Anyone Who Loves God Must Follow His Messenger
God says in the Holy Quran: “Say (Prophet Muhammad): ‘If you love Allah, follow me and Allah will love you, and forgive your sins. Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.’” (Verse 31 of Surah Al Imran)
The point here is about love of God and the way to reach the beloved. Everyone wishes to escape darkness and reach perfection. And God shows us the way.
He says if you love God and want Him to also love you, follow the Prophet (PBUH) and obey him because his words and actions guide you to God. And if you are worried about your past sins, there is the good news that God is compassionate and merciful and if you move toward Him, He will forgive your sins.
It is said that the relationship between God and people is one based on love and if there is a pique and irritation in this relationship as a result of sins, God removes it out of His mercy and compassion.
In the Persian literature, there are many poems based on which if a person commits sins, he has actually chosen another beloved instead of God but God loves His servants so much that if he returns from the path of sins, God will accept the repentance and forgive him.
And if the servants complain about why the beloved (God) is hidden, the answer is that by trying to find the beloved, the servant learns about the secrets of the world and moves toward perfection. And of course it is but an illusion to think that God is hidden, because He is more present in the world than all.
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In the Persian literature, the accepted religion is that one love, inspired by verses from the Quran like Verse 165 of Surah Al-Baqarah: “… the strongest of the believers' love is their love of God,” and Verse 54 of Surah Al-Ma’idah: “God will soon raise a people whom He loves and who love Him.”
According to a Hadith, religion is nothing but loving things for the sake of the beloved (God) and avoiding things because the beloved does not like them.
And the Quran in various verses describes what God likes (the truthful, the humble, those who do justice, etc) and what He dislikes (the arrogant, liars, aggressors, harm-doers, etc).
