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You ask: “Loving is
not something voluntary. Due to natural
need I love delicious foods and fruits.
I also love my parents and children. I
love my spouse and friends. I love
virtuous people, I love life and youth,
and I love the world, spring and
beautiful things. Why should I not love
those? How can I appropriate all those
instances of love to the Divine Being
and His Names and Attributes
exclusively? What does that mean?”
Listen to the following
subtle points.
However
involuntary loving is, one can
direct one’s feeling of love to a
certain object. For example, by
convincing oneself of the ugliness
of an object of love or seeing that
it is either an obstacle or a mirror
to another object worthy of true
love, one can divert one’s feeling
of love to the true object of love.
I
do not tell you not to love those
you mention. Rather I tell you to
love them in the name of Almighty
God and for the sake of His love.
For example, to love delicious foods
and fruits on account of their being
the favors and bounties of Almighty
God, the All-Merciful and the
All-Compassionate, is loving the
Names the All-Merciful and the Giver
of Bounties. This is a sort of
thanksgiving. However, what shows
that that love is in the name of the
All-Merciful One, not the carnal
self, is lawful earning, and
contentment with what is lawful and
consumption in gratitude and
reflection.
To love and
respect one’s parents on behalf of
the Divine Mercy and Wisdom which
have equipped them with affection
and tenderness and brought you up
through their compassionate hands,
are included in love of God.
Also, to love and
respect one’s parents on behalf of
the Mercy and Wisdom which have
equipped them with affection and
tenderness and brought you up
through their compassionate hands,
are included in love of God. The
sign of that love and respect being
for the sake of Almighty God is that
you show your parents much more
love, respect and care when they
become too old to benefit you in any
way and cause you trouble and
difficulties. The verse, If any
of them or both of them reach old
age with you, do not say to them “Uff!”
(al-Isra’, 17.23), which
calls the children to love and
respect their parents in five ways
and degrees, shows how important it
is in the view of the Quran to
consider the rights of the parents
and how degrading and detestable
filial ingratitude is.
A child who rebels
against his parents and annoys them is
a monster of cruelty and ingratitude.
Since a father
typically prefers his children to be
superior to him, the children cannot claim
rights against their father. That means
there can be no justifiable cause of
dispute between parents and children, for
a dispute arises from either envy or
violation of rights. A father never feels
envy for his children, and the children
have no right to claim rights against
their father. Even if they regard their
father as wrong in his treatment of them,
they cannot rebel against him.
To love one’s
children with utmost care and
compassion on account of their being
the gifts of the All-Compassionate,
All-Munificent One, is again included
in love of Almighty God.
To love one’s
children with utmost care and compassion
on account of their being the gifts of the
All-Compassionate, All-Munificent One, is
again included in love of Almighty God.
The sign of that love being for the sake
of God is to show “becoming patience”
at their death and not to wail in despair
and in rebelliousness against Destiny. One
should show submission to God in belief
that Judgment belongs to God exclusively
and think: that child was a loveable
creature of God whom He placed in my
custody. Now as a requirement of His
Wisdom He has taken him or her back from
me to a far better place. Even if I have a
single apparent share in that slave of
His, thousands of true shares belong to
Him.
To love the friends on
account of their being believing friends
of Almighty God, who do good deeds,
according to the principle of Loving for
the sake of God--that love is also
included in love of God.
The greatest charm
and beauty of a woman lies in her
lovable good conduct accompanied with
the kindness and grace particular to
womanhood, and in her elevated,
serious, sincere compassion.
Also, love your spouse,
your companion in life, because he or she
is a sweet gracious gift of the Divine
Mercy. Do not set your heart on his or her
transient good-looks. To speak of a woman,
the greatest charm and beauty of a woman
lies in her lovable good conduct
accompanied with the kindness and grace
particular to womanhood, and in her
elevated, serious, sincere compassion.
That beauty of compassion and good conduct
continue increasingly till the end of her
life. It is through the love and respect
for the compassion and good conduct of
that delicate being that one can observe
her rights to the end. If she is loved
because of her physical beauty, she is
deprived of her rights and the love and
respect due to her at a time when she
needs them most.
Since loving virtuous
people like the Prophets and saints is
because of their being the approved
servants of Almighty God, it is in the
name and for the sake of God, and
therefore included in His love.
Life is a most valuable
capital given by the Almighty to gain the
eternal life
If one loves one’s
life because it is a most valuable capital
given by Almighty God to gain the eternal
life and a treasury containing the
faculties with which to acquire all kinds
of virtues and perfections, and if one
spends it in the service of God, then this
love will be included in love of Almighty
God, the True Object of Worship.
To love the prime of
youth because it is a sweet, fine gift of
Almighty God and spend it in His way is a
sort of lawful love wedded to gratitude.
Nature is the realm
where the inscriptions of Divine Names are
exhibited
To love nature,
especially in spring, reflectively,
because it is a realm where the most
beautiful inscriptions of the All-Wise
Maker’s light-diffusing Names and the
most splendid and embellished works of His
Art are exhibited, means to love the Names
of Almighty God.
The world is the field
to sow for the Hereafter
If one loves the world
only because it is the field to sow for
the Hereafter, and the mirror of the
Divine Names, and because it is the
collection of Almighty God’s missives
and a temporary guest-house of His,
provided one is not under the influence of
one’s carnal self, then this love is
also in the name of Almighty God.
