وقال له رجلٌ: إنّي لأحبّك في اللّه حبّاً شديداً، فنكس عليه السلام ثمّ قال: الّلهم إنّي أعوذبك أن اُحَبّ فيك وأنت لي مبغض ثمّ قال له: أحبّك للذي تحبّني فيه
Part of the sermons of Imam Sajjad (AS):
A man told Imam Sajjad (AS), “I love you very much for the sake of Allah.” His Holiness dropped his head and said, “O Allah, I seek protection in You from being loved for Your sake while You Yourself hate me.” Then he told the man: “I love you for the thing for whose sake you love me.”
(Tohfatul Oqul, p. 282)
The basic point in this tradition, in which there is an object lesson for us, is the need for immediate attention to the danger that threatens man (i.e. being popular among people for the sake of Allah). Therefore, when the man told Imam Hussein (AS) that he loved His Holiness for the sake of God, Imam Hussein did not say "thank you," or "I thank Allah for this popularity," or something to that effect. On the contrary, he said, "O Lord, I seek protection in you from being popular among people for Your sake while You consider me an enemy." And this is a great danger for us. We should not let people think that we are working sincerely for Allah's sake while in fact we are not doing so, we must not let our outward appearance be different from our inner nature, and we must not subject ourselves to divine wrath through our actions.