2:165 Among the people are some who take peers apart from God, loving them as if loving God. And those who have faith are more intense in love for God.
If this were the only verse in the whole Qur'an about the faithful and God's friends, their eminence and honor would be complete, for the Lord of the Worlds is saying, "They love Me intensely and more completely than the unbelievers love their objects of worship." Do you not see that every once in a while the unbelievers set up another idol and take up another object of worship. Like poor people, they are content with something carved of wood. Then, when they can, they take down the wooden one and make another from silver or gold. If their love for their object of worship is real, why do they turn away from it toward another?
They say that a man met a woman recognizer, and her beauty exercised its influence over his heart. He said, "'My all is busy with your all.' O woman! I have lost myself in love for you."
She said, "Why don't you look at my sister, who is more beautiful and lovely than I?"
He said, "Where is your sister so that I may see her?"
She said, "Go, idler! Passion is not your work. If your claim to love me were true, you would not care about anyone else."
And those who have faith are more intense in love for God. The Lord of the Worlds says, "The love of the faithful for Me is not like the unbelievers' love for idols, such that every once in a while they incline toward another. Rather, the faithful never turn away from Me and never incline toward anyone else. For, if they did turn away, they would never find someone like Me, no matter how much they sought."
Poor man, God has many servants like you. If something bad is to occur for you, it will occur. How can you turn away, for you will not find a Lord like Him.
Shiblī said, "I learned Sufism from a dog that was sleeping at the door of a house. The owner came out and was driving the dog away, but the dog kept on coming back. I said to myself, 'How base this dog is! He drives him away, and he keeps on coming back.' The Exalted Lord brought that dog to speech and it said, 'O Shaykh! Where should I go? He is my owner.'"
I will not leave the Friend at a hundred iniquities and cruelties.
Even if He increases them, I will not be troubled,
It is I who chose Him over everyone else;
if I complain about Him, I will have no excuse.