'Umar ibn al-Khattab said, 'Do not let your love be a total infatuation. Do not letyour anger be destruction.' I asked, 'How is that?' He replied, 'When you love, you are infatuated like a child. When you hate, you desire destruction for your companion.'"
(Al Adab Al Mufrad)
Love is having affection and hating is its opposite.
A person may love another for their wealth, or beauty, or honour or lineage, or for personal gain, or for a worldly desire or fleeting aim. All of these reasons are detestable in Islaam, which has laid down the reasons for loving and hating ;
The Deen.
Therefore the Muslim does not love a person except for the correctness of his Deen, and does not hate a person except for the corruption of his Deen.
He صلى الله عليه وسلم said:
"There are three characteristics whoever has them will find the sweetness of eemaan: That Allaah and His Messenger are more beloved to him than all else; that he loves a person and does not love him except for Allaah; and that he would hate to revert to unbelief just as he would hate to be thrown into the fire."
(Al-Bukhari & Muslim)
Therefore the Muslim loves the Prophets, the righteous ones loved by Allaah, the sincere followers of the Prophets, the martyrs and the pious - since they carry out that which Allaah loves, so he loves them for Allaah and this is from the completion of his love for Allaah since loving the beloved of the one that you love is from the completion of love for the one that you love. Further, he hates the unbelievers, the hypocrites and the people of innovation and sin, since they do that which Allaah hates them for Allaah.
So whoever does this has loved Allaah and hated for Allaah and Allaah is sufficient for him and is the most excellent Protector.
Know that loving for allaah and hating for allaah is not the same as alliance (walaa') with the believers and separating oneself (baraa') from the polytheists (mushriks) but rather it differs in that:
(a) Alliance and separation (al-walaa' 'wal baraa') is the foundation and loving and hating is a matter from its completion.
(b) Loving and hating necessarily follows on from alliance and separation - and not the opposite.
