God's will of love is expressed in Quran it is in perfect harmony and consistence with His set laws, ethics and systems and with all of His attributes. God has precisely used the word "love" in Quran along with twenty two of its different Arabic derivatives to teach us that love is a logical and realistic feeling that conforms with our God-given gift of freedom (18:29, 2:148, 33:72). Because of our freedom of choice, we are to prefer certain things, people, morals, ideologies, talents, etc. In other words, favoring, liking, loving, preferring and making certain choices, all of that demonstrate our God-given freedom.

Our Creator has expressed for us that He, too, has His own preferences. He has cited for us His favorite traits and detailed for us who exactly is worthy of earning His love or His condemnation. Within Quran, God has stated who He loves or abhors, what He likes or dislikes.

The divine plan behind this is to set for us the basic guidelines for an ideal and righteous community and to help us realize what constitutes evil and what leads to corruption. Also, by stating what He loves and what He doesn't, who is worthy of His love and who is deserving His wrath, God has made it explicit that His will of love is based on condition; God's will of love is conditional and has its rules. By our own volition, we end up either close to or favored by God (in the bliss of Paradise), or far from Him (in Gehenna). We either follow His criteria of love or face the consequences of our own man-made criteria of love. This system is clearly spelled out in the following verses:

It is a myth and utterly illogical to believe that God has ever sent messages through any of His messengers, humans, scriptures or angels, to promote unconditional love. That flawed ideology would imply loving everything and every being including whatever and whoever God has decreed He abhors. God doesn't love His enemies and He sets for us the highest example of all traits (16:60). True believers love what God loves and disown what He disowns and abhors. We have been issued straightforward rules to deal with enemies of God. There is no general rule in Quran to love everyone or be kind to everyone or turn the other cheek for our enemies (9:123, 9:73, 5:54). Unconditional love is a man-made standard that goes against commonsense and ironically against the human nature. More important, it opposes certain ethics and commands in Quran and it doesn't follow the highest, most superior example of love set by the Almighty. It is a flawed, human wish to promote that God has ever advocated unconditional love.

Hypothetically, if God's love was unconditional, this would defeat the whole purpose of our existence on earth - the final chance to choose Him over Satan.. His love would serve as a permission to violate His established laws. There would be no straight or crooked path, no point behind any ethics or commands, because God's "unconditional love" would be awaiting at the end of the road to save us all. This is a myth about God that is based on conjecture and/or lack of knowledge.

We are obligated as believers and submitters to carefully study the boundaries set for us in Quran in order to pursue love in a safe and constructive manner - the manner that would please God alone within His guidelines to earn His love and compassion:

- God loves those who repent after they make a wrong choice and transgress His limits (2:222). He rewards them by transforming their sins into credit ( 25:70).

- God loves those who purify themselves (9:108, 20:76).

- God abhors the trait of arguing about Him without basis, or knowledge or divine teachings (40:35, 22:8-10).

- He loves the good doers (3:148) and he dislikes the evil doers (5:64). He loves the righteous (3:76), and righteousness is defined only by God through His teachings and commands in the scripture (2:189).

- God advocates justice and loves those who are just (49:9) and equitable (5:42). He doesn't love the unjust (3:57).

- He loves the steadfast (3:146) and He loves those who put their trust in Him (3:159).

- He doesn't love those who are arrogant (16:23, 4:36, 31:18) nor does He love those who are boastful, proud (57:23).

- God loves the charitable (2:195) and doesn't love the transgressors (7:55, 5:87), the corrupt (28:77), the betrayers or the unappreciative (4:107, 22:38).

- He has assigned Hell for His enemies (41:19, 41:28) and called them the worst creatures (8:55, 98:6). He doesn't love those who extend love to them or take them as allies while they are actively fighting God and His Truth (60:1, 58:22, 9:16).

- He does not love the wasters (6:141) and doesn't love the gluttons (7:31) or the extravagant (17:26-27).

- God loves those who strive in His cause (61:4), with no fear of any blame (5:54), united on His word (3:103).

In the light of Quran, we learn that God's love for us is always a consequence of our choice of loving Him the most and upholding His commands. He is in no need of our love. We are the desperate ones who need to earn His approval. This, in return, leads to earning our redemption and His support:

This temporary phase on earth is so short. May God help us to always remember that the end of our lives is like a blink of an eye and our only chance of redemption could end unexpectedly at any moment. Then, those who have not wasted their chance of earning God's love will surely be His favored ones. Those are the ultimate winners

Peaceful Friday, salaam and God bless.