The most honorable creature created by Allah Almighty is man. After creating Hazrat Adam from soil, God breathed His soul into him, thus making him the closest being to Himself. While the descendants of Hazrat Adam are in their mother's womb, their souls are breathed into them. All souls were created before and exist in a place called isthmus. They are waiting their turn to be born. Until the Day of Judgment, these souls will enter human bodies and complete their earthly lives.

“Soul is the command of Almighty Allah. However, complete information about its nature has not been given to people” (Al-Isra, 17/85). For this reason, humans have gained the feature of the most honorable creatures among other creatures. Thus, he deserved all kinds of love and respect. However, souls who have won or lost the worldly test will leave their bodies in different situations when death comes and wait for the day of reward and punishment in the afterlife. The fact that humans are honorable beings will not prevent them from being tormented in the afterlife. Because man's being honorable is the purpose of his creation. What a person achieves in the world is the result of his own soul and will. For this reason, a painful torment awaits those who lose the test of this world.

People have been informed through the prophets sent to them to behave with love since Hazrat Adam. But people forgot this advice and used cruelty and violence against people. This situation has continued until today and will continue until the end of time.

There are many principles in the Sharia brought by our Prophet (pbuh) regarding human love. These principles have been clearly communicated to people through verses and hadiths. We express some of these below.

“And among the people are those who regard things other than Allah as equals to Him, and they love them as if they loved Allah. However, those who believe have stronger love for Allah. "If only those who did wrong would realize, when they see the torment, that all power belongs to Allah and that Allah's punishment is truly severe." (Al-Baqara, 2/165)

“Say: If you truly love Allah, follow me and Allah will love you and forgive your sins. Because Allah is very merciful and forgiving.” (Al-Imran, 3/31)

“None of you truly believes until he loves and desires for his brother what he loves and desires for himself.” (Hadith)

“Unless you love each other, you are not truly a believer.” (Hadith)

“Shall I tell you something that when you do it you will love each other? Spread the greetings among yourselves.” (Hadith)

“For those who love each other for My sake, there will be pulpits of light that even prophets and martyrs will envy.” (Holy Hadith)

“My love has become obligatory for those who love for Me. My love has become obligatory for those who stand side by side for Me. My love is deserved for those who visit each other for My sake. My love is justified for those who spend their wealth on each other for My sake. My love has become necessary for them who help to each other for My sake.” (Holy Hadith)

“Allah Almighty will say on the Day of Judgment: Where are those who love each other for My sake? Today I will shade them under the shadow of My Throne. Today there is no shadow other than the shadow of My Throne.” (Holy Hadith)

However, throughout history, people have acted according to the belief and thought systems they created with their own minds, by not obeying the orders and prohibitions revealed by God to the prophets. According to these systems, the love and value they show towards humans took very different forms. Most of these are contrary to Allah's commands and prohibitions. For this reason, these behaviors and moral concepts did not give people their true value and did not make them happy.

These practices, which are carried out against the orders and prohibitions of Almighty Allah, are carried out within two main frameworks. These are philosophy and humanism. Below, the human love in philosophy and humanism will be examined, and then the human love in Islam, which will correct their mistakes, will be explained.

 

Human Love in Philosophy

Ancient Greek thought expressed philosophy with the Greek word "Philosophia". The word philosophia is derived from the verb “phileo” meaning to love and “sophia” meaning wisdom. Therefore, philosophy means "love of wisdom" or "quest for wisdom".

Wisdom is not just an art of living or a moral understanding of taking appropriate or right action. It is rather a certain intellectual attitude, a solid understanding of the causes of phenomena and a profound view of the structure of existence and the meaning of life. Wisdom is knowing the essence of everything that happens. However, there is no such claim in philosophy. Its aim is not to attain wisdom, but rather knowledge in the sense of loving it and turning towards it.

Accordingly, wisdom is a universal knowledge. In other words, it is knowledge that encompasses everything. There is information in this building of wisdom. Each information area is like a room inside this building. All of the rooms, that is, information areas, are under the same roof. Philosophy is this roof. Accordingly, philosophy is considered the most universal field of knowledge that gathers all fields of knowledge under its roof. Wisdom is the whole of this building.

When we look at the history of philosophy, expressing some views will help us to determine the general framework of love in philosophy. According to Empedocles (494-434 BC), the movement that fills the universe was born from the "conflict of love and hate". All beings, from the first materials to humans, are the product of this conflict. In short, according to him, there was love in the beginning and in the end, it will win the conflict again; Hatred will be defeated and all matter will once again unite in unity.

In philosophy, love means interest directed towards something. Since philosophers are interpreters of life, they also thought about the meaning of love. While there is almost a definition of love according to every philosopher, the definition of love in philosophy creates a common point for the continuity of life. Philosophers generally do not consider love in the sense of passion and often see it as higher than passion. In particular, while passion is a sick attitude for most philosophers, love is among the most important conditions of virtue.

Love is important in terms of directing vital energy and developing an important perspective on life. Love is equivalent to goodness, and a person who feels love can reach beyond his own boundaries and gain a freer, broader and greater perspective.

