Submission or Love: Our Relationship to God

-An Answer to a Christian’s Challenge

                   By Cyril Anderson

Part 1 of 2

About a year ago, while working at a dawa’ table in my university, I was confronted by a young Arab Christian who desired, it seemed, to put me on the spot and challenge me.  Following a lengthy discussion of our religions, the commonalities and differences and the perceived superiority of one over the other from our two perspectives, he asked the following question in parting: “Which is better: to be submissive to God or to love God?”  At the time I was much confused about the question.  I felt in my heart that the emphasis in Islam primarily on submission is correct, but I struggled to explain my reasons clearly.  The following article represents my attempt to answer this young man’s question.

 The first problem, in my view, is that the asker has separated two interdependent elements of serving God, and doing so, asked which is better and has the highest priority.  The problem is that the two cannot be so separated except artificially; they are intimately tied.  One can love and not submit – for example, one can love his parents, and yet disobey them at every opportunity.  Or, one can love God, yet in weakness, break his commandments.

 On the other hand, one can submit without love.  For example, a slave can submit himself to his slave owner out of fear of physical reprisal or to a boss out of fear of loss of income and sustenance.  The famous Islamic figure Ali ibn Abu Talib (as) referred to these two elements in the context of worship of God, calling them, respectfully the worship of the slave and the worship of the businessman.  That is, worshipping out of fear or out of desire for gain.  Imam Ali (as) adds that the best of worship is that of the free man, who worships out of love for God because God is worthy of worship.

 The problem with the question posed is that one cannot separate these two elements of love and submission.  Both are needed together or otherwise both will suffer.  One can love and yet not submit.  But just as the brother of Jesus (as), James (ra) said that faith without works is dead, love without submission to the beloved is a theoretical construct.  In Exodus Moses (as) receives instruction telling his followers to follow your father and mother.  One can say one loves his parents, and express affection, but if one is rebellious, then this love is superficial.  Similarly, we can love God, but it is our submission to the laws that he gives us that prove our love of God.  The law that we are asked to submit to is not malicious; it is a mercy, a set of rules designed to order our world to make it more peaceful and livable.  This is true of the law given to the Jews through Moses (as), the laws given through Jesus (as), and the laws given through Muhammad (saws) and elaborated through the imams (as).  To not submit to this law is to spurn, to reject the mercy of God.  A rejection of the mercy of God is the very antithesis of love of God.  How can one claim to love God and yet reject the laws he gives of his mercy to help people live better lives?

 One can submit, in theory to God without love, as one can submit grudgingly to a slave owner or a boss at work, in order to avoid punishment or to get gain.  Most children, in their lack of knowledge, do this for some part of their development as well; they submit to their parents to gain reward or avoid punishment – that is, they are motivated externally, from without.  Intrinsic motivation, motivation coming from inside, comes later, as their minds develop.  The problem is that if one no longer fears or no longer is dependant on the other, and there is no love to replace this, then the obedience will weaken.  So ultimately, love is needed to sustain obedience and submission.

 If one obeys his parents out of fear and/or desire for reward, without developing love, or if one obeys God only out of fear of punishment or desire for reward, without ever developing love, then eventually this submission without internally driven basis will weaken, and he will disobey.  But just as most who initially submit to their parents out of desire for reward or fear of punishment will, as they grow older and wiser, become more understanding of the love and mercy of their parents that lay behind the rules they asked him to submit, so will the believer do as he develops in his relationship with his Lord.  As the believer grows more aware of the love and mercy behind the request of God made to him to submit, he will submit with increasing willingness out his growing love and appreciation for God’s mercy, out of his understanding that God asks him to submit to His law not out of malice, but because it is good for him to submit, not only in the next life, but in this one as well.

 Submission and love are tied up one with the other; love is empty and meaningless without the proof of submission to the beloved, and without love, submission will not last.  That is why it is a fundamental mistake to try to play one against the other.  Both are essential, and both are present in the good believers of both faiths, Islam and Christianity.  You will not find true practicing Christians who do not at least try to submit to acting in the way God wants them to act, just as you will not find devout Muslims who do not love God.  We make mistakes when we try to split and examine independently concepts that are in reality fused inseparably, be it submission and love, faith and reason, or justice and mercy.

                                             Part 1      Part 2