Refutation: Does Allah Love Unbelievers?
by Ijaz Ahmad
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
ÈöÓۡãö ٱááåö ٱáÑóøÍۡãóÜٰäö ٱáÑóøÍöíãö ,
This is a response to David Wood’s article, which bears the aforementioned title. He says:
One of Allah’s 99 Names is al-Waddud, “the Loving.” Allah is called al-Waddud twice in the Qur’an. In 11:90, the prophet Shu’aib tells the people of Midian, “Ask pardon, then, from your Lord, then turn to Him; verily, my Lord is merciful, loving!” Likewise, in 85:12-16 we read:
Lo! the punishment of thy Lord is stern. Lo! He it is Who produceth, then reproduceth, and He is the Forgiving, the Loving, Lord of the Throne of Glory, Doer of what He will.
Nevertheless, other passages in the Qur’an qualify Allah’s love significantly. While Allah is said to love those who do good deeds (2:195), those who are pure (2:222), those who are righteous (9:7), and those who fight in his cause (61:4), the Qur’an is equally clear that Allah has no love for transgressors (2:190), ungrateful sinners (2:276), the unjust (3:57), or the proud (4:36).
David has a contention with God not loving those who transgress his law, although when we read the Bible, the God which David also believes in, punished transgression, He did not reward it:
The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him; we have not obeyed the Lord our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets. All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you.
“Therefore the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you. You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing on us great disaster. Under the whole heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come on us, yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth. The Lord did not hesitate to bring the disaster on us, for the Lord our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him. – Daniel 9:9-14. According to this passage, transgressors and ungrateful sinners were promised to be punished by God, David’s God. If this is currently not the case, or David would appeal to the New Testament and ignore His God’s history, then David concedes one of two things, or both, those being:
YHWH was unloving, unmerciful, hateful at some point in His existence.
David has double standards and ignores YHWH’s pronouncements.
What’s worse for David is that his poor reading of the Bible, brings into question the love of YHWH, for even YHWH promises to destroy, torture and punish disbelievers, while on earth when Jesus returns in Zechariah 14. Where YHWH promises to rule ‘with an iron fist/ sceptre’ in Revelation 2:26-28, all of which I have covered extensively in my post concerning Christ’s Second Return According to the Bible. David also seemed to have a problem with God punishing the unjust and proud, yet his namesake, David of the Bible, prays to their God and asks Him to punish such people:
“Rise up, Judge of the earth; pay back to the proud what they deserve.” – Psalms 94:2. The irony is staggering to say the very least. David goes on to say:
Even more significantly, the Qur’an states that Allah does not love non-Muslims:
Qur’an 3:31-32—Say [O Muhammad]: If you love Allah, then follow me, Allah will love you and forgive you your faults, and Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. Say: Obey Allah and the Apostle; but if they turn back, then surely Allah does not love the unbelievers.
Qur’an 30:43-45—Then turn thy face straight to the right religion before there come from Allah the day which cannot be averted; on that day they shall become separated. Whoever disbelieves, he shall be responsible for his disbelief, and whoever does good, they prepare (good) for their own souls, that He may reward those who believe and do good out of His grace; surely He does not love the unbelievers.
David’s inconsistency shines through once more, as even YHWH, as the Bible testifies, hates those who disobey Him and break His laws:
Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird— no birth, no pregnancy, no conception. Even if they rear children, I will bereave them of every one. Woe to them when I turn away from them! I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre planted in a pleasant place.
But Ephraim will bring out their children to the slayer.”
Give them, Lord—what will you give them? Give them wombs that miscarry and breasts that are dry. “Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal, I hated them there. Because of their sinful deeds, I will drive them out of my house. I will no longer love them; all their leaders are rebellious. Ephraim is blighted, their root is withered, they yield no fruit. Even if they bear children, I will slay their cherished offspring.” – Hosea 9:11-16.
According to David’s own God, He hates, He stops loving, disbelievers and sinners. In fact according to this verse, David’s God promises to never love Israel again. David’s own God, promises to damn an entire nation and stop loving them. Therefore, how can David say Allaah is wrong, when his own God, does the same?
Notice that 3:31-32 makes Allah’s love contingent on whether a person believes in Muhammad. This is similar to what we find in 19:46, which declares: “Lo! those who believe and do good works, the Beneficent will appoint for them love.”
How is this different to God dying for the sins of mankind (John 3:16) and then making this grace conditional on accepting Christ as a God? What’s the difference David? There is none.
Hence, although Allah is called “the Loving,” the Qur’an only means by this that Allah will love people once they believe in him and obey his prophet. The god of Islam has no love for sinners and unbelievers.
David seems to be forgetting that this is also the modus operandi of His God, as we saw in Zechariah 14, Revelations 2, Hosea 9, Psalms 94, and it is what his God promised in Deuteronomy Chapters 28, 29, 30 and 31.
Interestingly, the “Love me first and I’ll love you back” kind of love exhibited by Allah in the Qur’an is condemned by Jesus in Matthew 5:43-48:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Except that according to these verses, Jesus is condemning His ‘Father’s’ laws as demonstrated above. Which brings me to my conclusion. David seems to have ignored what YHWH has said about Himself in the Old Testament, what YHWH has promised to do to unbelievers, ungrateful sinners and the proud when he sends Jesus to return, and what YHWH declared as an eternal covenant to hate an entire nation of people because of their sins and transgressions against Him. Double standards, funny aren’t they David?
wa Allaahu Alam,
and Allaah knows best.
