Love Me More: Self-love is not about loving ourselves, but God

When we talk about self-love, what first comes to mind is the self-appreciation from oneself, in terms of mentally and physically.

The concept of self-love is different for everyone where some treat themselves with shopping, good food.

However, as we shift our perspective in the mind of a Muslim, the concept of self-love is actually not only about loving ourselves, but also God.

Ustadha Umm Hud, who was an engineering graduate, teacher and also Islamic motivational speaker, shared more of htis during the Being Me: Love Me More event where Sinar Daily was the official media partner.

The context of self-love in her point of view was that every form of love has to emanate from the concept of lailahaillallah.

“Meaning that the core of our love is for Allah, and our love for ourselves and others emanate from there.

“So our understanding of love within a muslim prespective is very profound, very encompassing and its a very strong anchor,” she said.

Umm Hud added the importance of having the strong anchor was to strengthen the heart in whatever life circumstances threw to us, our love for Allah was powerful for us to keep moving.

She said, in overcoming the adversity of life was to leave ourselves and cry to Allah as He gave the tears and emotions with purpose and He was the only one who could amend it.

“First and foremost, you have to cry to Allah, let it go to him and then from there onwards, seek knowledge as it gives you a new or better perspective on how you view your life circumstances

“We see our pain as a source of purification and this pain is needed for you to be the best version of yourself. That’s how you see your pain and you’ll grow,” she said.

Umm Hud also shared that most of our problems are not actually about the problem itself, rather how we see th eproblem.

Thus, with the guidance Allah bestowed us with Quran and Sunnah, we have to pivot our pain into another level of right perspective.

Moving on, as we said the concept of self-love was varied for everyone and the modern life view eventually has the most dominant world view.

Umm Hud shared from her perspective that the idea of self love is eventually broader than physical aspects, your beauty, looks and all.

“However, we’re not just our body. First and foremost, we are soul, mind and body. Of course the body is important but what’s more important is the inner state, whilst the heart is the core.

“So yes they can take some of two, some of the ideas of self love that were taught by the western understanding or paradigms of life there are tools that you can take.

“Nevertheless, remember the core of our own world view is lailahailallah as that would help all this self love to put in the right context,” she said.