Ali: “As was true of Jesus, two groups of people will perish on your account: one because of excessive love, the other because of excessive enmity.(62) Christians, on account of the deep love for Jesus, transgressed the limits and called him-God forbid!-‘the son of God,’ while the Jews, because of their hostility, went to another extreme by denying his message and virtue. Similarly, some will also incur loss through their exaggerated affection toward you. For them is the insulting name of Rafida.(63) And certain others will be excessively hostile to you. They are the Kharijites and the extremist partisans of the Umayyads, who will be called Nasiba.”

I t m a y b e a s k e d h e r e : Love for the Prophet’s Family is a command of the Qur’an and was greatly encouraged by the Prophet. The affection of the Shi‘a may therefore serve as an excuse for them, since deep affection may be likened to intoxication. Why, then, can the Shi‘a, especially the Rafida not benefit from their love, and why is their love described by the Prophet (PBUH) as transgression?

T h e A n s w e r : Love is of two kinds:

The First is to love something or someone for the meaning it or he signifies. This means to love ‘Ali, Hasan, Husayn, and the Prophet’s Family in the name of God

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(62) al-Sa’ati, al-Fath al-Rabbani xxiii, 134; Ahmad b. Hanbal, Fada’il al-Sahaba (Tahqiq: Vasiyyullah) ii, 565; al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak iii, 123.
(63) al-Haythami, Majma’ al-Zawa’id x, 22; al-Sa’ati, al-Fath al-Rabbani xxiv, 20-1.