Āl ʿImrān 3:31-32

Qul in kuntum tuḥibbūna'llāha fa'ttabiʿūnī yuḥbibkumu'llāhu wa yaghfir lakum dhunūbakum, wa'llāhu ghafūrun raḥīm · Qul aṭīʿu'llāha wa'r-rasūl, fa-in tawallaw fa-inna'llāha lā yuḥibbu'l-kāfirīn

"Say: 'If you love God, follow me, and God will love you and forgive you your sins.' · Say: 'Obey God and the Messenger.' If they turn away — God does not love those who disbelieve."

The structure of the sentence must be recorded, and the classical commentaries have dwelt on it:

• The condition: in kuntum tuḥibbūna'llāh — "if you love God"
• The apodosis (a command): fa'ttabiʿūnī — "follow me"
• The outcome: yuḥbibkumu'llāh — "God will love you"

That is, the order is this: a love claimed → an act → a love answering to it.

I record this as an observation about the word order: the verse does not reject the claim of love; it ties it to something measurable. Love is an inward state and is not seen from outside; ittibāʿ is seen.

And the direction of the verbs is worth recording:

Two directions, one root (ح-ب-ب), in the same verse. And between them stands a verb. I record this as my own reading, and it is not binding: the verse takes love out of being a one-way feeling and turns it into a two-way relation — and the visible link of the relation is the verb in the middle.

وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ — and forgiveness is set after love, not before. I give this as an observation about the word order.

The thirty-second verse closes the block: aṭīʿu'llāha wa'r-rasūl. And this construction will occur once more in the sūra, at verse 132 — inside the Uḥud block.

The same command, on two separate grounds. This is a repetition verifiable within the sūra. And at verse 152 the opposite of the same root will come: wa ʿaṣaytum — "and you disobeyed". The sūra sets down the command twice and records its breach once.