What do hubb-i fillah and bughd-i fillah mean in Islam?

Answer 1

They mean loving someone only for the sake of Allahu ta'âlâ and feeling enmity only for the sake of Him. It is declared in the following hadîth-i sharîfs:

(The most valuable worship is loving for the sake of Allah and disliking for the sake of Allah.) [Abû Dâwud]

(Three things increase the taste of îmân: loving Allahu ta'âlâ and His Prophet ('alaihis-salâm) more than everything else; loving for the sake of Allah a Muslim who does not love you; and disliking enemies of Allahu ta'âlâ.) [Tabarânî]

(In the Hereafter, everybody will be with the people they loved in the world.) [Bukhârî]

(If your acts of worship were equal to those of Jabrâ'îl "alaihis-salâm," neither your acts of worship nor your good deeds would be accepted unless you love Believers for Allah's sake and unless you consider disbelievers to be evils for Allah's sake.)[Ey Oğul İlmihali]

Allahu ta'âlâ asked Hadrat Mûsâ (Moses 'alaihis-salâm):

"O Mûsâ! What have you done for Me?"

"O my Lord! I have performed namâz, fasted, given zakât, and made remembrance (dhikr)."

"O Mûsâ! The namâz you have performed is incumbent on you and a means for your attaining Paradise; the fast you have observed protects you from Hell; the zakât you have given gives you shade during the Judgement Day; and the remembrance (dhikr) you have made gives you light in the darkness of the Day of Reckoning. That is, all of them bring benefits to you alone. What have you done for me?"

"O my Lord! What should I have done for You?"

"Have you had love for My friends and have you stayed away from My enemies only for My sake?"

Thereupon, Hadrat Mûsâ understood that the best of all good deeds and worships performed for Allah was loving for the sake of Allah (hubb-i fillah) and feeling hostility (bughd-i fillah) for the sake of Him. (Maktûbât-i Ma'thûmiyya)

Allahu ta'âlâ declared to Hadrat 'Îsâ (Jesus "alaihis-salâm"): (Even if you do acts of worship that equal those done by all creatures on the earth and in heavens, it will be of no value unless you love whom I love and unless you feel hostility towards My enemies.) [Kimyâ-i sa'âdat]

Hadrat Imâm-i Rabbânî writes:

For adapting oneself to Muhammad "alaihis-salâm" completely and flawlessly, one needs to love him completely and without defect. The symptom of complete and perfect love is to bear hostility against his enemies and to dislike those who dislike him. Love cannot include sloth. The love for two opposites cannot settle in the same heart together. To love one of two opposites entails enmity towards the other. (First Volume, 165th Letter)

The symbol of true îmân's existence in the heart is to bear hostility against disbelievers and to annihilate the things that are peculiar to them and that are the symptoms of disbelief. For Islam and kufr are opposites, antonyms of each other. To esteem one of them means to insult, to blame the other. Allahu ta'âlâ commands Hadrat Muhammad, His beloved Prophet (sall-Allahu 'alaihi WA sallam), to perform jihâd, to wage war against disbelievers and to treat them severely. Allahu ta'âlâ declares that disbelievers are His and His Prophet's (sall-Allahu 'alaihi WA sallam) enemies. To love the enemies of Allahu ta'âlâ and to cooperate with them draws one towards being hostile against Allahu ta'âlâ and His Prophet. One thinks of oneself as a Muslim, expresses the word tawhîd, and says "I believe" and performs namâz and every kind of worship, but on the other hand, cooperates with disbelievers. Yet one does not know that these loathsome actions of one's (for example, not loving the friends of Allah or loving the enemies of Allah saying "They have such and such good deeds") will extirpate one's being a Muslim and îmân. (First Volume, 163rd Letter)

Hadrat Muhammad Ma'thûm writes:

