As salaam alaikum Reader,

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I pray this message finds you well…loving well and well loved. It’s the month of the birth of the beloved of Allah, and so, love is on the hearts and minds of lovers the world over.
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I mentioned previously about my problem with the adage of ‘Self-Love’ ie ‘Love of Self’ and I wanted to tell you a symptom of this plague… and that is the sad state of Love Lost.
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You see, because contrary to what we’ve been told, the more you focus on loving yourself the less space, heart, energy, time or love you have for anyone else. So whereas participating in the flow of the reality of love by giving and being open to receiving, namely from God Himself and to Him by serving and seeing His manifestations in His creation, creates an increased capacity for love and becomes a connecting factor which only increases the depth and complexity of love, focusing disproportionately on loving oneself limits your own hearts capacity to actually experience the penetrating dynamics of divine love.

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If we look at the life of our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon Him) we should first start with love. That Allah loves His Prophet (pbuh) is unquestionable, so whatever you see in His life, know that it was placed there out of love. And when we look at the life of His beloved (pbuh), we see a life spent outwardly serving and connecting with people, and inwardly always with the object of his devotion, God Himself. It is that love of God, truth (al-Haqq), goodness and the source of goodness (al-Barr) that fueled his ability to love so deeply and connect so profoundly with those around him. It is through service as a mercy to all of the creation, that to this day, more than 1400 years later, praises and endless love are flowing in his direction. By that love countless individuals, communities and nations have been knit together through time, space, and distance. This is what true love can do.

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We live in an age where we are told we should snatch back the love our hearts desperately want and need to pour onto and into others for self-preservation, mental health, inner peace, etc...but in this month of the beloved I invite us all to give more, love more, serve more and trust more in the promise of Allah that whatever we give for His sake will never be lost and will always come back manifold.

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The love of and for God and what He loves is the true sustenance. May Allah increase us in love for Him, His beloved (pbuh), His book, those acts and deeds that He loves, and may He make us among His beloveds in this world and the next.

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Wa salaam alaikum

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Also...

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