love and whom I would not love.” Is it a matter of utmost importance?
ANSWER
It is a matter of utmost importance. Being one of the fifty four fards, it is the essence and basis of belief and acts of worship. Hubb-i fillah means loving and making friends for the sake of Allah and bughd-i fillah means feeling hatred, keeping away and not loving for the sake of Allah. Some hadîth-i sharîfs on this matter are as follows:

(He who loves and feels hatred for the sake of Allah has a perfect îmân.) [Abû Dâwud, Tirmudhî]

(The basis of îmân is to love Muslims, that is, the friends of Allah, and not to love disbelievers, that is, the enemies of Allah and Islam.) [I. Ahmad]

It is necessary to love more a Believer who is way ahead in acts of worship, piety and ikhlâs than a Believer who is not so. To love means to be in their path and to be imitating their ways. It is necessary not to love more the disbelievers who rebel more and who spread indecency and disbelief. Among the ones which are necessary to dislike for the sake of Allah, a human’s own nafs comes first.

Calling bad people good
Question: We are learning from various sources the evil conduct of some people who lived during the last period of the Ottoman Empire, such as Enver Pasha, Talat Pasha and Djemal Pasha. Of them, is it appropriate to praise well-known freemasons by saying “They were good pashas and good soldiers”?
ANSWER
Praising a mason by saying “He was a good pasha” causes a feeling of love to germinate. However, it is from îmân not to love disbelievers.

In the past, Islamic scholars did not let their disciples go to perform ‘umra [minor pilgrimage] lest they harbored a love for Wahhâbîs as a result of admiring the countries held by them. When their disciples set out to perform hajj [major pilgrimage which is fard] in the countries concerned, the scholars forewarned them not to be impressed by the edifices of Wahhâbîs and not to love their works even if they were worldly.

It is dangerous to attribute goodness (by saying “He was a good pasha”) to freemasons of Union and Progress Party.