For philosophers such as Plato (428-348 BC), love manifests itself as interest in what is greater, more spectacular and better. Everything that is beautiful deserves to be loved, and thus love is born from beauty. This beauty can be a human beauty or it can show itself, for example, on a statue.

In the ancient world, love was also seen as the basic element that brought life together. Philosophers have seen love as the basic element, especially since the coming together of substances is possible through gravity. Descartes (1596-1650) and subsequent modern philosophers also emphasized love and defined it as the response of a common feeling and thought.

Aristotle (384-322 BC) defines "emotions” as influences that cause people to change their opinions according to their own judgments.  On true friendship, which he sees as the essential element of a good life, he states that love indicates the basis of the behavior of true friends towards each other beyond all kinds of interests. Accordingly, a true friend is the one who wishes his friend's good for his friend's sake.

There is no selfish interest in love. Everything is based on interests, but there are interests that go beyond selfish interest. As long as these interests protect the species, it means protecting and safeguarding common interests. These interests also include common biological and cultural concerns and shares. Therefore, love is the most valid and powerful communication in life.

Love now appears before us as a type of thinking and knowledge in its universality with all its internal dynamics and the determinations regarding social morality that surround love from within. As a matter of fact, at this point, we are talking about practical love, not love as a tendency. Kant (1724-1804) says in his book “Foundation of the Metaphysics of Morals”: “Love cannot be prescribed as a tendency but to do good out of duty, even when there is no inclination to do so, and even when a natural and uncontrollable hatred opposes it, is not passionate love, but practical love - a love not in the dependence of the feeling, but in the will; It is found not in heart-melting sympathy, but in the principles of action. Therefore, love should be in the action itself, in the content of the will, and this orientation should not depend on anything.”

The importance of love has increased today, especially with the influence of consumer culture and individualization. Consumption culture and the “disposable” philosophy are a reflection of the hedonist and narcissistic personality that dominates relations with nature and people. Therefore, this age is an age in which man returns to himself. In this process, where everything is rushed and operates with the logic of taking over and dominating everything, people are left in deprivations in the name of living. Now everything is being instrumentalized here, everyone is disregarding everyone else and everything.

After all these determinations, we can talk about the effect of individualization on people and inter-human relations in our age. First of all, man is now positioned as a "lone individual" and is burdened with the tension of living and keeping "only himself" alive in the relationships he establishes, from the closest to the farthest in his social life. This tension breaks the bond between humans in the context of "value"; It causes superficial relationships to increase and puts profit in relationships to the fore.

The famous Turkish Sufi and Philosopher Şehbenderzâde Ahmet Hilmi (1865,1914) stated in his book titled "The World of Islam and Europe in the Twentieth Century":

“Muslims had no problem with the material civilization of Europe, but he evaluated that the spiritual civilization of Europe was in misery. Accordingly, the elements that influenced the Ottoman and Islamic countries are not the values that elevate Europe, but the values that prepare its future collapse. The nation's intellectuals must realize this danger and direct their necessary contact with Western civilization in the direction of the elements that make it strong, and make it clear that no point can be achieved by imitating their disgrace, and that this course of action is suicide.”

The following is stated in the book "Human Patriotism" of  Turkish philosopher and sociologist Hilmi Ziya Ülken (1901,1974):

“Man loses his freedom when he melts into nature and society, when he closes in on himself. In both cases, the man becomes the machine. In one case, his evil (dissolution in society) and in the other, his pride leads him to impersonality. It turns him into a fake person or machine.”

For this reason, it is necessary to combine the understanding of modern society with cultural values. There are many people in the world who love modern society. However, when it comes to cultural values, there are very few people who love the truth. The contradiction here is clearly obvious.

According to Sufis, despite all its greatness, the mind cannot understand Allah. Philosophers who accepted reason as the only guide either failed to reach God or eventually surrendered to religion. Although the mind can comprehend and explain the world of beings, which consists of the manifestation of God's names and attributes, it cannot reach, understand and explain the essence of man, and therefore of God, since it has no skill other than dealing with the appearances of the essence. It is the love of God that will reach the essence and bring us sounds from it. Because the essence makes itself felt only through a basic feeling and desire that we call the love of God. Although the mind can translate this desire, it cannot replace it. In the words of Mevlana, "Philosophy walking on wooden legs has no distance to go in the field of love." Reason and worship are tools on the path of Allah. The real way is through love. The love stronger than anything else is the love of God. "Ikhlas", which is the basis of Islam, is to love without expecting anything in return. The source of this love is the human "heart". As a matter of fact, it is said in a holy hadith: "I cannot fit into any place, but I can fit into the heart of my believing servant."

 

Human Love in Humanism

The foundations of the thought of humanism was proposed by Greek philosophers who lived in the 6th century BC. These are Thales of Miletus and Xenophanes of Colophon. Thales put self-knowledge at the center, while Xenophanes rejected the idea of God and argued that what is sacred is the universe itself. Likewise, philosophers such as Anaxagoras, Pericles, Protagoras and Democritus also talked about methods that put people at the center, apart from sacred values.

