Meaning of True Love in Islam: Holy Prophet Muhammad's (SAW) love for his people

It is so common that the meaning of love has been restricted in the
modern age to the love relationship between a man and a woman. This is
a very narrow-minded view of love. Islam has is own comprehensive view
of love.
The fist type of love that Islam calls for is the Love of Allah (SWT),
praise be to Him. This love makes you avoid committing sins in order
not to make whom you love, Allah, get angry with you. This love also
urges you to contemplate all the different aspect of nature that
usually leads you to have a deeper faith in the Creator who created
all this beauty round us.
The second type of love is the love of Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw).
This love also makes you follow the example of Holy Prophet Muhammad
(saw)in all his dealings and manners. Also this love is an indication
of the love of Allah (SWT) as stated in the Noble Qur'an, "Say: 'If
you do love Allah, Follow me: Allah will love you and forgive you your
sins: For Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.'" Say: "Obey Allah
and His Messenger: But if they turn back, Allah loves not those who
reject Faith." (Noble Qur'an, 3:31-32)
The third type of love is human love. It means that the Muslim has to
love his other fellow men regardless of their ethnic, linguistic or
cultural background. This includes love of neighbors, colleagues,
relatives and even strangers. This type of love persuades the Muslim
to help anybody whenever he can. There are numerous of Ahadith that
exhort Muslims to help anybody who really needs help because such an
altruistic act takes the Muslim one step closer to Allah (SWT).
The fourth type of love is the love between a man and a woman, but
Islam organizes and regulates these lofty feelings within the
framework of marriage because Islam views that marital love leads the
couple to have a peaceful and happy family life, which is the core of
the Muslim society.
In other words, this love is acceptable as long as it is within the
framework of marriage and this is encouraged in a number of verses in
the Noble Qur'an, "And one of His signs is that He created mates for
you from yourselves that you may find rest in them, and He put between
you love and compassion; most surely there are signs in this for a
people who reflect." (Noble Qur'an, 30:21)
Holy Prophet Muhammad's (saw) love for his people: Something to think about ...
How can a father's love for his son be known? This love itself is not
something visible or tactual. It can be known only from his behavior,
attitude and words towards his son. If a wise and fair person pays due
attention to Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) utterances and studies the
reports describing his efforts to guide men to the right course, his
strictness in protecting everybody's rights and his magnanimous and
compassionate efforts for the establishment of beautiful morals, he
will clearly see that his love for his Ummah (community) is much more
than that of a father for his son. A person who realizes his
astounding accomplishments, the astonishing reports in Noble Qur'an,
which were revealed through his tongue and his utterances foretelling
the bewildering events that will happen at the end of the world, will
certainly see that he attained high grades above the intellect's
capacity and comprehended facts beyond the intellect's limit of
comprehension and realization. Thus, it will be apparent to him that
his words are all true.
How would you feel if you found out that someone was thinking about
you more than 1400 years ago?
Once our holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) was sitting with some of his
companion and suddenly he (SAW) said, "Alas! I wish I could meet my
brothers."
Abu Bakr and Umar, who were around him said, "Are we not your
brothers? We believe in you and we migrated with you."
Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) replied, "You are my companions. You
accepted Islam and migrated with me but "Alas I wish I could meet my
brothers...!"
Again they asked the same question, Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw)
replied the same answer. Then they asked "O, Prophet who are those
people?"
Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) replied, "My brothers are those who are
during the Akhir uz Zaman. They will believe in me although they have
not seen me."
This shows a glimpse of our holy Prophet Muhammad's (SAW) love for us
and of course, we claim to love him as well. But when love becomes
limited to words, it becomes meaningless. And when the loved one's
advice is not taken seriously, it invalidates this love. Don't you
think?
Isn't it about time we follow our holy Prophet Muhammad (saw)? Isn't
it about time we reconsider our lives?
There is a well known tradition narrated by Holy Prophet Muhammad
(saw) which has been recorded by eminent Shia and Ahle Sunnah scholars
in their compilation thus: "One who dies without recognizing the Imam
of his age, has died the death of ignorance."
In other words his death shall be that of an infidel. Even the Noble
Qur'an declares in the 71st verse of Surah Bani Israel, "On the day
when every man shall be summoned along with their Imam." (17:71)
Salty coffee - What is the true meaning of Love and being in love
A boy met her girl friend in his friend's party. She was so
outstanding that many guys chasing after her, while he was so normal
that nobody paid attention to him.
At the end of the party, he invited her to have coffee with him, she
was surprised, but due to being polite, she accepts the request. They
sat in a nice coffee shop, he was too nervous to say anything, she
felt uncomfortable, she said, please; let me go home.
Suddenly the boy asked the waiter, "Would you please give me some
salt? I would like to put it in my coffee."
She stared at him, so strange! His face turned red, but still, he put
the salt in his coffee and drank it.
She asked him curiously; why you have this hobby?
He replied: "when I was a little boy, I was living near the sea, I
like playing in the sea, and I could feel the taste of the sea, just
like the taste of the salty coffee. Now every time I have the salty
coffee, I always think of my childhood, think of my hometown, I miss
my hometown so much, I miss my parents who are still living there"
while saying tears filled his eyes. She was deeply touched. That's his
true feeling, from the bottom of his heart.
A man, who can tell out his home sickness, He must be a man who loves
home, cares and has responsibility of home. Then she also started to
speak about her far away hometown, her childhood, family and all. That
was a really nice talk, and also a beautiful beginning of their love
story.
They continued to see eachother. She found that actually he was a man
who meets all her demands; he had tolerance, kind hearted, warm and
careful. He was such a good person but she almost missed him! Thanks
to his salty coffee!
Then the story begin just like every beautiful love story, the
princess married to the prince, and then they were living the happy
life and every time she made coffee for him, she put some salt in the
coffee, as she knew that's the way he liked it always.
After 40 year of married life, suddenly the boy had passed away, and
left her a letter, in which he said: "My dearest wife, please forgive
me, forgive my whole life lie which I told you. This was the only lie
I said to you - "the salty coffee."
Remember the first time we met? I was so nervous at that time,
actually I wanted some Sugar, but I said salt. It was hard for me to
change, so I just went ahead. I never thought that could be the
beginning of our love story! I tried to tell you the truth many times
in my life, but I was too afraid to do that, as I have promised not to
lie to you for anything in my married life.
Now I'm dying, I m afraid of nothing, so I tell you the truth: I don't
like the salty coffee, what a strange and bad taste. But I had the
salty coffee for my whole life! Since I Love you, I never feel sorry
for anything I do for you.
"Having you with me is my biggest happiness for my whole life." If I
can live for the second time, I still want to know you and have you
only in my life, even though I have to drink the salty coffee for my
whole life."
Her tears made the letter totally wet.
Someday, someone asked her: "what's the taste of salty coffee?"
"It's very sweet". She replied
True Love or what?
An elderly gent was invited to an old friends' home for dinner one
evening. He was impressed by the way his buddy preceded every request
to his wife with endearing terms such as: Honey, My Love, Darling,
Sweetheart, Pumpkin, etc. The couple had been married almost 70 years
and, clearly, they were still very much in love.
While the wife was in the kitchen, the man leaned over and said to his
host, "I think it's wonderful that, after all these years, you still
call your wife those loving pet names." The old man hung his head. "I
have to tell you the truth," he said, "Her name slipped my mind about
10 years ago and I'm scared to death to ask her what it is!"