This is the final installment of the three part series on the topic "A Common Word: Love in Christianity and Islam." The first and second parts can be found here and here. In this last of the series, I will summarize Dr. Jamal Badawi's speech on love from an Islamic perspective. I have also posted a video of his speech on this subject, given at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Rochester, Minn. alongside Rev. David Plevak. His entire speech can be accessed on YouTube at the following links. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 . According to Dr. Jamal Badawi, love is one of the most central attributes of God. God is described in the Qur'an as "Wadood," a superlative term for love which has been translated as "The Affectionate" or "One who is full of loving kindness." In one verse [11:90], this divine attribute is connected with mercy, and in another [85:14] it is connected to forgiveness. This appears to show the inter-connectedness and interdependence of the attributes of love, mercy and forgiveness. Verses on these attributes appear in the Qur'an hundreds of times.

Dr. Badawi explained that the centrality of God's love is not only measured by the frequency of its mention in the Qur'an, but also by the manifestations of His love in: creating humans in the best mould, commanding the angels to bow down to Adam, ennobling humans and appointing them as trustees on earth, creating all that is on earth or in the heavens for human benefit, and granting humans the freedom to believe in God and obey Him or to reject belief and defy God's commands. Even for the sinful, the door of repentance is wide open at any time prior to the final stages of dying. Love, however, is a two-way street. The Qur'an also speaks about the human duty to reciprocate God's love by loving God as well. It manifests the seriousness of that love in the form of a willing and trusting submission to His will. Such submission is an act of gratefulness, the opposite of which called "Kufr." There are two elements of God's love for humanity. The first element is all-embracing and unrestricted even for those who defy God and commit sins. Such love and care is seen in how God still provides them with all their needs, and in His acceptance of them with even greater affection when they repent to Him and connect again with Him. As God loves virtue, His Holiness means that He does not love vice. But both virtue and vice are not abstract concepts that are floating in the air. They acquire their concrete meaning only as they are embodied in the actions of a human being. When the human acts virtuously, he or she enjoys the bliss of additional love, hence the Qur'anic expressions such as Allah loves the righteous, the just, the doers of good. Likewise, when the human acts in a brutal, unjust and evil manner, he or she still enjoys God's all-encompassing love and care [the first element]. However, when the Qur'an states that God "does not love" evil-doers, the real object of "not loving" is not the sinful person but the negative character or trait that the person. Such a trait is not necessarily inescapable and irreversibly tied to the person. Once the person decides to deal with that trait, he or she can immediately enjoy the additional bliss of even greater love. The mutuality of love between God and humans is the source of many other derived forms of love: of prophets, family, friends, neighbors, nation, humanity at large, and all of God's creation, even inanimate objects such as mountains. Dr. Badawi concluded with an observation that the real acid test of true love is not simply to talk about it but to practice it in our relation with God and His creation, irrespective of differing theologies. Shall we all compete in that?