28- ANIMOSITY TOWARD SCHOLARS

Teasing Islamic knowledge or Islamic scholars causes disbelief. Anyone who swears or speaks ill of a scholar (Alim) would be a disbeliever (Kafir) and an apostate (Murtad). If he commits sin (Fisk or Bidat), then it is necessary not to love him. But not loving him for worldly reasons is a sin. Not loving pious persons (Salih) is similar to the case for the scholar. In the following hadiths Rasulullah, peace be upon him, said, "Three things increase the taste of belief: loving Allahu ta'ala and His prophet more than everything else; loving a Muslim for the sake of Allahu ta'ala though he doesn't love you; and not loving enemies of Allahu ta'ala." And "The most valuable worship is loving for the sake of Allahu ta'ala 'Hubb-i fillah' and not loving for the sake of Allahu ta'ala 'Bugd-i fillah'." It is necessary to love more a believer who performs more worships than a believer who performs less worship (Ibadat). It is necessary not to love more the disbelievers who rebel more and who spread sinning (Fuhush) and disbelief. Among the ones which are necessary not to love for the sake of Allahu ta'ala, the man's own soul (Nafs) comes first. Loving means to be in their path and to be imitating their ways. The sign of belief is loving for the sake of Allahu ta'ala (Hubb-i fillah) and not loving for the sake of Allahu ta'ala (Bugd-i fillah). In the following hadiths Rasulullah, peace be upon him, said, "Allahu ta'ala has some slaves. They are not prophets. Prophets and martyrs will envy them in the day of resurrection 'Qiyamat'. They are believers who live far away from each other but they love each other for the sake of Allahu ta'ala even though they do not know each other," and "Those who love each other in the world will be together in the next world 'Akhirat'." If a person who claims to love someone but does not follow his ways or imitate him, his claim of love would not be a valid claim. One should be friends with the pious persons whom one has confidence in them for the trust and religion. Jews and Christians say that they love their prophets. But, since they are not following their path and instead following the wrong paths made up by the Jewish religious authorities (Hahams) and priests, they will not be together with their prophets in the next world. Even worse, they will go to hell. The book Could not Answer published by Hakikat Kitabevi explains subjects regarding to Jews and Christians in depth. Great spirits attract whom they love toward spiritual heights. Conversely, lower spirits attract them to lower levels. A person can understand where his spirit will go after his death by looking to his friends in the world today. A human being loves another person either because of his nature or because his reasoning (Aql) requires him to love that person or because of goodness he received from him or because of the sake of Allahu ta'ala. Spirits of the persons who love each other in the world attract each other. Similarly they will also attract each other in the next world. Anas bin Malik, may Allahu ta'ala be well pleased with him, states that no news made Muslims happier than the news reported in above said hadith. Those who love disbelievers will go to hell with them. It is not in the power of the persons not to follow the ways of whom they love. The strongest sign of one's loving someone is to love the things he likes and not to love the things he does not like.