What is the shirk of love, and how does the love of a created being's essence that leads to shirk differ from natural love and a person's love for reasons? What is the ruling on loving and supporting a football club, and does it reach the level of shirk?

The intent of shirk (polytheism) in love is for a servant to love other than Allah as they would love Allah, meaning with a love of servitude and veneration, like the love of polytheists for their idols alongside Allah the Almighty: "They love them as they love Allah." This is a love of deification and allegiance, followed by fear, hope, worship, and supplication. This kind of love is pure shirk, which Allah does not forgive.

As for the love of what Allah has adorned for souls—women, children, gold, silver, horses, livestock, and cultivated land—one loves these out of desire. This type of love is of three kinds: - If one loves them for Allah's sake, as a means of reaching Him and as an aid to His pleasure and obedience, one will be rewarded for it, and it will be categorized as love for Allah. - If one loves them in accordance with their nature and desires, and does not prioritize them over what Allah loves and is pleased with, then it falls under the category of permissible things, but it diminishes the perfection of one's love for Allah. - If they are one's primary aim, desire, and endeavor in acquiring them, and one prioritizes them over what Allah loves and is pleased with from them, then one is an oppressor of their soul, following their whims.