Ishq – Extreme Fervent Love
Compiled & Translated
By
Abbas Abu Yahya
Shaykh ul-Islaam Ahmad bin AbdulHaleem Ibn Taymeeyah (d.728 A.H.) -Rahimullaah-said:
‘Ishq[1] is an extreme love which exceeds necessary bounds.’[2]
Ibn Qayyim aj-Jawzeeyah (d.751 A.H.) -Rahimullaah-said:
‘al-Ishq is an excessive love, where by one fears for the person who is excessive in his love.’[3]
Ibn Taymeeyah (d.728 A.H.) -Rahimullaah-said:
‘Majority of the scholars do not completely apply this word[4] in respect to Allaah. This is because al-Ishq is an extreme love, which exceeds necessary bounds, and Allaah’s love has no limitations, so it does not end at a level of which it is necessary to not go beyond. These scholars have said al-Ishq is criticised and disliked completely, it is not praised, not in love for the creator or for the creation, because it is an excessive love which goes beyond the bounds of being praiseworthy.
Also, the word ‘Ishq’ is customarily used for a man loving a woman or a young child, it is not used for love like loving ones family, wealth, ones country, status, love of Prophets and righteous people. Since Ishq is also mainly linked with prohibited actions, either with loving a woman one is not married to, or a young child, and al-Ishq is mainly linked to looking at something prohibited, or touching something which is prohibited, as well as other prohibited actions.’[5]
Ibn Taymeeyah (d.728 A.H.) -Rahimullaah-said:
‘Ishq is a psychological disease and if its effect is strengthened against the body, then the sickness in the body becomes either mental illnesses and that is why it is a sickness of whisperings, or physical illnesses of the body like a weakness and anorexia etc.’[6]
Shaykh ul-Islaam Ibn Taymeeyah (d.728 A.H.) -Rahimullaah-said:
‘Having Ishq for a woman [whom a person is not connected to] has so much corruption which no one can enumerate except the Lord of the worshippers. It is from the illnesses which corrupt the Deen of the one who has this illness. Then it can corrupt his intellect, and after that his body.’[7]
Shaykh ul-Islaam Ibn Taymeeyah -Rahimullaah-said:
‘If a man’s heart becomes attached to a woman, even though she is permissible for him, then his heart becomes a prisoner for her. She controls it and manipulates it the way she wants.
From what is apparent he is her master, because he is her husband, whereas in reality he is her prisoner and her slave, especially if he is in great want of her, and had excessive love for her. Then here she controls him like an overwhelming oppressive master controls his subjugated slave from whom he cannot end with, rather it is greater than this, indeed imprisonment of the heart is greater than imprisonment of the body, and enslavement of the heart is greater than the enslavement of the body.’[8]
Ibn Taymeeyah (d.728 A.H.) -Rahimullaah-said:
‘If the heart has love for Allaah Alone taking the Deen sincerely for Allaah, then fundamentally it is not trialled with love for other than Allaah, more so than being trialled with Ishq.
Whereby if a person is trialled with Ishq then indeed his love for Allaah alone was deficient. This is why as Yusuf loved Allaah and took the Deen sincerely for Allaah, he was not trialled by it. Rather Allaah Ta’ala said:
كَذَٰلِكَ لِنَصۡرِفَ عَنۡهُ ٱلسُّوٓءَ وَٱلۡفَحۡشَآءَۚ إِنَّهُۥ مِنۡ عِبَادِنَا ٱلۡمُخۡلَصِينَ
<<Thus it was, that We might turn away from him evil and illegal intercourse. Surely, he was one of Our chosen, guided slaves.>> [Yusuf: 24]
As for the wife of Aziz she was a Mushrika (female polytheist), her and her people, and that is why she was trialled with Ishq.’[9]
A Fabricated Hadeeth about Ishq
The Fabricated Hadeeth:
‘Who ever had Ishq, hid it, abstained and died then he is a martyr.’
Mawdoo – fabricated
Shaykh Albaani commented after researching the hadeeth saying:
‘Indeed the ‘Allaama Ibn al-Qayyim rejected this Hadeeth due to its meaning and also due to the ruling of it being fabricated. He brilliantly clarified this in his book ‘Zad al-Ma’ad’ where he said:
‘Do not be deceived by the fabricated Hadeeth upon the Messenger of Allaah – sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam‘
Then Ibn al-Qayyim researched this Hadeeth from two chains then he said:
‘Indeed this Hadeeth is not authentically reported from the Messenger of Allaah – sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam – and it is not permissible for it to be from his speech, since indeed martyrdom has a very high status to Allaah, which is connected to the status of truthfulness. It has actions and situations which are conditions for achieving martyrdom and they are of two types, general and specific.
Specific martyrdom is martyrdom in the path of Allaah and the general are the five mentioned in the Saheeh of Bukhari and al-Ishq is not one from them.
How can having Ishq acquire the status of martyrdom when it is committing Shirk in loving Allaah and it is emptying the heart from loving Allaah and that the heart, soul and love are possessed for other than Allaah!? This is impossible, indeed evil corruption for the heart of the one who has Ishq of pictures is above all evil corruption, rather it is an intoxicant of the soul which makes it intoxicated and averts it from the remembrance of Allaah and loving Him, and the delight and sweetness of calling unto Him and to come close to Allaah.
