Is Allah a God of Love?
Muslims will answer in the affirmative and point to a number of verses in the Qur'an to show just how Allah loves:
- Sura 2:195 - Surely Allah loves the doers of good
- Sura 2:222 - For Allah loves those who turn to Him constantly and He loves those who keep themselves pure and clean
- Sura 3:76 - Surely Allah loves those who guard (against evil).
- Sura 3:146 - And Allah loves those who are firm and steadfast
- Sura 3:159 - For Allah loves those who put their trust (in Him).
- Sura 5:13 - Allah loves those who are kind.
In just the first few chapters of the Qur'an, we get a picture of the kind of love Allah bestows upon mankind. It is a very conditional love, a one-way love.
Allah only loves those who do good and obey him. There is no sense in the Qur'an of a love from Allah of the kind that a parent might feel for his or her child - an unconditional love that asks nothing in return.
In reality, Islam cannot explain the existence of love; only Christianity can.
Look at the definition for love from the New Oxford American Dictionary:
- An intense feeling of deep affection
- A deep romantic or sexual attachment to someone
- Affectionate greetings conveyed to someone on one's behalf.
- A great interest and pleasure in something
- A person or thing that one loves
By definition, in order for love to exist, there must be at least two entities involved: a lover or someone who displays love, and a beloved or an object upon which love is given.
If you were to ask a Muslim if he or she is capable of loving, or if they had someone in particular that he or she loved, the answer would be in the affirmative. Yet where does this love come from?
Muslims pride themselves as being a restoration of true monotheism. The Allah of Islam is uniquely and absolutely one. In Islam this concept of absolute oneness of God is known as tawhid. Note the following sample, out of many similar, verses in the Qur'an:
- Sura 112:1-4 - Say: He is Allah, the One and Only; Allah, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him.
- Sura 4:171 - Say not "Trinity" : desist: it will be better for you: for Allah is one Allah: Glory be to Him: (far exalted is He) above having a son.
If Allah is an absolute singular being, where does love come from? How did Allah exhibit love in eternity past? If he was alone, on whom did he bestow love?
Islam has no explanation for the existence of love. Christianity does.
The triune Godhead makes perfect sense when considered in light of the origin of love. God the father in loving commuion with the Son, in communion with the Holy Spirit; each person of the triune Godhead in loving relationship with one another.
The god of Islam cannot claim to be able to love in eternity past. Yet Muslims claim they have the ability to love. Where did this love come from? How can Allah give something he himself cannot possess?
Yet in the Bible, the existence of love makes perfect sense.