The period when humanism reached its peak was the Renaissance in Europe. The word umanista, which refers to people interested in classical literature in the 15th century, evolved in the 19th century due to the blending of humanism with the ideas of this period and became the name of this philosophical thought. Many sources state that those who love people are humanists. Even if this definition is correct to some extent, it is far from fully expressing the idea of humanism. Because, as is clearly understood from the definition, thoughts such as loving the created for the sake of its creator and placing humans in a superior position have no place in humanism.

In order to call a person a humanist, this person must place people at the center when creating social rules, want the world we live in to become better for people, accept that the human mind is beyond all dogmatic thoughts, and work determinedly for these ideas. So for humanism, love does not mean everything.

Humanism is actually a term that does not have a single meaning. They have very different meanings. Everyone has their own understanding and definition of humanism. For some, it is a way of thinking and approaching, for some, it is a way of taking an attitude, for some, it is simply a love of people and humanity, and for some, it is a religion. Many people in the West consider humanism to be a religion for themselves. Therefore, humanism has many philosophical, literary, individual, religious and ideological dimensions and ways of perception for Catholics. Conservative Catholics, Marxists, liberals, existentialists and many other understandings have their own view of humanism. Although humanism is sometimes associated with the Christian faith, it has often defined itself as a movement against Christianity and religion in general.

Although the word humanism was first used in 1539, its conceptual content goes back to ancient Greek philosophy before Christ. In every era, philosophers have expressed the content and meaning of humanism in different ways. For example, in ancient times, Protagoras (481-420 BC) expressed his own definition of humanism by saying, "Man is the measure of everything." However, when it comes to humanism in world history, it developed after the Middle Ages, depending on movements such as renaissance, enlightenment and positivism, which started in Italy in the 15th century and then spread throughout Europe, meaning renewal in science, culture and art. This philosophy and literature movement, which has become widespread in the Western world, is called humanism. In its philosophical sense, humanism is the deification and sanctification of man against God in the struggle between God and man, and considering it as the primary source that determines values.

Humanism is based on the principle of dualism in ancient Greece. This dualism essentially appears as the conflict between Gods and humans in ancient Greek mythology. The virtual Gods produced by people at that time were perceived as the relentless enemies of humans. Since they cannot fully explain the events in man's inner and outer world, these situations have been turned into legends and symbolic Gods have been invented about them. It is possible to see this clearly, for example, in the myth of Prometheus. According to him, Gods oppress humans. Prometheus is punished by the Gods because he secretly stole the sacred fire, the fire of the Gods, that is, the sacred knowledge and power specific to the Gods, and gave it to humans, that is, because he wanted to save humans.

According to ancient Greek mythology, there are many virtual Gods such as the sun God, storm God, earthquake, disease and love God. These Gods are hostile to humans. They want evil from people and oppress them. People of that day made up legends for events whose causes they could not explain, thought of virtual and extraordinary powers, and attributed these to the Gods. The struggle in that period was the struggle for man to replace God. In that period, humanism was the struggle to save humans oppressed by the tyranny of the Gods, to overcome the Gods, and even to replace them.

In the later Middle Ages, there is the tyrannical, oppressive God produced by Christianity, who changed shape in the hands of the priests, ceased to be divine, and became materialized. In this period, dualism continues as a fight between God and human. The God in the distorted Christian belief is also a human-made concept of God and continues to oppress people. It does not allow people to freely produce science, art and thought. By declaring humans as sinners from birth, they have demonstrated their anti-humanity from the very beginning. Inquisition practices and all kinds of oppression on humans are the continuation of the human-God conflict in different forms.

After the Middle Ages, the concept of virtual God was fought against due to movements such as renaissance, enlightenment and positivism, and in this period, romantic thoughts took the place of God. The common feature of philosophers such as Voltaire, Diderot, Marx and Sartre is that they are humanists, that is, they put people first. They treat human power as the primary and determining power. These thoughts have become general. Thus, the whole concept of religion and heavenly God was completely opposed.

However, the reality is not like that. Because Almighty Allah, the God of Islam, is not an enemy of humans, on the contrary, He is a true God who extends His hand of goodness, help and mercy to humans. Allah Almighty makes His power available to people. He is not jealous or hostile towards humans. For this reason, there are no concepts such as dualism, trinity, binary conflict, division of God into three, etc. in Islam. On the contrary, there is the understanding of tawhid (unity and integrity).

Humanists took a wholesale approach and declared war on all Gods and rejected them. They replaced them with humans. They wanted to build a human-centered world. They created a positivist, materialist structure under different names, with an understanding devoid of spirituality and abstract values. Marx said "religion is the opium" and based the salvation of society on the initiative of the proletariat, a group of people. However, the founder of the Marxist ideology was also a human being, and later this ideology was degenerated and perverted by humans. In Marx's humanism, deification of man means giving divine power to proletarian man. This is completely contrary to reality. Another movement that claims to be humanist is the existentialists. They also consider humans as resources. They also see salvation only in the independent use of human will. In other words, according to them, man can only exist when he uses his will freely, away from spiritual factors. In existence, humanism's deification of human will is considered the sole determining source and power. However, proof of this has not been shown until today.

