The Criterion of the Love of God

Peace, one and all…

Narrated Anas ibn Malik: “The criterion of the love of God is the love of His invocation (dhikr), and the criterion of the hatred of God is the hatred of His invocation.”
(Quoted by al-Bayhaqi. Validated hadith.)

Commentary

Loving God and loving to invoke Him are indissolubly linked because the invocation makes present the Invoked. Concerning this subject, al-Junayd has been quoted as saying: “The sign of perfect love of God is the continuous invocation in the heart accompanied by joy, delight, ardent desire (shawq), and contentment in the [spiritual] intimacy (uns).”

al-Ghazzali
Know that every man claims to love. And yet, if pretending is easy, realizing is much more difficult. Therefore, man must not be deluded by the deceptions of Satan and the trickeries of the ego pretending to the love of God Most High. One must confront the pretensions of the ego with criteria (‘alamat) and proofs. Love is like a goodly tree, its root set firm, its branches reaching into heaven;122 its fruits appear in the heart, the tongue and the limbs. These manifestations testify to love just as smoke testifies to the existence of fire, and fruit to a tree’s nature. These manifestations are numerous. Amongst the signs of love is the desire of meeting with the Beloved by means of unveiling and contemplation in the abode of peace (dar al-saldm). In fact, one cannot conceive of a heart which experiences love while not seeking to contemplate and to meet with its beloved. [… ] In the same way, whoever loves God will love madly the invocation of God: his tongue will invoke Him constantly and his heart will not be able to spend a single moment with out it. In fact, whoever loves a thing necessarily mentions amply that thing as well as everything related to it. This is the reason why the criterion of the love of God is the love of His invocation, the love of the Qur’an which is His Word, the love of the Messenger of God § and all that concerns him. When love is strong, it extends to everything related to the Beloved. This is not a dispersion in love (shirka fi l-hubb), for he who loves the Messenger of the Beloved because he is “His” messenger, and loves His Word because it is “His,” loves nothing other than Him! On the contrary, this testifies to the perfection of his love. Moreover, a man whose heart is dominated by the love of God will love all creatures because they are God’s: how can he not love the Qur’an, the Messenger and the serving Friends of God?
(Ihya IV, pp. 320-323)

al-Junayd
The question of love was raised in a session of spiritual masters in Mecca during the season of Pilgrimage. They asked al-Junayd, who at the time was the youngest amongst them: “And what is your opinion, O Iraqi?” Al-Junayd lowered his head, tears going down his face, and then he said: “Love requires the servant to have abandoned his individuality, to constantly invoke his Lord, to perform all his duties before Him, to have his heart turned to Him until he is consumed by the lights of His Being, to drink the pure water of His affection so that God lifts the veils covering His mysteries. When such a man speaks, it is for God; if he expresses himself, it is on the subject of God; if he performs an act, it is by the order of God; if he rests, it is with God. He is from God, for God, with God.” The spiritual masters then started weeping and confessed: “What more can one say? May God reward you, the Crown of the Sages!”
(Enseignement, pp. 194-5)

Taken from Tayyib Chourif, Spiritual Teachings of the Prophet