[3:31] Say: 'If you love God, follow me, and God will love you, and forgive you your sins; God is Forgiving, Merciful.
You love God is a separation (farq) and God loves you is a gathering (jamʿ).
You love God mixed with cause (ʿilla) but God loves you without cause; rather, He is the reality itself of communion. The love of the servant for God is a state of subtle kindness (la?īfa) he finds with respect to himself and this state brings him into conformity with His command out of pleasure (ri?ā), without any feeling of compulsion. This state necessarily involves his preferring [God] (s) over everything and everyone. The condition of love is that there can be no worldly concern (ḥaẓẓ) in any state. One who has not been entirely annihilated from his worldly concerns possesses not even a sliver of love. The love of the Real for the servant is in His desire (irāda), His beneficence (iḥsān) and His kindness (lu?f) to him. It is a desire (irāda) to bestow favor, in the sense of His (s) praise and commendation of [the servant] and in the sense of His special favor to him. Or this can be [understood as] coming from the attributes of His actions.
It is said the precondition of love is your entire effacement from yourself because of your being consumed in your beloved. The one who spoke for them said:
What is love
until the eye is exhausted by weeping
and you lose your ability to talk
so that you cannot answer one who calls you.
This is a difference between the beloved (al-ḥabīb) and the friend (al-khalīl). The friend [Abraham] said, 'So whoever follows me, verily belongs with me (minnī)' [14:36], and the beloved [Muhammad] said, 'follow me and God will love you'. The follower of the friend belongs with him (minhu) in the conferring of favor, while the follower of the beloved is the beloved of the Real (s) and that suffices for nearness and as a state (ḥāl).
It is said that for those who submit themselves, He cuts off their longing for anything but their model and leader of the first and the last - Muhammad (ṣ).
It is said there is an allusion in this verse to the fact that love is not an effect (maʿlūl) and is not brought about by obedient acts or the avoidance of evil, because He said, 'God will love you, and forgive you your sins'. He explained that is possible that a servant may have many sins, but nonetheless he loves God and God will love him.
It is said that first He said, 'God will love you,' and then He said, 'and forgive your sins'. The [conjunction] 'and' (wa) determines the order so that it will be known that love is prior to forgiveness. First He loves them and they love Him [5:54], then He forgives them and they seek His forgiveness. Love leads to forgiveness; pardon does not lead to love.
[The word] 'love' (maḥabba) indicates the purest or most choice (ṣafāÌ) of states: from the same root is derived the expression 'shining teeth' (ḥabab al-asnān), which is their being bright and clear (ṣafāÌ).
Love demands complete devotion in the innermost self in the presence of the beloved.
It is said the camel 'aḥabba' when he kneels down and will not move despite striking.
Love (ḥubb) consists of two letters, ḥāÌ and bāÌ. The allusion from the ḥāÌ is to the spirit (rūḥ) and from the bāÌ to the body (badan). The lover does not hold back in either his heart or his body from his beloved.