Ahmadiyyat or The True Islam — Page 184
184 'Say if your parents and your children and your brothers and your sisters and your wives and your husbands and your kinsfolk and the property which you have acquired and your business the dullness of which you fear, and your dwellings and your homes which you love, are dearer to you than God and His Apostle and striving in the path of God, then wait till God issues a decree concerning you, and God loves not those who forget their responsi- bilities. ' 91 This verse describes the gradation in which those who deserve our love are to be loved by us if our love is to be a moral quality and not a mere instinct. Each is to be loved in proportion to his or her proper rank in our affections. God is to be loved in proportion to his rank, and the Prophets, in proportion to theirs, and religion and parents and children and wives and husbands, in proportion to theirs. If that were not so, love would not be a moral quality but mere passion. For instance, if a man forsakes his parents for the sake of his wife, or ignores the call of his motherland for the sake of his property, he cannot be called good on account of his love for his wife or his property. He has, no doubt, 91 Al-Taubah, 9:24.