What is love?

Love is indescribable.  Words cannot denote the true essence of love.  Pictures cannot display the nature of love.  Actions fall short of exhibiting the quintessence of love.  Life revolves around love.  The Earth spins on the axis of love.  Love is seen between a lioness and a cub.  Love is sensed between a mother and a child, a student and his teacher.  What is love?

Love in Arabic is translated as Hubb.  The root letters of this word as Ha Ba and Ba.  These three letters connote another meaning in the Arabic language.  ‘Habbun’ refers to a seed.  Every word which has identical root letters has a common thread with its sister word.  So Hubbun means love and habbun refers to a seed.  What is the association between these two words?

A seed is planted deep in the ground.  When it is fed with water and showered with sunlight, it develops into an anchored plant bearing sweet smelling tasty fruits.  When love is planted, etched and sowed into the deep recesses of our heart, followed by exposure to the feed of love and showered with the rays of love, this love evolves into something bright colourful and sweet smelling.  One tastes something never tasted before.  His every taste bud experiences something never experienced before.  His cells are immersed in an ocean of ecstasy.

Instead of defining love, the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam described the implications of love.  The Prophet salallahu alauhi wasallam said,

“Your love for something blinds and deafens.” (Abu Dawud)

Our Master salallahu alayhi wasallam, answered our question for us.  When a person is underwater, he neither sees anything, nor does he hear anything.  Just as water barricades a person from seeing and hearing his environs, similarly when a person dives in the ocean of love, he is blinded and deafened from all around him.  Love submerges an individual into another realm; all he sees is the radiance of his beloved.  All he smells is the sweetness of his beloved’s fragrance.  Nights are cold without the remembrances of the beloved, sunny days are dark for the lover and sweet becomes bitter.  The agony and cries of separation overcome every emotion crossing the heart.

There is no route, no pathway or bridge between us and Allah except for Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wasallam.  Allah has established a principle: whosoever wants to be saved from the upcoming torment, the imminent horror of the hellfire, then he has no other way out but to cling onto the life of Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wasallam.

Once love is embedded in the heart for the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasallam, with every footstep and every breath, the sunnah will be flowing from our lives.  The moment we become observers of the Sunnah, Allah will wrap us in His love.  This is how simple the formula of success is.

The 5 steps to gain the love for the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam:

1)     Read the biography of the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam

2)     Read the characteristics (shamaail) of the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam

3)     Recite salawaat (salutations) on the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam in abundance

4)     Practice on every sunnah

5)     Constantly remember him with every step.

With Compliments~http://darulfiqh.com/