Talking about love...

Way back then....Love was about nurturing!

I never once saw my father and mother exhibited any act or expression of love nor did I hear them say 'love' to each other. However, never once I doubted their love for one another. It was there - in the conversation they had after meals while munching betel leaves. It was there - in things they did not do just as much as in things they did. My mother would not eat until my father was ready to eat. My father would not even think of not coming home for lunch unless he had already informed mother.

Way back then, love was taken for granted and it was ok! There was no need for roses from florists, or for wedding anniversaries to be celebrated. Their love for each other centered around what they did together out of their love for their children. I saw their love at its best during prayers - mother would obediently be behind father and it warmed my heart everytime I saw mother kissed father's hands after prayers.

Way back then it seemed to me that love was caring for each other out of a sense of duty - father was to protect and provide, and mother was to feed and nurture.

Way back then, my father showed me love by spending his afternoon making me bird-traps out of bamboo sticks and sago branches. When he took me on his round to check his 'taut' (fishing rods) - that was love!

Way back then, mother showed me her love by staying up to accompany me finishing my homework by the 'pelita minyak'. She could not read or write, but her presence was more than adequate support for me to strive for excellence. She made it known that she was proud of me. When once I left behind my eraser at home and she walked to school to send it to me - that was love.

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Today....Love is about "things!"

Today, love seems to be more fragile and demanding. There is a price to pay for love to exist. Roses for valentines, cards for certain days, presents for birthdays, and candle light dinners for anniversaries. God forbid if you even think of ignoring any of those celebration - "You don't love me anymore!" will be echoing for days! Such is today's love - it is symbolized with 'things'.

Love seems to be a one way thing between parents and children. Today's children are self-centered lots - they demand love for free but hold back theirs as ransom for presents or favours.

Parents who are drawn more and more away from their children due to work are easily blackmailed - at least emotionally. Hence, loosening of discipline and letting go of morale and religious values. How many parents today forced their children to wake up for Fajr prayers! Or maybe the question is, how many parents today themselves wake up for Fajr prayers??

Many couples break up due to absence of love in their relationship. So one of them if not both would claim. How can their hearts not be void of love for another human - if they don't even feel love for their Creator and their Prophet!

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Love first in your hearts

Then love with your deeds

Love not only with your words

For such love will not last for keeps.

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Love and Iman - when Love is deep within your heart.

Love - At one level it seems clear why the faithful should love the Prophet: he is their teacher, guide and leader and it is impossible for him to teach, guide and lead them if they don't love him. But there is a deeper meaning in the principle that love for the Prophet is essential for iman.

Love of the Prophet is love of all the beauty and nobility of character, truthfulness, justness, humility and inner strength of which man is capable and which the Prophet as al-insan al-kamil (the Perfect man) possessed in the utmost degree. Love for the Prophet means to acknowledge, cherish and glorify all the potential of goodness and greatness that God has created within Man.

It also means love of humanity, not just in regard to its potential for perfection but also despite its general inability to realize that potential and despite all kind of imperfections and weaknesses from which it suffers. For the Prophet is not only the Perfect Man but also the Representative Man who on the day of judgment will represent mankind and plead on their behalf for their imperfections and weaknesses before the throne of God.

Thus love of the Prophet, on the one hand puts us on the road to perfection by making us cherish it dearly and on the other hand it helps us accept our imperfect humanity and in this way to live in peace with ourselves as repentant servants of God hopeful of His mercy. This is why love for the Prophet is a condition of iman, for what is iman if it is not to acknowledge and repent for one's imperfections and weaknesses and to cherish and strive for - even as an unachievable ideal - the perfection of which man is potentially capable?

You can read more about love for the prophet here.

"Every saint has a past - and every sinner has a future!"

I am not yet a saint, and nor do I want to stay a sinner. Please help me God!