Ahmadiyyat or The True Islam — Page 186
186 loves an object, but that love injures his faith or his morals. In such a case love would be a natural instinct but not a moral quality, for the consequences of such love are bad and not good. If a mother, out of love for her child, does not rebuke him for his faults, her love is merely an instinct and not a moral quality, for if it were the latter, the mother would have censured the child for his faults, and attempted to correct them, for the real good of the child is in being rebuked in such a case and not in being petted. In this connection the Holy Quran says: 'O believers, real love is this that you should save yourselves and your wives and children from destruction. ' 92 Hate is another natural instinct, as opposed to love. The natural operation of this instinct is to repel or avoid those things that are useless or harmful, or those that are disliked. Some religions condemn the feeling of hate, and pride themselves on teaching high morals. No natural feeling is, however, to be condemned merely as such, as the use and application of such feeling, on the proper occasion, is to be commended and not con- demned. What is to be avoided is the excess or diminu- tion of such feeling above or below the proper standard. Excess of hate would be enmity, that is, an inclination born of dislike, which incites a man to acts of transgres- sion towards the object of such dislike. On the other 92 Al-Ta h r i m, 66:7.