In Turkey, humanism came to the agenda mostly in the first years of the Republic. For this purpose, magazines were published and humanist ideas began to spread by publishing articles. Yücel and Yeni Ufuklar magazines were instrumental in disseminating these views. As major humanist writers, people such as Kâzım Nami Duru, Celaleddin Ezine, Yavuz Abadan, Hasan Ali Yücel, Hilmi Ziya Ülken, Nurullah Ataç, Vedat Günyol, Sebahattin Eyüboğlu can be given as examples. We can explain how these people perceive humanism with the following examples:

“Western people once lived like vermin in slums. Cholera, plague, smallpox, religious and sectarian fights, burning people alive by those caught up in the malaise of bigotry, and the atrocities of the Inquisition were events that filled the social lives of unhappy Europeans.

Who saved these people from this terrible nightmare? Prophets? Saints? Statesmen? No! The only people who saved them from this terrible nightmare were the people who devoted themselves to the study of science, philosophy, art and literature. These intellectuals were called humanists, and the information they derived from ancient Greek works seemed to people as a way of salvation.

People who were exposed to this classical culture and lived under the pressure of the church learned that there was a completely different life outside the church. Thus, westerners saw that there was a new life outside of religious life. They thought it was possible to think, live and learn without having the idea of God. People invested heavily in this awakening and science, ideas and art began to develop and mature outside of religion.

In this way, humanism began to establish the dominance of the mind by saving people from the dark circle of thought of the Middle Ages and replacing religious values with world values. Thus, they wanted to ensure the free development of man and recognize the superiority of rights. So the renaissance was founded on this humanist foundation.”

As a result, humanism wanted life to be determined by the human mind and its product, science, rather than revelation. Thus, human mind has been replaced by religion and the world has been taken as the basis instead of the afterlife and materiality instead of spirituality. However, this movement did not receive any response in the Islamic world. Because in Islam, the religion has never been distorted and has remained authentic. The religion of Islam has never oppressed people. It did not prevent him from producing ideas, science and art. Therefore, Almighty Allah is not a God who is an enemy to man, but a friend who gives him mercy and grace and helps him. Islam gives importance not only to spirituality and the afterlife, but also to matter and the world. Therefore, no reaction appropriate to its humanist content has emerged in the Islamic world. Because the necessary ground for this has never been created. However, later, by force and for other purposes, an attempt was made to deliberately propagate humanism in an artificial manner, but it did not work. The purpose of this propaganda is to eliminate the religion of Islam and pervert it, as the West always does. However, these efforts did not yield results. Therefore, the idea of humanism in the Islamic world remained empty, had no basis, and remained a philosophy and approach specific to the West.

While the humanists themselves were trying to spread humanitarianism and human rights, on the other hand, they were dealing with people because their own interests came first. “On the one hand, human

While people are fed up with the people around them and become uneasy among all kinds of hostilities, on the other hand, the same people always want innovation. Because of such problems, some humanists were interrogated in the 16th century. The Jews knowingly committed the oppression to destroy humanity.

The Turkish idea man Nurettin Topçu (1909,1975) says the following on this subject in his book "Ethics Order":

“While there are those who do it knowingly, there are also those who subconsciously commit it without realizing it. As an example of this last one, we can show the Dutch Jewish philosopher Spinoza, whose ancestry was Spanish. This unfortunate and oppressed philosopher concluded that God was denied in his system that explained God as the whole of the universe. After saying 'Allah and the universe are one and the same substance, there is and cannot be anything other than Allah', by imprisoning Allah within the complete necessity of existence, he recognized the existence that is governed only by its own necessary laws and reached the denial of Allah. Thus, even the Jew's saying 'Allah' became a denial of Allah."

Humanism has attributed divine characteristics to humans. In humanism, man's self-confidence has reached the level of pride and pharaohism. In other words, the human soul is sanctified. In other words, in humanism, man is omnipotent and his ruler is absolute. In Islam, the situation is exactly the opposite. In Islam, the self is evil and man is helpless and weak. The main goal of Sufism is to break this self of man.

Humanism sees humans as the source of all values such as goodness, beauty, power and success. According to them, the primary source that produces all positive values is human. In Islam, human beings are not a resource but a mirror that reflects the values created by Allah. Therefore, it is not the original but the subordinate. It is a secondary source, not a primary source. It's the moon, not the sun. The primary source that produces value in Islam is Almighty Allah. Man, on the other hand, can produce secondary values depending on the true religion of Allah Almighty.

 

Human Love in Islam

Islam is a religion that gives the most importance to love. Therefore, Islamic civilization is a civilization of love. Likewise, a Muslim society is a society of love. Because in order to have faith in Islam, there must be love. In Islam, all relationships between humans and beings are based on love. Love in Islam is an absolute love that encompasses all existence. The fruits of this love are absolute mercy, absolute compassion and absolute humility.

Allah has placed love in the nature of His servants. He delivered His messages about love to all times and places through His messengers. Behaviors place love in a person's heart. Therefore, the main purpose of love is to achieve perfect faith. Because, thanks to love, a person has a mature faith and reaches its pleasure.

Our Prophet (pbuh) expresses that one can enjoy faith by embracing true love in his heart:

“Whoever has these three characteristics will enjoy faith: Loving Allah and His Messenger more than anyone else; to love the person he loves only for the sake of Allah; To be afraid of turning to disbelief after belief, just as one is afraid of being thrown into the fire."

