Book excerpt: All of the love stories in the Qur’an have the connotations of birr: protection, qawwam, endearment, sacrifice, acceptance, allowing redemption and return after sin, opening what others closed and uplifting those who others pushed down. They are the opposite of what is conventional, the oxymoron of the sinfulness that others display, and the righteous rain of barakah into the heart and mind of those who are distant from Allah (s.w.t.).