2:165 Yet, some people set up idols to rival GOD, and love them as if they are GOD. Those who believe love GOD the most. If only the transgressors could see themselves when they see the retribution! They will realize then that all power belongs to GOD alone, and that GOD’s retribution is awesome.
2:166 Those who were followed will disown those who followed them.* They will see the retribution, and all ties among them will be severed.
Footnote: *2:165-166 Jesus, Mary, Muhammad, Ali, and the saints will disown their idolizers on the Day of Resurrection. See also 16:86, , , and the Gospel of Matthew 7:21-23.
God gives us everything we have and everything else good comes from God.
When we love our threshold for pleasure release in our brains is reduced, allowing us to get joy from simple everyday interactions. When we love God our ability to love everything else more increases including our ability to love our family, job, life, surroundings etc. People who don’t love God will not find as much joy in everyday life and will go out searching for love to fill the void becoming numb to the world around them.
This is similar to people who have a lot of wealth. When we have little wealth we take pleasure in simpler things. When people have a lot of wealth their threshold for joy is increased as they take more and more for granted.
We should love God the most, because it was out of His mercy that we were given another chance to be redeemed. When all the other creatures thought we should be banished to hell, God saved us because he saw a tiny bit of goodness in some of us.
[ 19:96] Surely, those who believe and lead a righteous life, the Most Gracious will shower them with love.
74:56 They cannot take heed against GOD’s will. He is the source of righteousness; He is the source of forgiveness.
Moses rushed to God because he loves God the most. His vision has sharpened. He knows that there is nothing more important that rushing to God.
20:84 He said, “They are close behind me. I have rushed to You my Lord, that You may be pleased.”
It is similar to when it is time for the Contact Prayer and some people rush to get it done. And for Friday Prayer God tells us to drop all business and rush to the commemoration of God.
Important Commandments to All Believers
62:9 O you who believe, when the Congregational Prayer (Salat Al-Jumu`ah) is announced on Friday, you shall hasten to the commemoration of GOD, and drop all business. This is better for you, if you only knew.
Pleasing God indicates that we love God the most. At the end of our day how can we measure if we love God the most?
It starts from the first thing we say in the morning when we praise God the moment we wake up. Our mission every day is to get closer to God. We should ask ourselves if I took the defeated side of an argument, was I kind, did I forgive. There are so many wonderful ways that we can earn credit. We need to be extraordinary in our submission. We should hold ourselves to a higher standard.
Love is more than just carrying through the actions. Someone can obey another, but not necessarily love that person.
When you are not willing to compromise God’s laws for anything is a sign that you love God the most
The Contact Prayers can serve as our barometer for Submission. Five times a day we spend two minutes to remember God. If we can’t spend those few minutes to be 100% focused on God then it is probably a sign that we are not thinking about God the majority of our day and if we aren’t thinking about God the majority of our day then it is a sign that we may not love God the most.
20:14 “I am GOD; there is no other god beside Me. You shall worship Me alone, and observe the Contact Prayers (Salat) to remember Me.
Van Halen used to have a clause in his contract that in his dressing room their would be a bowl of M&Ms with all the brown M&Ms taken out. The reason he did this was that their concert setup was very complicated and to ensure that the event coordinators have thoroughly followed the guidelines of the contract he could go back stage and check to see if there were any brown M&Ms in his dressing room and if there were he would know that they did not read the contract and then know that they will need to go through the setup line item by line item.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IxqdAgNJck
Similarly God allows us to use the Contact Prayers as our barometer to confirm if we are meeting our duties in Submission. If we can’t remember God during the few minutes a day we are doing our Contact Prayer then it may be beneficial to review our priorities line item by line item.