Ashraf Schneider – Love of God – Part 2

			As Salam alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh, Peace, blessings and mercy be upon you all. Welcome
back to my page. In part one on this latest series of videos, we started exploring the notion of
God's love. What love is how God expects us to show our love of Him, and how he in turn, shows us
his love in our daily lives. We established that worshiping God in mind, body and spirit, as opposed
to just in speech is the highest expression of our love for Him. And that there are three main
reasons that you compel us all to worship our Lord with all our heart, soul, strength and mind. In
today's video, we'll be exploring those three reasons in detail, to get to the bottom of obligations
		

			to the creator of all mankind. Let's get into it. The first reason we should feel compelled to
worship the Lord with all our mind, body and spirit is God's nature. God by definition, is the one
who is entitled to our worship, it is a necessary fact of his own existence. We praise people all
the time by virtue of their attributes, even though they may not directly benefit us in any way.
Consider our applause or admiration for sports stars, artists and scientists. However, unlike
humans, Gods names and attributes are perfect. This means that God is worthy of our utmost praise
and recognition. God is the one we should be in awe of, and it is his greatness that you capture our
		

			attention. It is important to note that worshiping God is his divine right? His grace is not like a
vending machine that spits out love or favors in return for our worship. Rather, we worship God
because of who he is, and not based on how he distributes his blessings. Because there is none
worthy of worship except in the ever loving, all sustaining. The second reason we should feel
compelled to worship God in mind, body and spirit is His blessings, all the good in our lives, we
owe it to him, and the blessings He bestows upon us, we should be eternally grateful to God, because
we could never thank him enough for all that He has given us. We aren't even aware of all don't even
		

			notice all the blessings He bestows upon us on a day to day basis. So no amount of gratitude on our
part could ever be enough. Every single good thing we have in our lives, every single thing we hold
dear to our hearts is from him from our ability to breathe, to the loved ones he created and placed
within our lives. Let's reflect on the manifestation of just one of these blessings, our lives as
sustained by the human heart. The human heart beats around 100,000 times a day, every single
heartbeat is precious to us, any one of us would sacrifice a mountain of gold just to ensure that
our hearts or the hearts of our loved ones would keep eating, and keep functioning properly so as to
		

			keep us alive. But sometimes there's nothing we can do to make a diseased or broken heart keep
beating. Surely, then we must be grateful to God for each beat that keeps us and our loved ones
alive. From this perspective. Any good thing we have in our lives, in addition to a heartbeat is a
bonus. Imagine the tremendous gratitude we should be expressing for all the other blessings God has
given us. The fact of the matter is, our gratitude will continue to fall short of God's goodness. So
we should feel compelled to worship God in mind, body and spirit. As we know that even by doing so,
we all fall short of what he deserves. In the Quran, chapter 16 Verse 78, we find it is God who
		

			brought you out of your mother's womb, knowing nothing, and gave you hearing and sight and hearts so
that you might be thankful. We were created and blessed by God as he sought to equip us to express
gratitude to him. And so we must. The third reason we should be worshiping God in everything we do
is our sheer dependency on him. God has created everything. He continually sustains the entire
cosmos and provides for us out of His Bounty. Without God, we can do nothing. But without us the
glory, goodness and eternity of God remains unchanged. We need God but he does not need us, which is
all the more reason to worship him and express our gratitude for his provision. In the Quran,
		

			chapter 35 Verse 15, for example, it states, oh mankind, it is used and in need of God. God needs
nothing and is worthy of all praise. Since God created us our very existence is solely dependent
upon him. We are not self sufficient, even if some of us are deluded enough to think that we are
whether we live a life of luxury and ease or one of poverty and hardship. We are ultimately
dependent on God to provide to quote George Monbiot.
		

			To evolve was the inevitable result of hard work and enterprise, every woman in Africa would be a
millionaire. But obviously, we know this is not the case is some of us God tests with access, and
some of us he tests with poverty, and yet neither luxury, no deprivation are guaranteed to last
forever. It is all in the will of God and he provides as and when, and for whom he sees fit.
Therefore, understanding the ultimate dependency on that should evoke an immense sense of gratitude
and humility in our hearts, humbling ourselves before God and thanking him is a form of worship. The
fact of the matter is, one day we will be held accountable for our lives and act here on Earth. When
		

			we meet the Creator, we will all wish we could return to life or even a moment in order to do one
more good deed or worship God for one more minute to express our gratitude, but by then it will be
too late. So lead love of God, and have your fellow man guide everything you do in this life.
Because life is too short to be distracted by things other than seeking the love of God. Let us live
our lives in pursuit of God and His love. So that as Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon
him said, God may love to meet us, just as we would love to meet him. Let us then humble our hearts
and genuinely seek guidance from God. This is certainly the surest path to his love and to eternal
		

			success. God Himself states that He is the Most Merciful and that those who believe worshiping and
do good will be blessed with his love. We should be eternally grateful to God, and worship Him not
only for the three reasons outlined above, but for showing us the exact path to follow to get to his
love. He sent us a whole litany of prophets and messengers through the ages to show us exactly which
path we should follow in order to have a meaningful relationship with Him. These include Adam, Noah,
Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and the final messenger, Muhammad, peace be upon them all. They are gods to
loving God. And we should see to follow the example. The key to following in the footsteps of the
		

			prophets is then to live a life in worship of servitude and humility to God, the greatest sign of
our love for Him lies then in all we say and do and we will be held accountable for it all. Loving
God cannot just be a statement. It must be proven and expressed in how we act and who we become. May
God guide us all to becoming the best possible versions of ourselves. Until next time, to Zakah