Religious Evolution

Sister these are your words:

"I never implied first that we should sacrifice for the prophet"

And again I never said that you said that we should sacrifice for the prophet I was merely commenting on this part of the Hadith.

But this is what Allah asks of us. I DID NOT attribute anything to Allah(SWT) that he did not state in His Word

Ok so you're going by Allah's word which I agree but what I'm saying in your attempt to make an example of whom to love more in degrees I was saying your attempt alone defines the state of love we have for specific entities see your bold paragraph.

How can you judge something as inadequate when Allah(SWT) has asked us for this, our love? Do you know better than Allah(SWT)?

Sister philosophically speaking as was mentioned earlier God is simply using the temporal words of mankind to relate to us in our language so that we may know him--partially. Although what our emotions feel for God I still say they are inadaquate in essence only not when we speak of them. They are inadequequate in my opinion because God being beyond all things physically comprehensible including words no words can accurately or even poetically describe him. This was my point. As you mentioned earlier that our intentions, not words matter. To say "I love Allah" as words themselves are inadequate expressions in the sense of their definitive term because our emotions towards Allah are nothing more than what we may share here on Earth if asked, we would say that we love God more.

I know pryayer is good communication to the divine and I understand that prayer is also means of uniformity with the believers. I cannot say that prayer is inadequate as prayer like any other communicative form is means to spiritually connect with God. Now Sister Mishmish common sense would tell you that it doesn't take  a religious doctrine i.e Qur'an for God to tell you "To love me" you just know that you loved God more than anything else. So by you saying that you're going by what God says proves difficult to me that you would just find out that God told you to love him when you converted to Islam. Come on you knew this before convertin to Islam so I highly doubt the Qur'an would teach you that aspect at least however if I'm wrong then I'm wrong.

Without direct religious infleunce as a young child I was taught God was greater than me. I was taught that we should love God because God made the univere and all things aesthetically wonderful. Religious schools that I went to only enhanced this. Islam basically is the same way. We are not taught by doctrine to love God but our religious environments teaches us. So consequently by this example I can furthermore say that in coming to Islam and learning it, it is easy to conclude that we should have love for the prophet, but that love should never superceed what we have for God. We should not build mosques with the prophet's name on equal footing as God's. We should never invoke Muhammad's (or call upon saints as our intercessors) influence on our lives rather call upon the Creator of the universe. This is my point....

Allah subhanahu wa ta`ala said:

"Say: If your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your wives, your kindred, the wealth that you have gained, the commerce in which you fear a decline, and the dwellings in which you delight are dearer to you than Allah and His Messenger, and striving hard and Fighting in His Cause; then wait until Allah brings about His Decision (torment). And Allah guides not the rebellious folk."

Quran Soorah At-Tawbah 9:24

Thus, the essence of love should be due to Allah and His Messenger, so too with the obedience. For the obedience is due to Allah `azza wa jal and His Messenger, and pleasing is due to Allah and His Messenger,

"But it is more fitting that they should please Allah and His Messenger (Muhammad sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam) if they are (true) believers."

Quran Soorah At-Tawbah 9:62