Husband telling wife he loves her more than anything

26-9-2016 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalaamu alaykum. Please, I would be glad if you did not refer me to any of your other fatwas. I want to know the following: if someone says to his wife that he loves her more than anything in his life, does he have to repent for the words that he said, specifically, 'more than anything', because loving Allaah and His Prophet Muhammad, sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam, is the priority of the human being? Is he considered sinful the light of that?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

There is no doubt that the love of Allaah and His Messenger must come in priority over the love of anything else; Allaah says (what means): {Say [O Muhammad]: If your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your wives, your relatives, wealth which you have obtained, commerce wherein you fear decline, and dwellings with which you are pleased are more beloved to you than Allaah and His Messenger and jihad in His cause, then wait until Allaah executes His command. And Allaah does not guide the defiantly disobedient people.} [Quran 9:24]

Besides, it was confirmed that Anas narrated that the Prophet said, “Whoever possesses the following three qualities will taste the sweetness of faith: The one to whom Allaah and His Messenger are dearer to him than anything else; the one who loves a person and he does not love him except for Allaah's sake; and the one who hates to revert to disbelief as he hates to be thrown into the Fire.” [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

In general, if a Muslim says to his wife, 'I love you more than anything in my life,' then he does not intend with this to favor the love for his wife over his love for Allaah and His Messenger . However, if we presume that he intended this generality, then he must repent to Allaah for that; as this causes a deficiency in his faith.

‘Abdullah ibn Hisham narrated:

“We were with the Messenger of Allaah and he was holding the hand of ‘Umar ibn Al-Khattaab. ‘Umar said to him, 'O Messenger of Allaah, you are more beloved to me than everything else except for myself.' The Prophet said, 'No, by The One in Whose Hand my soul is, until I am more beloved to you than yourself.' To rectify this, 'Umar briefly isolated himself. When he returned, he stood in the center of the masjid and proclaimed, 'O Prophet of Allaah, now I love you more than myself.' The Prophet replied, 'Now, O 'Umar, now, O 'Umar.' [i.e. it was at this moment, when he loved the Prophet over himself, that his faith became complete.]” [Al-Bukhari]

Allaah knows best.