Ishq obligates servitude of the heart to other than Allaah, since the heart of the one who has Ishq worships the one whom he has Ishq for, rather Ishq is the core of servitude, since it is complete humility and love and submission and regarding as great.
So how can a heart have servitude for other than Allaah, that great servitude which the status the best of the Muwahiddeen (those who worship Allaah Alone) and their foremost and the best of the Awaliyah (those close to Allaah) can achieve?!
If the Isnaad of this Hadeeth was clear like the sun then still it would be wrong and presumptuous, and there is no correct recorded wording what so ever of Ishq from the authentic Hadeeth from the Messenger of Allaah – sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam.
Indeed from Ishq there is that which is permissible and that which is prohibited, so how can one think that the Prophet – sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam – would give a verdict upon every person who has Ishq hides it and abstains from it that he is a martyr?!
How can it be that a person has Ishq for someone else’s wife or has Ishq for a young child or a prostitute and that due to his Ishq he will achieve the status of martyrs! ?
Is this not something which is known to oppose that which is known about the Deen of the Prophet – sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam?
How can it be since Ishq is an illness from the illnesses for which Allaah -Subhanahu- placed treatment for it from the Sharia and an amount for it, seeking treatment from Ishq is either obligatory if the Ishq is the prohibited type or treatment is recommended.
If you reflect upon the illnesses and those things which affect a person for which the Messenger of Allaah – sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam – gave a verdict that the person who has that illness achieved martyrdom then you will find that it is for those illnesses which have no cure for them. For example, the plague, stomach illness, mental illness, death by fire, drowning also from them is a woman who is killed by the child in her stomach.
Indeed this affliction is from Allaah, the slave of Allaah plays no part in this, and it had no cure and the reasons for these types of martyrdom are not prohibited ways, and as a consequence there is no evil corruption upon the heart or worship of other than Allaah as is a consequence of al-Ishq.
If this is not sufficient invalidating the ascription of this Hadeeth to the Messenger of Allaah – sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam, then you should blindly follow the scholars of Hadeeth those who have knowledge of it and its defects. This Hadeeth has not been authentically preserved from not even one Imam from amongst them ever, that he testified that this Hadeeth is authentic, not even regarded as Hasan, how can it be when the Imams criticised Sawayd (a narrator) about this Hadeeth and they accused him due to this Hadeeth with terrible things and some of them allowed a war to be waged against him due to this Hadeeth.’ this is the end of Ibn al-Qayyim’s speech.
A summary of this is that the Hadeeth is Da’eef Isnaad and its text is fabricated as is declared likewise by Ibn al-Qayyim in the two previous sources and also in the book ‘al-Manar’ by Ibn al-Qayyim and also in ‘Rowdatul Muhibbeen’, and Allaah knows best.’[10]
The Cure for Ishq
Ibn Qayyim aj-Jawzeeyah (d.751 A.H.) -Rahimullaah-said:
‘If Ishq occurs but not in a prohibited way, then a person is not blamed for it. Like the one who has Ishq for his wife or his slave girl but then separates from her but Ishq for her remains and it does not separate from him, then this person is not blamed for it.
Likewise if the man took an unexpected glance but he turned away from looking, however, Ishq indeed had caught a hold of his heart involuntarily except that it is upon him to repel it and turn it away.’[11]
Ibn Taymeeyah (d.728 A.H.) -Rahimullaah-said:
‘If he is trialled with Ishq and desisted, and was patient then he is rewarded for his having Taqwa of Allaah. Since it is known with Sharia evidence that if a person desisted from prohibitions, looking at them, statements and actions, and he kept them secret and did not speak about them, so much so that there is no prohibited speech which is, either complaining to the creation, or doing an evil deed or fulfilling a request for the beloved one, and being patient upon obedience to Allaah and keeping away from sinning against Allaah. Also being patient upon what is in his heart from the pain of Ishq just like an afflicted person is patient upon the pain of the affliction. This is done by he who feared Allaah and had patience.
إِنَّهُۥ مَن يَتَّقِ وَيَصۡبِرۡ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يُضِيعُ أَجۡرَ ٱلۡمُحۡسِنِينَ
<< Verily, he who fears Allaah with obedience to Him (by abstaining from sins and evil deeds, and by performing righteous good deeds), and is patient, then surely, Allaah makes not the reward of the Muhsinoon (good-doers) to be lost. >> [Surat Yusuf: 90][12]
All Praise belongs to Allaah, may His peace
and blessings be upon our final
Prophet Muhammad, his
family, his companions
and all those who
follow his
[1] T.N. Some of the ignorant Muslims apply this word in their false claim of loving the Messenger of Allaah –sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam, whereas in reality they do not follow him -sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam. Allaah Ta’ala said: << Say: ‘If you (really) love Allaah then follow me >> [Al-Imraan: 31]
[2][Majmoo fatawa 10/ 131]
[3][Mudarij 3/30 ]
[4] T.N. The word Ishq is not in the Qur’aan or the Ahadeeth.
[5] [Majmoo fatawa10/131 naboowaat 137]
[6][Fatawa 10/129]
[7][ Fatawa 10/132]
[8][Fatawa 10/185]
[9][ Fatawa 10 / 135]
[10][Taken from: Silsilah Da’eefah 409]
[11][Rowdatul Muhibbeen p.147]
[12][Fatawa 10 / 133]