لَنْ تَنَالُوا الْبِرَّ حَتَّىٰ تُنْفِقُوا مِمَّا تُحِبُّونَ ۚ وَمَا تُنْفِقُوا مِنْ شَيْءٍ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ بِهِ عَلِيمٌ
(Sahih International)
Never will you attain the good [reward] until you spend [in the way of Allah ] from that which you love. And whatever you spend - indeed, Allah is Knowing of it.
-Sura Aal-E-Imran, Ayah 92
This is one of my favorite verses, because this tells us what it means to truly love someone.
When you love Allah, you put Him above everything, so much so that you become willing to sacrifice what you love just to gain His pleasure.
Allah demands to be loved in a way that you see no one but Him, want to please none but Him and care for His approval more than anyone else's.
Loving Him means having your heart attached only to Him and to no other worldly pleasure, only then can you sacrifice it for His sake.
Allah has bought a believer's life and wealth in exchange for Jannah.
This verse reiterates the concept that Jannah is a luxury that comes at a price, and it may not require the best effort in the world, but the best of your efforts.
One can attain piety--or in other words, Jannah-- only when one spends and sacrifices out of what he or she loves because we need to show Allah how absolutely desperate we are, for His eternal blessing.
We need to show him that we deserve His eternal bliss.
And Allah is merciful enough to understand that man is weak, and so He says, spend some from that which you love, not necessarily all. Maybe not all the time, but at least once, let your heart consider only Allah's approval and let your hands give away what you love willingly and with happiness.
It can be as big as giving away your hard earned money or as simple as giving away that chocolate you like a lot or even as thoughtful as spending your precious time and talents for the sake of Allah.
Because whatever you spend, Allah knows and He is the most Understanding and Appreciative of even your littlest efforts.
So sit back today, and think :
What do you love the most?
And would you sacrifice that for Allah?
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Qur'anic Reflections
SpiritualAbu Musa narrated: "The Prophet (SAW) said: "A faithful believer to a faithful believer is like the bricks of a wall, enforcing each other." While (saying that) the Prophet( SAW) clasped his hands, by interlacing his fingers." (Sahih Al-Bukhari) I...
