Love in the Holy Qur'an

by Ghazi bin Muhammad

Overview

Love in the Holy Qur'an is the first work to discuss all aspects of love from the perspective of the Holy Qur'an. The author treats in a simple and accessible style, with reader-friendly and teaching-friendly features, not only of love of God and love of the neighbour, but also of family love; friendship; the stages of falling in love; sexual love; extra-marital love; beauty; taste and much more—all based entirely on the Holy Qur'an. At least one verse from every chapter—and over one fifth of the total text of the Holy Qur'an—is cited. Love in the Holy Qur'an is written and structured both to be read in its totality or as individual 'stand-alone' chapters to be sampled at will. This work is thus essential reading not only for Muslims and those interested in Islam and the Holy Qur'an, but for all those interested in the secrets and mysteries of love as such. This new edition contains a number of expanded discussions on love and mercy and suggests other types of love not mentioned in previous editions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781911141419
Publisher:	Islamic Texts Society
Publication date:	09/01/2019
Edition description:	None
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	6.25(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

H.R.H. Prince Ghazi of Jordan is a Professor of Islamic Philosophy, and is well known as an interfaith activist and author. He obtained his BA from Princeton University in 1988 Summa cum laude; his first PhD from Cambridge University, U.K., in 1993, and his second PhD from Al-Azhar University in Cairo. In 1997 he founded the National Park of the Site of the Baptism of Jesus Christ; in 2001 he established the Great Tafsir Project (www.Altafsir.com), the largest online project for exegesis of the Holy Qur'an, and in 2008 he founded the World Islamic Sciences and Education University. He was the author of 'Three Articles of the Amman Message' in 2005; the author of the historic open letter 'A Common Word Between Us and You' in 2007, and the author of the World Interfaith Harmony Week United Nations General Assembly Resolution in October 2010.

Read an Excerpt

We ourselves believe, however—and hope to demonstrate over the course of this work—that God's Book contains not only all forms of religious knowledge but all the principles of the sciences of philosophy as well. This is one of the wondrous and miraculous features of the Holy Qur'an. Moreover, just as the Holy Qur'an contains linguistic and rhetorical miracles—and perhaps scientific miracles as well—it also contains philosophical miracles (that is to say, it miraculously contains all the answers to the great questions of philosophy). This perhaps explains the Qur'an's challenges as regards its own uniqueness and inimitability...


   Hence our first goal in this work is to show that everything that can be said in truth about love is contained in the Holy Qur'an, in detail and not only in a general way. We will therefore limit ourselves in this work to the subject of love in the Qur'an alone, and not love according to the Hadith (sayings of the Messenger of God), the Sunnah (the example of the Messenger of God), or the wisdom of Islamic scholars, philosophers, and mystics...


Our second goal is to summarise all that has been said before by others about love in the Holy Qur'an in a single volume. We also hope to add—God willing, and in so far as we are able—some of the secrets of love; secrets that have been known in the past but have not been collected, as far as we know, in a single source, focusing on the topic of love in the Holy Qur'an. It is worth mentioning that in the past when certain Islamic philosophers discussed love, they did not cite even a single verse of the Qur'an. These include—regrettably—Ibn Sina (Avicenna) in his Treatise on Love. Other Muslim scholars, such as Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali in his Ihya 'ulum al-din (in Chapter 36 on 'Love, Desire, Familiarity and Pleasure'), Muhyi al-Din ibn Arabi (in his Al-Futuhat al-makkiyyah, section 178, 'Epistle on Love'), and Ibn Hazm (in Tawq al-hamamah), frequently cited the Qur'an and Hadith together or sometimes the Qur'an alone or sometimes the Hadith alone in the same work. However, our intention here God willing is to give a complete explanation of love using the Qur'an as our only reference and systematically making it the foundation and logical proof of every single point we make. That is not to say, however, that we do not cite Hadith herein—we do frequently—but when we do so, we do it only to further strengthen and clarify the points we make.

Table of Contents

Epigraph
Dedication
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Foreword by Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Introductory Chapters
   Chapter 1: Prologue: The Goals and Methodology of this Work
   Chapter 2: Introduction: The Secret of Love
   Chapter 3: The Definition of Love
Part One: Divine Love
   Chapter 4: God and Love
   Chapter 5: Love is the Root of Creation
   Chapter 6: The Universe and Love
   Chapter 7: God's Love for Humanity
   Chapter 8: God's Love for His Messengers and Prophets
   Chapter 9: Those whom God does not Love
Part Two: The Messenger of God's Love
   Chapter 10: The Messenger of God's Love for God
   Chapter 11: The Messenger of God's Love for the Believers
Part Three: Human Love
   Chapter 12: Humanity's Love for God
   Chapter 13: The Believer's Love for the Messenger of God
   Chapter 14: Love for the Family and Kin of the Messenger of God
   Chapter 15: The Effects of the Love of God on Human Beings
   Chapter 16: Family Love
   Chapter 17: Love of Others (All Humanity; the 'People of the Scripture'; Believers, and Friends)
   Chapter 18: Conjugal and Sexual Love
   Chapter 19: Love and Extra-Marital Sex
   Chapter 20: Love and the Eyes
Part Four: Love
   Chapter 21: The Different Kinds of Love
   Chapter 22: The Stages of Love
   Chapter 23: Falling in Love
   Chapter 24: The Growth of Love
   Chapter 25: The Two Circles of Love
   Chapter 26: The Triangle of Love
   Chapter 27: The Hierarchies of Beauty and of Love
   Chapter 28: The Opposites of Beauty and of Love
   Chapter 29: The End of Love
   Chapter 30: The Nature of Love
   Chapter 31: Love and Happiness
   Chapter 32: Love and Beauty in Paradise
Part Five: The Beloved
   Chapter 33: Beauty and its Components
   Chapter 34: Taste
   Chapter 35: The Nature of Beauty
   Chapter 36: Love and Death
   Chapter 37: The Meeting with God and Beatitude
   Chapter 38: The True Intended Object behind All Love
Summary
   Chapter 39: Conclusion
   Chapter 40: Synopsis
Notes
Bibliography: (A) The Holy Qur'an
   (B) Primary sources in Arabic
   (C) Secondary sources in Arabic
   (D) Primary sources on love in English and French
   (E) Secondary sources on love in English and French
Index of Qur'anic Verses Cited by Chapter
Index of Qur'anic Verses Cited by Qur'anic Chapter
Index of Prophetic Hadiths Cited by Chapter
Alphabetical Index of Prophetic Hadiths Cited
General Index
Postscript
Reviews of the English Edition
Reviews of the Arabic Edition

Editorial Reviews

'Love in the Holy Qur'an is bound to become a classic.'

Tamara Sonn

'Prince Ghazi has produced a definitive study of love in the Qur'an.'

Professor David F. Ford

'A masterwork of scholarship and of inspiration.'

H.E. Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick

'What the world should understand when it hears the Qur'an.'

Sheikh Ali Gomaa