Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.  (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

Assalamualaikum!
I asked you this question before, and again I am asking. Please give me the answer to this question, so as I may get out of the mental confusion I am going through.
I wanted to ask, that if someone likes somebody, than is there anything wrong with it. I mean is it wrong in front of Allah? Will we be punished for this? Is this sin?
If anyone is in love with someone, supposing, a girl is in love with a boy. She thinks about him. But this love involves nothing unethical or non pious. She respects him a lot and loves him. She never thinks anything bad for him or in the wrong sense. In this case, is this regarded as a sin?
Is to love someone, in Islam, is a sin? Or will we be punished for it?
Does Allah become angry upon this? Is this wrong?
Please, guide me through this. I will be really very grateful to you.
Thank you.

PS: please, i want you to answer my question via mail, on my e-mail id.

(There may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)

Answer:

Love for marriage

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no person, no grave, no prophet, no imam, no dai, nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad(saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

Beloved sister in Islam, we assume that by the term ‘love someone’, you are referring to a feeling one who is eligible to marry has for another member of the opposite gender.

To like or love someone is a natural mercy which Allah Subhanah has bestowed in the hearts of mankind, and there is absolutely no sin in having such a feeling of ‘liking’ someone. The sin or reward depends on what steps or deeds one takes or does after one likes another!

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 5 Surah Maidah verse 5 (part): (Lawful unto you in marriage) are (not only) chaste women who are believers, but chaste women among the People of the Book revealed before your time, when ye give them their due ‘mehr’, and desire chastity, not lewdness nor secret intrigues. If anyone rejects faith, fruitless is his work and in the Hereafter he will be in the ranks of those who have lost (all spiritual good).

If a girl ‘likes’ a non-mehram boy, and takes the righteous and pious path of informing her father or brother or guardian to seek marriage with the boy; there is absolutely no harm.

But if the girl and the boy she ‘likes’ start initiating or having a secret relationship, or meet in private, or talk vain talk in private, etc. then that would indeed be considered a grave sin in the sight of Allah Subhanah. The believer, who sincerely fears Allah and the Last Day, must abstain from such lewdness and secret intrigues.

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

Your Brother in Islam,

Burhan