Love necessitates that you love the friends of your darling and be at odds with the enemies of the darling. This love and this enmity are not within the power of faithful lovers; they cannot help themselves. This happens by itself without striving, without taking pains. The friend's friends seem beautiful, and His enemies seem ugly and evil. Also, the love that occurs within those who are seized by the pretty appearance of the world requires this same process. Unless people who say that they love keep away from the enemies of their darlings, they are not regarded as people of their word. They are called liars. Love necessitates that you love all things of the darling. Our superiors declared, "If you are not offended by the one who offends your master, a dog is better than you are." It causes one to be away from Allahu ta'âlâ if one loves the enemies of Allahu ta'âlâ. Unless there is enmity, there will be no love. Not to love disbelievers is commanded clearly in the Qur'ân al-karîm, and it is fard for us to obey the Holy Qur'ân. (First Volume, 29th Letter)

Some âyat-i karîmas making it harâm to love disbelievers purport as follows:

(Those who believe in Allahu ta'âlâ and the Day of Resurrection do not like the enemies of Allahu ta'âlâ and His Prophet, even if those disbelievers are the fathers, brothers, and other close relatives of Muslims.) [Sûrat-ul-Mujâdala 22]

(Whoever takes disbelievers for his friends has cut himself off from the friendship of Allah.) [Sûrat-u Âl-i 'Imrân 28]

(O you who believe! Do not take Jews and Christians for friends; they are friends of each other (in their animosity towards Islam). He who takes them for friends is one [a kâfir] of them. Allahu ta'âlâ does not guide the (ones who have become) unjust (to themselves by taking disbelievers for friends) people.) [Sûrat-ul-Mâida 51]

(O you who believe! Do not take My enemies and yours for friends!) [Sûrat-ul-Mumtahina 1]

Allahu ta'âlâ praises the Ashâb-i kirâm in His Book as in the following: "They are hard against disbelievers but compassionate among themselves" (Sûrat-ul-Fath 29).

It addition to them, the following is declared in hadîth-i sharîfs:

(If a person does not love Allahu ta'âlâ and does not know enemies of Allahu ta'âlâ as his enemies, his îmân will not be true. If he loves Believers for Allah's sake and knows disbelievers as enemies, he will attain the love of Allahu ta'âlâ.) [I. Ahmad]

(If a person loves Allah's friends and dislikes His enemies, his îmân will be perfect.) [Abû Dâwud]

(Become close to Allahu ta'âlâ by doing hostility towards the disobedient!) [Daylamî]

(In the Hereafter, a person will be resurrected with the people he loves and makes friends with.) [Tabarânî]

One day, some people said to Khalîfa 'Umar (radiy-Allahu ta'âlâ anh): "There is a Christian from the people of Hîra here. He has a very strong memory and beautiful handwriting. He will be very useful for you if you employ him as a secretary for yourself." He refused and said, "I cannot make friends with a non-Believer," quoting the âyat-i-karîma below.

Hadrat Abû Mûsa al-Ash'arî narrates:

One day I said to Hadrat 'Umar: "I have a Christian secretary. He is a great hand."

The Khalîfa chided me saying, "Why don't you employ a Muslim secretary? Haven't you heard the âyat 'O Believers! Do not like Jews and Christians'"?

"His religion is his and his service as a secretary is mine," I said.

Upon this, the Khalîfa retorted, "Do not honour a person degraded by Allahu ta'âlâ! Do not cherish a person scorned by Allahu ta'âlâ! Do not get close to a person repelled by Allahu ta'âlâ!"

"I am administering (official matters of) Basra with his

help," I explained.

The Khalîfa commanded, "Now do what you would do if the Christian died! Replace him immediately!"

Our religion commands us not to love disbelievers, but at the same time, Islam makes it harâm [prohibited] to harass them and hurt their feelings. In fact, disliking them and hurting them are two different things. We can conduct commerce with them, but we cannot deceive them or do any harm. It is necessary to treat them well as it is necessary to treat all people well. What is more, it is permissible to invoke du'âs upon them in order for them to find the right path and become Muslims.

In Islam, there is no superiority of one race over the other. As a matter of fact, a hadîth-i sharîf says, "All people are equal (in being a human) like the teeth of a comb" (Ibni Lâl).

For this reason, it is not permissible to deem yourself to be superior to others, be they disbelievers. For a disbeliever may become a Muslim and thus attain endless bliss. As for a Muslim on the other hand, (s)he may fall into disbelief and consequently go to Hell. May Allah protect us against being so!