5 Ways to Love for the Sake of God

Assalam Alaikum and hello everyone!

I just wanted to share with you what I learned from this past Jumma khutbah. The imam spoke about loving your brothers and sisters (in Islam) for the sake of Allah s.w.t (p.s Allah is Arabic for God). I thought this was such an important lesson to share. We often get very self consumed in our day to day life. Although we ourselves like when others go out of their way for us, we don’t always do the same. We all want to be appreciated and loved. But loving for sake of Allah creates a special bond. What do I mean?

Define loving for the sake of Allah

What does this mean? It means that you love your fellow Muslims without receiving anything in return. You love them solely for the sake of Allah s.w.t. This is the type of love that pushes you to want the best for the other person, to protect them and to grow and become better Muslims with them.

How?

Love is difficult. You can’t just go out and love someone. So how can we go about doing this? The imam gave 5 ways we can learn to love one another.

1. See the positive 
   So often we see the little mistakes and overlook the many good deeds of a person. We need to recognize the positive attributes of someone and encourage them. As opposed to scorning or judging someone for one little mistake. The imam mentioned how parents can relate this to their children. A kid may pray 5 times a day and go unnoticed. The minute they miss one prayer, the parent(s) notice and say something about. There is nothing wrong with the latter, but they should also try to give positive reinforcement when the child is doing good.
2. Smile
   
   This doesn’t mean you have to walk around with a smile on your face 24/7. But it doesn’t hurt to smile at your fellow Muslim, friends, co-workers and family members. Have you ever had a bad day, and someone smiled at you? How does it make you feel, opposed to someone being rude to you.
3. Communicate love

   

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   Communicate how much you love your loved ones! This is so simple, yet we often are so caught up in our everyday lives to do this small task. A simple “I love you” or “I appreciate you” can lighten up someone’s mood. It may even make you feel good, knowing that your words were able to make someone happy.

4. Spread Happiness
   

   

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   Small acts of kindness like holding a door, helping someone move, congratulating them on an accomplishment all bring that individual happiness. There is nothing wrong with building up one another. Commending someone, saying/doing something that will make them happy will not take away from your happiness. Instead, it spreads happiness and creates a more positive environment.

5. Give Salam!
   

   

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   This is one of the 5 rights a Muslim has over his brother. By greeting your fellow Muslims with “Assalam Alaikum” you are fulfilling one of your rights as well as spreading love for the sake of Allah. This simple greeting literally means, peace be onto you. It can brighten your day, or even make someone feel comfortable in their environment.

Those are the 5 simple ways we can start to spread love for one another. Some people may say that some of these things are not them  or not in their culture.  I was glad the Imam addressed this by saying that these are all apart of being a Muslim. So even if it is difficult, and for some it may be, that you should still try and do it. For those who say it is not part of their culture, if your culture ever conflicts with your Islam, you should always choose Islam. Islam is more than just praying 5 times a day, it is a complete way of life.

xoxo
FaithFashionFriendship

 

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