The Prophet David's prayer is to ask for God's love. David prays as follows: “O Allah, I ask You to love You, to love the person who loves You, and to do the deeds that lead to Your love. O Allah, make Your love more beloved to me than myself, my family and cold water."

Our Prophet (pbuh) has the following hadith on this subject: “You cannot enter heaven unless you believe. You cannot have faith unless you love each other." Accordingly, the heart of a Muslim aims to attain a perfect faith and therefore wants to love. The love of God is followed by the love of His prophet in the human heart, which is kneaded with the love of God, and strives to be moralized by His morality. What makes love valuable and meaningful is living with it without any worldly gain or purpose and not expecting any reward other than God's response.

Seeing kindness causes love and strengthens love. Therefore, being kind and generous to people is an important reason for gaining people's love. Because the human heart was created to feel love towards those who do good to it and hatred towards those who do evil to it. For this reason, our Prophet (pbuh) said, "Give gifts to each other, so that you will love each other and the hostility between you will disappear." He also set an example by giving gifts to people.

It is important to share and express love. Our Prophet (pbuh) also showed his love to his companions from time to time. One day, he held the hand of Muaz bin Cebel (ra) and said to him, "O Muaz, I love you." Thereupon, Muaz said, “I love you too, O Messenger of Allah!” he replied. In this case, our Prophet said: "If one of you loves his brother for the sake of Allah, let him tell that he loves him."

It is Allah Almighty who places love in people's hearts. The love of one's parents, love of siblings, love of spouse, and love of children are all blessings of God. Because Allah Almighty says:

“And give you spouses of your own kind so that you may find peace with them. One of the proofs of His existence is that He created love and mercy among you. Indeed, there are signs in this for a people who think wisely.” (Al-Rum, 30/21)

Our Prophet (pbuh) never withheld his love for his wives and was always a gentle husband. We asked our Prophet, "Who is the most beloved of people to you?" he replied, "Ayşe." It is commanded in our religion to show special love and respect to parents. It is forbidden to even say anger towards them (Al-Isra, 17/23). In addition, continuing the bonds of love with relatives and kinship is also important.

Our Prophet commanded people to always treat their children with love and mercy. He advised them to kiss and caress them and play games with them. Our Prophet also experienced the same thing with children. In fact, when his daughter Fatima (rah) entered, the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) would stand up for her, hold her hand, kiss her and make her sit in his place. Hz. Fatima would treat her father in the same way in response to this elegant display of love.

Our Prophet is a prophet of mercy. Because he was sent as a mercy to all the worlds (The Prophets, 21/107). For this reason, he approached all living and non-living creatures with love, and looked at animals, plants, nature, that is, the whole universe, with a loving gaze. Our Prophet even expressed his love for mountains and cities. For example, there are hadiths expressing his love for Mecca, Medina and Uhud Mountain.

However, our Prophet commanded us to be moderate in love. He says: “Love the person you love moderately, so that one day there may be someone you do not love; Don't love someone you don't like in moderation, so that one day he may become someone you love very much."

Love is an emotion that penetrates deep into the human soul. For this reason, our Prophet said, "Loving something will make you blind and deaf." In this emotional atmosphere, the lover may become unable to see or hear the mistakes and ugly behavior of his/her loved one. For this reason, it is important that the person to be loved is someone who loves Allah and thus avoids behavior that would not please Allah. Our Prophet expressed this by saying, "A person depends on the religion and morals of his friends."

The home of love is the heart. The heart was created in a way that can tend to different loves. The heart is inclined towards worldly values such as beauty, elegance, nobility or wealth. The heart can get carried away by the temporary pleasures of worldly life. However, this love should not be at a level that overshadows the love of Allah and His Messenger. For this reason, God Almighty warned people by pointing out these weaknesses in their nature and stated in some verses that "man loves wealth very much" (Al-Fajr, 89/20), (Al-Adiyat, 100/8). Our Prophet draws attention to this in the following hadith: "If the son of Adam had two valleys full of gold, he would want to have a third." However, in the Holy Quran, it is reminded to spend the world's blessings in the way of Allah in order to gain His approval: "You will never attain goodness unless you spend the things you love in the way of Allah." (Al-Imran, 3/92)

Human Love comes first for Sufis. First of all, they are people of the heart. They care about people's hearts first. They consider breaking a heart as a great sin.

It has been stated that in Islam, the relations between God and man, the relations between the prophet and man, and the relations between man and man should be based on love. According to Islam, love constitutes the basis of the God-human relationship. God created humans because He loves them. In this case, the servant's relationship with Allah should be based on eternal love. Since God Almighty has made us honorable by loving us with endless love, we must respond by loving Him with endless love.

According to Islamic belief, there is no faith without love. In other words, a person who does not love Allah more than anything else cannot be a true servant of Him. The first thing that is obligatory on people is knowledge of Allah, that is, to know Allah. A person who knows God has faith and wants to gain His approval by loving Him more than anything else. Believers love Allah more than anything else. Their love for Allah cannot be compared to the love of the unbelievers for their false gods and idols.

