The Fourteen Degrees of Love

DAILYREFLECTION

In the last reflection, we explored the hidden meanings of La ilaha illallah, that it isn’t only belief, but belonging. It means the One we worship is also the One we love.

But what kind of love is that?

The Arabs were masters of language, and when they spoke about love, they didn’t use just one word. They described fourteen degrees of love, each one deeper, heavier, and more consuming than the last.

The first is hawa, a passing attraction, a pull of the eyes more than the heart. It’s light, fleeting, like a spark that burns out. Then come words like wijd, when love begins to ache with longing, and shawq, when the distance feels heavy on the chest.
There is ’ishq, the love you try to hide but can’t, because it shows on your face. There is tatayyum, a love that humbles you completely, where you can’t imagine yourself apart from the one you love.

And then, at the very end, they spoke of two final stages.

The last and most dangerous is al-yahm. It is love that consumes until a person loses themselves completely. It’s like a camel wandering the desert in madness, dying of thirst while searching for water that isn’t there. It takes a few steps in one direction, then a few in another, lost and desperate, so consumed by its need that it has lost its grip on reality. Love that becomes self-annihilation.

But just before that lies the most beautiful and healthy form of love: al-walah.

Al-walah is love so pure and overwhelming that even in pain, you feel no pain. Even when the world empties around you, this love fills you. It satisfies every hunger and heals every ache. It’s the kind of love that becomes your nourishment.

And that, they said, is the highest degree of love a human being can feel without losing themselves.

When Allah calls Himself Ilah, He is not just saying, “I am the One to be worshiped.”
He is also saying: I am the One who loves you with the purest love and the One worthy of being loved in return with that same fullness.

This is the depth of Allah’s love for you. Al-walah represents the most complete form of love the human heart can comprehend, and it is the closest mirror we have to understand the love Allah has for His creation.

Think of a mother holding her newborn even after enduring the greatest physical pain a human can bear. The moment she cradles that child, all the pain is forgotten. Her body still aches, but her heart overflows with a love so intense that it silences every nerve. That is al-walah. That is the closest we come to understanding the kind of love Allah has for us, a love that overwhelms, that forgives, that fills every emptiness until the soul rests.

Every act of mercy in this world, every heartbeat of love between parent and child, friend and friend, husband and wife, is only a small reflection of the divine love that never ends.

REFLECT ON THIS:

What would it mean for us to love Allah not out of fear or duty, but with the fullness of al-walah, love that nourishes, humbles, and heals?

^{Share your reflections in the poll at the end of the email.}

WATERMELONWATCH

• UN WFP says approximately 560 tonnes of food are entering the Gaza Strip each day, yet deliveries to the famine-ravaged north remain critically insufficient due to damaged infrastructure and closed crossings.

• Israel identifies the remains of the 76-year-old hostage Eliyahu Margalit, the 10th body returned under the cease-fire deal, while nine Palestinians were killed in Gaza City amid ceasefire violations.

• Planning is underway for a multinational stabilisation force in Gaza, with Egypt expected to lead and international donors preparing a major reconstruction conference for November.

• Access at the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt remains closed; the reopening is pivotal for humanitarian aid and movement, but questions remain over control and timing.

• OCHA and other UN agencies warn that despite the cease-fire, aid flows are severely constrained, hospitals remain largely non-functional, and children are suffering from malnutrition while recovery efforts lag.

QURANCORNER

Each day, you’ll be introduced to one of the 300 most common Qur’anic words. The Qur’an has about 77,430 words in total, all built on just 2,000 root words. By learning these frequently recurring ones, you’ll recognize 70–80% of the Qur’an’s vocabulary and begin connecting more deeply as you read.

Lā (لَا) - No / Not

Lā is the word of rejection, but in the Qur’an, it becomes a word of liberation. In Lā ilāha illā Allāh, it breaks every false tie, every unworthy object of worship. Lā clears the heart before it fills it. It teaches us that saying no to ego, to idols, to illusion is the first step to saying yes to the truth.