As we are still flushed from both\nthe National Day and Malaysia Day celebrations, it is not too late to reflect\nand ponder for a while on the position of \nIslam in regard to the love of the homeland or country where one is born\nand brought up based on the practices shown by the Prophet SAW and his\ncompanions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The word\n“love” in Arabic is mentioned\nin several other synonymous words in the Qur’an or al-Hadith such as: “hub<\/em>“,\n“mahabbah<\/em>“, “wudd<\/em>” (or mawaddah<\/em>), as\nwell as \u201crahmah<\/em>.\u201d. The terms\ncarry almost the same meaning as “love”, but they are usually used in\ndifferent contexts and have a certain degree of or refer to different strengths\nof love. Interestingly, in the Qur’an, we will not find the terms used to\nindicate the opposite of the word “love” which is “hate”.\nFor example, we will never find a phrase such as “I (Allah) hate …”\nor “We (God) hate something \/ someone …” in the Qur’an. Even though\nAllah SWT does not like and “hates” one’s actions or behaviour, “hate”\nis not used by Allah SWT whatsoever. Instead, Allah uses the expression\n“Allah does not like” in as many verses in the Qur\u2019an, such as, “inna\nAllaha la yuhibbu<\/em> \u2026. ” which translates as: “Surely Allah does\nnot like \/ love so and so… “.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So beautiful is the love\nand affection of Allah SWT to His creatures that He does not use “hate”\nto refer to His nature in the Qur’an even though humans do not obey Him or\ncommit iniquity and rebellion against Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The term \u201crahmah<\/em>\u201d which the Malay community often translates as\n\u201cmercy\u201d usually refers to the most common love or affection and it usually\napplies to all beings, both human and animal. The author does not intend to\ndiscuss every single word of Arabic which means “love”, but merely to\nindicate that there are many words which convey the same meaning in the Arabic\nvocabulary and at the same time symbolise how much Allah Almighty loves His\ncreatures and that Islam is truly a religion of love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such is the human nature of the feeling of love. A man has feelings of\nlove for women and vice versa; parents love their children and children reciprocate\nthe love of their parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for the highest and greatest love in Islam, it is the love of Allah\nAlmighty. But the love of Allah inevitably goes by following the command of His\nMessenger as the Almighty says in Surah Ali-Imran<\/em>\nverse 31: “Say (O Muhammad):” If you love Allah then follow me\n(Allah’s Messenger), Allah will love you and forgive you your sins. And\nremember, Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Further the order to love Allah SWT is stated in a Prophetic hadith<\/em>\nnarrated by Anas bin Malik RA: “It is not perfect for one’s faith until\nhe loves me (the Prophet SAW) more than his love for his son, and his father\nand all mankind<\/em>.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n Allah SWT also created the nature of man to love his partner, that is,\nthe love between a man and a woman as God says in Surah al-Rum<\/em> verse 21: “And among His signs is that He\ncreated for you wives of your own kind, that you may be at ease and be at peace\nwith him, and he will make you love and affection. Indeed, there are indeed\nsigns for the people who think<\/em>.” In the various forms of love, there\nis another love which is \u201clove of the homeland\u201d or \u201cHubbul Watan\u201d <\/em>in\nArabic. While some scholars regard the love\nof a country as a mere human nature, as the love of other worldly things and\nnot a part of religious claims, nonetheless, the majority of Muslim scholars,\nwhether classical or contemporary, think otherwise, that it is part of Islamic\nteaching to love one\u2019s nation based on the practice of the Prophet SAW and his\ncompanions, although there is no specific claim or direct injunction that one\nshould love one’s homeland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Among the Arabs is a famous proverb which is “Hubbul Watan Minal\nIman<\/em>” (Loving the homeland is part of faith). Some claim that the proverb\nis from the sayings of the Prophet SAW. However, after careful analysis, many hadith<\/em>\nscholars believe that it is not so. Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, a renowned hadith<\/em>\nscholar who wrote voluminous commentaries of Sahih al-Bukhari in his book Fathul\nBari<\/em>, stated that although the phrase was not found in the source of the hadith<\/em> collection of the Prophet SAW, the\nmeaning was valid as it was the practice of the Prophet SAW during his\nlifetime. Imam as-Sakhawi and Imam al-Ajluni who were famous hadith\ncommentators also said the same that although the source of the hadith was not\nfound, the love for the homeland was practised by the companions and the\nMessenger of Allah during their lifetime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a hadith narrated by Imam Bukhari, the Messenger of Allah (may peace\nbe upon him) prayed, “O Allah, make us love Medina as much as we love\nMakkah, or exceed our love for Makkah.<\/em>” (HR al-Bukhari). It is also\nnarrated that when the Prophet SAW returned to Medina from a trip or a\npilgrimage, the Messenger SAW would hasten his journey to Medina, due to his love\nand longing of his homeland and wanted to reach Medina the soonest possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many other arguments that loving the land is strongly encouraged in\nIslamic teaching. It is evident from a hadith<\/em> that when the Prophet was\nordered to emigrate to Medina and leave Mecca, he turned to Mecca and said:\n“By Allah you are the best land, and the land beloved by Allah\nAlmighty. If I hadn’t been kicked out of you, I wouldn’t have come out.<\/em>\n” Although some minority scholars see the hadith as referring only to the\nadvantages of Mecca (fadl al-Makkah<\/em>) and Medina, rather than to the\naspect of the injunction to love the homeland, the majority of Muslim scholars\nstill believe that it can be applied to other places as well, where ever one\ncalls home, based on the practices of the Prophet Muhammad and the Companions\nRA clearly show that the love for one\u2019s own country is a natural trait that\nexists in humans and is also highly recommended in Islam. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As we are still flushed from both the National Day and Malaysia Day celebrations, it is not too late to reflect and ponder for a while on the position of Islam in regard to the love of the homeland or country where one is born and brought up based on the practices shown by the Prophet SAW and his companions. The word \u201clove\u201d in Arabic is mentioned in several other synonymous words in the Qur\u2019an or al-Hadith such as: \u201chub\u201d, \u201cmahabbah\u201d, \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"_wpzoom_pinterest_image_url":"","_wpzoom_pinterest_hidden_image":"0","_wpzoom_pinterest_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[225],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","category-225","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26434\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}