The love of unbelievers and polytheists for their false gods in this world will turn into disappointment and hatred on the day of judgment in the afterlife. They will regret this love. The following verse expresses this:

“Among people, there are those who take others as equals and partners other than Allah, and they love them as if they love Allah. As for those who believe, their love for Allah is stronger. If only those who did wrong knew, when they are to be punished, that all power belongs to Allah and that the punishment that Allah will inflict is truly severe.” (Al-Baqara, 2/165)

God's love for his servant means blessing him and keeping him still and permanent on the right path. For this reason, it is very important for Muslims to be on the right line in their religion.

"O you who believe! Who among you turns back from Allah, He will replace them by a community that He loves them and they love Him, they are humble towards the believers, strong and honorable towards the unbelievers, they strive in the way of Allah and are not afraid of the condemnation of the critic. This is a favor of Allah. He gives it to whomever He wishes. Allah is the One Who has infinite mercy and knows everything." (The Table, 5/54)

As stated in this verse, people who love Allah and are loved by Allah also love other believers. Therefore, if a person does not embrace other believers with love, his love for Allah is doubtful. Allah Almighty does not love sinful infidels and those who are boastful and arrogant. Therefore, these people are not loved by people who love Allah. Accordingly, if a person does not like sinners and arrogant people, it is a sign that he loves Allah and is loved by Him.

Just as believers love Allah, Allah also loves them. Allah's love for His servants is before the servants' love for Allah in terms of time. Because God created His servants and sent them to this world as a result of His love for them. For this reason, human beings have become the most honorable of creatures. In order to make man superior to other beings, Allah Almighty gave him three things: 1) Divine attributes, 2) trust or offer, 3) caliphate.

Our Prophet (pbuh) stated that Allah created man in His own image. What is meant by this form are adjectives. Allah Almighty's attributes of Cemal (beauty) and Jalal (majesty) are indicators of Allah's love for humanity. Just as being created is a sign of God's love for us, having good morals is a sign that God loves a person.

Allah Almighty loves people with good morals. The characteristics of people loved by Allah are as follows:

“Allah loves those who are fair.” (Al-Mumtahanah, 60/8)

“Spend in the way of Allah and do not endanger yourselves with your own hands, do good, surely Allah loves the doers of good.” (Al-Baqara, 2/195)

“Surely Allah loves those who repent and loves those who purify themselves.” (Al-Baqara, 2/222)

"Indeed, whoever fulfills his covenant and is avoid from sin; surely Allah loves the pious and those who avoid" (Al-Imran, 3/76)

“They are the ones who spend in times of abundance and hardship, those who control their anger, and those who give up their rights towards people with forgiveness. Allah loves those who do good.” (Al-Imran, 3/134)

“Thus, Allah gave them the beauty of the rewards of this world and the hereafter. Allah loves those who do good.” (Al-Imran, 3/148)

“They are those who listen to lies and eat what is forbidden. If they come to you, judge between them or turn away from them. If you turn away from them, they cannot harm you with anything. When you judge between them, judge with justice. Surely, Allah loves those who rule with justice.” (The Table, 5/42)

Islam's understanding of love is not a relationship based solely on loving God. Likewise, Islam proposes a relationship based on love between the Prophet and believers. The faith of those who do not love our Prophet (pbuh) more than anything else is not accepted. It is for the sake of Allah that our Prophet loves the believers and that the believers love the Messenger of Allah. For this reason, loving our Prophet is the means that brings people closest to Allah. Because Allah Almighty does not accept the closeness of those who do not love His beloved messenger. Just as a Muslim loves, believes and obeys Allah, he is also obliged to love and obey His messenger. Because anyone who does not love the prophet and refuses to obey him is outside of Islam.

Our Prophet (pbuh) says in one of his hadiths: "Unless the Prophet of Allah is more beloved to a person than his child, his parents and all people, he will not be a true believer. Likewise, I swear to Allah Almighty, in whose hand my soul is, that none of you will believe unless I am more beloved to him than his father and his son.” For this reason, our Prophet made it a condition for a perfect faith to be beloved by all people.

The sign of loving our Prophet is to follow his sunnah. Just as those who love Allah must believe in and obey Him, those who love the Messenger of Allah must believe in and obey Him. Obedience to our Prophet means following his sunnah and keeping his sunnah alive and spreading it. Just as Muslims love their prophets, our prophet also loves his ummah very much. The following verses show that he loved his ummah very much:

“Indeed, a messenger has come to you from among yourselves, who is very fond of you and very compassionate and merciful to the believers, who is very upset with your distress.” (Repentance, 9/128)

Allah Almighty explains that He put love for his ummah in his heart:

“It is a mercy from Allah that you were gentle with them. If you were rude and hard-hearted, they would disperse from around you. So forgive them, ask for forgiveness for them, and consult with them regarding matters. If you are determined, put your trust in Allah. Surely Allah loves those who put their trust in Him.” (Al-Imran, 3/159)

Because of his love for his ummah, our Prophet (pbuh) patiently educated them and saved them from ignorance. He elevated him to the highest spiritual levels. For this reason, they have become the masters of humanity both in this world and the hereafter. However, love and respect for the prophet should not lead people to extremism. Some of the past ummahs deified their prophets because of their extreme love. The best example of this is Hz. Isa. Because of their extreme love for Jesus, Christians considered him as a god. This kind of love harms people.

