His saying, exalted and majestic is He:

﴿Say, 'If you love Allah, then follow me. Allah will love you and forgive you your sins. And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.'﴾

﴿Say, 'Obey Allah and the Messenger. But if they turn away, then indeed, Allah does not love the disbelievers.'﴾

The interpreters have differed regarding whom Muhammad ﷺ was commanded to say this statement to. Al-Hasan ibn Abi al-Hasan and Ibn Jurayj said: 'Indeed, a group during the time of the Prophet ﷺ said: O Muhammad, we love our Lord, so this verse was revealed regarding their words.' Allah made following Muhammad a sign of His love. Muhammad ibn Ja'far ibn al-Zubayr said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was commanded to say this to the Christians of Najran, meaning: If your statement about 'Isa and your exaggeration regarding him is out of love for Allah, then follow me. It is also possible that the verse is general for the People of the Book, the Jews and Christians, because they claimed that they love Allah and He loves them. Do you not see that they all said: ﴿We are the children of Allah and His beloved.﴾ [Al-Ma'idah: 18], and the term 'His beloved' indicates that Allah loves them, but He knows that their intention is 'and His lovers,' so it is appropriate to say to them: ﴿Say, 'If you love Allah.'﴾

And Al-Zuhri read 'follow me' with a strengthened noon, and Abu Rajaa read 'He will love you' with a opened ya and a damma on the first ba of 'loved,' and this is a dialect. Al-Zajjaj said: 'I loved' is a rare usage in the language, and Al-Kisai claimed that it is a dialect that has died out, and based on it, 'beloved' was used.

And love is a desire accompanied by an inclination of the soul and a leaning of the belief. And the mere desire may occur in what the desirer dislikes. And Allah, the Exalted, wills the occurrence of disbelief but does not love it. And the love of the servant for Allah, the Exalted, necessitates that he obey Him, and his actions will be according to the inclination of the soul. Some scholars have illustrated this when they saw the Ka'bah and recited:

This is His house and you are in love, What remains of the tears in the eyes?

And Allah's love for the servant is evidenced for the observer; that he sees the servant guided and supported, accepted on earth. So, Allah's kindness to the servant and His mercy upon him is the fruit of His love. And with this perspective, the term 'love' is interpreted wherever it occurs in the Book of Allah, exalted and majestic is He.

And Al-Zajjaj mentioned that Abu Amr read: 'And He will forgive you' with the ra merged into the lam, and he criticized the reciters and corrected those who narrated it from Abu Amr in what I thought.

And Al-Tabari went to the view that His saying: ﴿Say, 'Obey Allah and the Messenger.'﴾ is an address to the Christians of Najran, and in His saying: ﴿Indeed, Allah does not love the disbelievers.﴾ is a warning, and it is possible that it was after the declaration of fighting.