GOD’S LOVE

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Please note that if God willed, everyone would support His cause and earn His love, but the Most Gracious provides us with freedom, a freedom we, the humans asked for and which was granted to us.

People who do not support God and spread corruption on earth, do not earn His love that was offered to them by following simple and clear commandments. They cannot get closer to God on the Last Day. Being away from God is what will be Hell to these people. God does not put a single person in Hell. On the contrary, God put in our way many reasons to find Him, love Him, follow His message and be close to Him on the Last Day (Heaven). Because of our freedom (which is a gift) we are the ones who make the choice whether we go to Heaven or Hell.

Another major misunderstanding throughout the world today is that God loves everyone and everything. This concept is illogical. Why would God love those who are spreading corruption on earth,

killing the innocent, torturing the weak and disabled, robbing people of their belongings and freedom, polluting our environment, raping women (or girls) and abusing their children? Why should God love someone like Hitler, Stalin, Mao or any other tyrant?!!. These are our enemies and God’s enemies.

Some people commit evil and blaspheme regularly, disregard commandments and do not believe in the One who created and provides for them. If God loved us all unconditionally, why would we uphold commandments? Why would God even issue any command if He loves us regardless of what we do? Surely, if God loved us all unconditionally, we would all have a license to commit the worst of evils while assured that we will end up in Heaven. This would throw the world into a state of chaos and disorganization that would end any meaningful civilization.

The Quran gives us the truth in this matter. Each trait that God does not love is specifically laid out in the Quran. God does not love: the aggressors (2:190); corruption (2:205); the unjust (3:140); the arrogant (4:36); the betrayer

(4:107); the evildoers (5:64); the wasters (6:141); the gluttons (7:31); the transgressors (7:55); the disbeliever (3:32); and the boastful (57:23).

Now we have the truth about what God loves and what He does not. God loves us for the good we do and does not love those who do evil. God, the Most Gracious, Most Merciful did not close the door for those who commit evil; He gives them the chance to repent, reform and come back to Him. If they do that before they die or get closer to death, God guarantees them forgiveness, guidance and eternal happiness in the Hereafter. This is true love, a truly constructive love, not a destructive unconditional one. God who loves us gave us all the reasons and means to be happy in this world and in the Hereafter and for that we must be most appreciative to Him. His love is abundant and we need to go for it.

Praise be to God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.

James Burnett