According to Islamic belief, servitude and worship are the highest level. That's why Hz. Muhammad (pbuh) is praised as the servant and messenger of Allah. No supernatural properties are attributed to him. Our Prophet has been described as the prophet of love and compassion. Allah Almighty defined the Prophet as a mercy to the worlds in the Holy Quran (Al-Anbiya, 21/107).

Relationships between people should also be based on love. Believers are brothers and it is obligatory for them to act according to the requirements of brotherhood. The source of this brotherhood is God's will. Allah, who made them brothers through the bond of blood, also states that He made them brothers through the bond of faith as follows:

“Believers are only brothers. So make peace between your brothers and fear Allah so that you may receive mercy.” (Al-Hujurat, 49/10)

Brotherhood is the peak of love. Muslims should treat all creatures and humanity with love. However, Muslims' love for their co-religionists is much greater than their love for others. In the continuation of the above verse declaring believers as brothers, brothers are asked not to despise each other, whether men or women; They are asked not to call bad names; They are asked not to talk behind their backs, backbite, or have bad thoughts about them. Allah Almighty created people differently in terms of gender, race and language, but it is emphasized that the superiority of piety is the only source. Accordingly, racial differences do not prevent brotherhood; on the contrary, differences are eliminated thanks to brotherhood. (Al-Hujurat, 49/11-13)

The characteristics of the people of our Prophet's (pbuh) ummah and their love towards their prophet and each other are praised even in the Torah and the Bible. The following verse expresses this clearly:

“Muhammad is the messenger of Allah, and those with him are harsh against the unbelievers and merciful among themselves. You will see them bowing and prostrating. They seek and ask for grace, favor and pleasure from Allah. The symptoms are on their faces from the marks of prostration. This is their description in the Torah. Its descriptions in the Bible are as if it sprouts a crop, then strengthens it, then thickens it, then stands up on its stems and grows taller, which pleases the farmers. This is to anger the unbelievers with it. Allah has promised forgiveness and a great reward to those among them who believe and do good deeds.” (Victory, 48/29)

With this, our Prophet gained the distinction of being the best of prophets, and his ummah became the best of all ummahs. This is the most important indicator of God's love for our Prophet and his ummah.

“You are a good ummah raised for humanity. You enjoin what is right and in accordance with Islam, you forbid what is evil, and you believe in Allah. If the people of the book had also believed, it would have been better for them. There are some among them who believe. But most of them have gone astray.” (Al-Imran, 3/110)

Love for people does not mean loving that person's mistakes. On the contrary, according to Islam, people's bad habits are not to be liked. Muslims should strive to change people's bad habits by conveying the message and knowing the command. He should help his brothers, both when they are oppressed and when they oppress. When asked about this hadith, how to help a brother who commits cruelty, The Prophet (pbuh) said, "To prevent his oppression and to discourage him from committing oppression."

In Islam, Muslims are defined as brothers. Brotherhood of religion is superior to brotherhood of lineage. Because family brotherhood does not occur by one's own choice. But religious brotherhood was formed by their own choices. The virtue of religious brotherhood and Muslims loving each other for the sake of Allah is expressed in many hadiths and verses.

Abu Hurayra  narrated that our Prophet (pbuh) said: “On the Day of Judgment, Almighty Allah will say, “Where are those who love each other for My sake? Today, I will shade them with My shadow on the day when there will be no shade other than the shadow of My Throne.”

Faith without love is a vapid thing. Because faith can only be enjoyed through love. This is what distinguishes philosophical faith from faith in Islam. Pleasure and taste are not sought in philosophical faith. Because it is just a mental inference. But there is pleasure and taste for the heart in the faith taught by Islam. For this reason, our Prophet said: “Whoever has three things will taste the taste of faith: Allah and His Messenger being dearer to him than anything else; loving other people only for God's sake for turning into disbelief preferring punishment being thrown into the fire.”

A person who enjoys faith enjoys doing good to other beings and making sacrifices for them. For that person, giving is more enjoyable than receiving. He enjoys serving others more than being served himself.

A heart without love is ruined and sick. The only food for the heart is love. The heart enjoys and feels satisfied both in loving and being loved. The only love that satisfies the heart and gives it enthusiasm is the love of its Creator. Allah created the heart so that it loves Himself above all else and is only satisfied when it loves Himself.

Fear of God is also a fruit of the love of God. Fear of God differs depending on the degree to which a person knows God. For those who are at the first steps of knowing God, fear of God means fear of hell. However, for those who are at advanced levels of knowledge of Allah, fear of Allah is like being afraid of hurting their lover. These people's fear is not hell, but rather doing something wrong and losing the approval and love of their Lord, whom they love more than anything else. For this reason, the fear of those who remove love for Allah from their hearts increases. There is no fear or sadness left in the hearts of people who are devoted to God with love, other than the fear of God. Love of God is the cure for all fear and sadness. The death that people fear the most is the night of reunion with their beloved for people at this level. God Almighty says in a sacred hadith: “Whoever loves to meet Me, I also love to meet him. Whoever does not like to meet Me, I do not like to meet him either."

