Ch 16 — Submission to God

Badges mark quoted or attributed material (Qur'an, hadith, another author, an opposing view). Unbadged passages are Maulana Wahiduddin Khan's own words.

Contents (44 chapters)

1. Foreword
2. Ch 1 — The Majesty of God in the Vast Universe
3. Ch 2 — The Consciousness in Human Nature of God's Existence
4. Ch 3 — The Omnipotent God and Helpless Man
5. Ch 4 — Glorification of God
6. Ch 5 — Consciousness in Nature
7. Ch 6 — Limitless Majesty of God
8. Ch 7 — Relationship with God
9. Ch 8 — Two Aspects of God-Realization
10. Ch 9 — The Importance of the Fear of God
11. Ch 10 — Loving God the Most
12. Ch 11 — Love, Obedience
13. Ch 12 — Love of God
14. Ch 13 — Closeness to God
15. Ch 14 — Two Levels of Realization (Maarifah)
16. Ch 15 — Making God One's Supreme Concern
17. Ch 16 — Submission to God
18. Ch 17 — Acknowledgement of God
19. Ch 18 — Cause of the Failure to Love God
20. Ch 19 — Praise Be to God (Alhamdulillah)
21. Ch 20 — The Source of the Love of God
22. Ch 21 — The Price of the Love of God
23. Ch 22 — Strong, Emotional Attachment to God
24. Ch 23 — Real Love, Relative Love
25. Ch 24 — Two Categories of Paradise
26. Ch 25 — Intense Love of God
27. Ch 26 — Strong Believer, Weak Believer
28. Ch 27 — People Worth Envying
29. Ch 28 — Sacred Narration
30. Ch 29 — A Case of Exceptional Mercy
31. Ch 30 — God in Our Hearts
32. Ch 31 — The Remembrance of God
33. Ch 32 — Two Lifestyles
34. Ch 33 — The Power of Helplessness
35. Ch 34 — Crying in Remembrance of God
36. Ch 35 — The Spirit of Religion
37. Ch 36 — God's Pleasure, Man's Pleasure
38. Ch 37 — Initial Hamd (Praise), Ultimate Hamd
39. Ch 38 — Thankfulness and Acknowledgement
40. Ch 39 — The High Degree of the Divine Experience
41. Ch 40 — The Feelings of Worship
42. Ch 41 — The Experience of God
43. Ch 42 — Seeking God's Pleasure
44. Ch 43 — In the Company of God

Submission to God p. 40

Emotional attachment is established not by observation, but at the conceptual level, through thinking. Then both belief in God and love of God is possible while He is unseen. p. 40

There are certain people who say that loving God means being obedient to God. They explain it by saying that God is an invisible being, and, in the case of an invisible being, an emotional attachment cannot be established. Only obedience to Him is possible. This obedience will be in accordance with commands which we have learnt from the Quran and the Hadith. p. 40original + quote

This is incorrect. Because what is said about the love of God relates also to faith in God. If faith in God is possible while God is invisible, then the love of God is also quite possible when God is invisible. p. 40

The truth is that, whether it is a matter of faith or a matter of love, both are desired in relation to God, rather than in the general sense. Faith means belief (aqida). The word faith or belief is applicable to a visible entity. At that time, belief will be used as defined in the dictionary. But when the word belief is applied to God, because of the change in its relation it will be taken in the sense of elevated belief. In the same way, when the word love is used in relation to God, it will relate to elevated love. p. 40

The study of human psychology tells us that emotional attachment to or with any person is not in reality established by seeing but is rather established at a conceptual level, through thinking. Whether it is something seen or unseen, man’s relationship is established with it only at a conceptual level. p. 41

In respect to human psychology, belief is conceptual in nature. It is at the conceptual level that the individual attains to the realization of God; it is at the conceptual level rather than at the level of observation that the human being loves God in the real sense. p. 41