At death, the curtains separating man from God are torn and reunion occurs. The heart gets the greatest pleasure from this. The best form of love for Allah and loving for Allah's sake is worship. It is imperative that the love of God be in the hearts of people who worship. For this reason, worshiping without feeling love for Allah is nothing but tiredness. One of the most effective ways to develop spiritually and get closer to God is love. There is no faith without knowledge, there is no love without faith, and there is no worship and service without love. An increase in knowledge of Allah brings an increase in love. Because those who know beauty love it. The one who knows more, loves more. For this reason, the religion of Islam is the religion of love, the Islamic society is the society of love, the Islamic civilization is the civilization of love.

For this reason, Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi (1207,1273), a humble follower of our Prophet (pbuh), defines Islam as the religion of love and his own sect as the sect of love in his poems and says that Muslims are the children of love: “Our mother did not give birth to us, that love gave birth to us. Hundreds of mercy, hundreds of well-done, appreciation to that mother who gave birth to us.”

Mevlana says in his book “Masnavi”:

“There is duality in man. The human self is in disbelief and the soul is in belief and wisdom. If spirituality prevails it becomes a fish and if desires prevail, it becomes a fishing rod. Half of the human being is a believer and the other half is a fire worshiper. Half of them are ambitious, the other half are patient. God Almighty says in the Holy Quran: "There are unbelievers and believers among you." "A man is like a tawny ox, his left side is black, and the other side is white like the moon."

Mevlana says the following in his book Fîhi Mâ Fîh:

“People think that there is a great claim in this saying 'Ene'l - Hakk' (I am God). However, 'Ene'l - Hakk' is a sign of great humility. Because, those who say “I am the servant of Allah!” express that there are two separate entities, one belonging to themselves and the other to Allah. But the one who says "Ene'l - Hakk" eliminates himself. He is “Ene’l – Hakk”, that is, “I do not exist, it is all God.” No one other than Allah has existence. I am pure nothingness, I am nothing!”

“When Almighty God introduces Himself to man and makes him conscious of Himself, this man sees in the astrolabe of his own being, at every moment, the manifestation (shine) of God and His beauty unlike any other. And this beauty never disappears from that mirror.”

The Turkish Literary Historian Abdülbaki Gölpınarlı says the following in his book "Mevlana's Life, Art, and Selections from His Works":

“Mevlana's human love ; It has a depth and sublimity that covers all people, regardless of whether they are children, fallen or helpless. So much so that he responded in the same way to everyone who saw him and showed respect and even prostrated himself, and regardless of who did this, he revived people with the greatness of his love for humanity.”

From time to time, there have been those who claimed that Mevlana was a humanist, that he directed his messages to all humanity, that Mevlana did not recognize nationality, borders or geography, and that Mevlana was even a supra-religious figure. Mevlana's universality and humanism are true; However, those who attempt to see Mevlana and his love for humanity as above religion, above Islam, and those who understand Mevlana's universality as moving away from Islamic records have not understood Mevlana sufficiently. (Human Rights and Mevlana Symposium)

Ibn Arabi (ks) says the following in his book titled “Füsusul Hikem”:

“When you understand that Allah Almighty takes care of man's existence and ensures his survival, you too will take care of Him. If you do like this, you will get happiness; Because as long as a person lives, it is hoped that he will acquire the qualities of perfection for which he was created. Those who work to destroy this creation are undoubtedly working to prevent humans from reaching the perfection for which they were created."

Ibn Arabi invites us to comprehend our own reality with the theory of divine love. Since everything, including ourselves, is equipped with the theory of love, the most real feeling in life is love. Lacking love is a sign of immaturity, weakness and helplessness.

Considering the existence of classes in ancient Greece and Rome, what was done to slaves, the humiliated state of women, the debates in Europe about whether women have souls or not, what happened during the Crusades, what is done to Bosnians today and many other similar examples, we can see that Greek, Roman and It is very difficult for the West to be at the forefront of humanity and humanitarianism in a positive sense.

By saying that matter has always been the cause of social events, Marx denies the power of the spirit and its creativity. Reducing the genesis of all our moods to sexual desires and appetites hidden in the unconscious, Freud says that the human soul is the child of miseries and disgraces. All the highest ideals and the purest passions find their roots in the swamp of sexual appetites. Durkheim confines man, the traveler of eternity, within the boundaries of society and concludes that for man, aspirations and ideals, God and morality, everything is society. In this way, it makes faith a slave to the forces dominant in society.

 

As a result, we can now state the following:

Today, humanity needs Islam for peace of mind and world peace. Whether people are Muslims or non-Muslims, there are many things they need to learn from the Islamic religion, and that is the understanding of love, mercy, respect and compassion. However, unfortunately, this understanding has been forgotten today. Even the majority of Muslims, live unaware of true love. Loving the Prophet and Allah cannot be done lightly. For this, Allah's orders and prohibitions and the sunnah of our Prophet must be followed. Only in this way can the fruits of true love be achieved.

 

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Human Love

Publishing Date: 27.10.2023