Love the world and
the creatures in it not because of
themselves but in the name of the
meaning they contain
In short: Love the
world and the creatures in it not because
of themselves but in the name of the
meaning they contain. Do not say, How
beautiful they are!, but say How
beautifully they have been made! Do not
love others than Him at heart and do not
have your heart set on others save on Him.
For the heart is the mirror of the
Eternally Besought-of-All and belongs to
Him. So pray to Him: O God! Provide me
with love of You and the love of what will
make me near to You!
Thus, if all the sorts
of love we have so far mentioned are in
the name of God, then they both give a
painless, pure pleasure and are themselves
the means of union with no separation at
all. Besides, they cause increase in love
of God and also mean gratitude giving pure
pleasure, and a reflection which is itself
pure love.
To cite an example: If
a noble king grants you an apple in his
presence, you will receive two sorts of
pleasure from it and feel two kinds of
love because of it. First, you love the
apple because it is an apple. This will
give you as much pleasure as an apple can
give. The love you feel for the apple is
not in the name of the king; it arises
from your love of yourself because you
love the apple because of the pleasure it
gives you. This kind of pleasure is
transient; it passes when you finish
eating the apple. Moreover, the king may
not be pleased with such an attitude
towards his present.
The second sort of
pleasure and love arising from the gift of
the king are directly related to the king.
If you love and respect the apple because
it is an embodiment of the royal
compliment to you, then this love is in
the name and for the sake of the king
himself. The pleasure which will arise
from such a compliment is a thousand times
greater than the pleasure coming from
eating the apple. Such an attitude towards
the apple is also pure gratitude to the
king for his gift, and the love shown for
the apple is in fact for the king himself.
Love the bounties you
benefit from on account of their being the
favors of the Divine Mercy
Likewise, loving
bounties-all the foods and fruits-granted
to us because of themselves and the
pleasure they give, is for the sake of the
carnal self and is itself a carnal love.
The pleasure coming from eating and
drinking is transient and mixed with
pains. If one loves the bounties one
benefits from on account of their being
the favors of the Divine Mercy and the
fruits of the Divine Bountifulness and
Benevolence and if one receives pleasure
from them and feels appetite for them in
appreciation of the Divine grace in them,
then this love will be both pure gratitude
and pure pleasure without any pains.
Love
of the Divine Names has degrees and
levels. As is pointed out above,
sometimes it occurs that one loves
the Divine Names because of one’s
love of their works in the universe.
One sometimes loves them on account
of their being the titles of the
Divine perfections. Sometimes it
happens that one loves the Divine
Names because one is in limitless
need of them due to man’s
comprehensive nature.
Since man is a
noble, elevated being with a
comprehensive nature, he needs one
thousand and one Divine Names in so
many circumstances of destitution.
For example, if at a
time when you seek help in utter despair
for either your relatives or the poor or
for weak and needy creatures, someone
appears unexpectedly and brings them the
good you wished for, how you will love
such a one(on account of his munificence
and benevolence and always be thankful to
him for those qualities. Similarly,
consider only Almighty God’s Names the
All-Merciful and the All-Compassionate:
since through the manifestations of those
Names of His, Almighty God favors in the
world with varieties of bounties all your
believing parents and forefathers and all
your friends and beloved ones whom you
love and have compassion for, and since He
will make both you and them happy in
Paradise in the world of eternal bliss
through seeing Him and through all the
varieties of Paradisal pleasures and
through bringing you all together-you may
understand how much those two Names are
worthy of love and to what extent the
spirit of man needs them. You may also
understand how it is proper and necessary
to say: All praise be to God for His being
the All-Merciful and the
All-Compassionate.
With its creatures
being its amiable residents and
loveable adornments, the world is like
a home for you which you feel deep
connection with and whose conditions
always affect you deeply.
Also, with its
creatures being its amiable residents and
loveable adornments, the world is like a
home for you which you feel deep
connection with and whose conditions
always affect you deeply. You may perceive
with a slight attention how much your
spirit loves, and to what degree you need,
the Names the All-Wise and the
All-Sustaining of the One Who has
organized the world and the creatures
therein and governs and grows and sustains
them with perfect wisdom.
Again, you may
understand after a little reflection to
what extent your spirit needs the Names
the Heir, the All-Reviving, the Permanent,
the Munificent, the Giver of Life and the
Benevolent of the One Who brings at their
death all those whom you feel connection
with and at whose decay you are grieved,
out of the darkness of eternal extinction
and makes them settle in a place much more
beautiful than this world.
Since man is a noble,
elevated being with a comprehensive
nature, he needs one thousand and one
Divine Names in so many circumstances of
destitution. A manifold need is eagerness.
Manifold eagerness is love. Manifold love
is adoration. In proportion to the degree
of the perfection of the spirit, love
increases and flourishes in degrees
according to the levels of the
manifestations of the Divine Names. Since
the Names are the titles with which the
Majestic Being manifests Himself, love of
the whole of the Names turns into love of
the Divine Being. Now out of thousands of
levels of manifestations of the Names the
Just, the All-Wise, the Truth and the
All-Compassionate we will point out only
one as an example:
A comparison in
order to be able to see the full
manifestation of the Divine Names the
All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate
and the Truth
If you want to see the
Names the All-Merciful, the
All-Compassionate and the Truth in full
manifestation in wisdom and justice,
consider the following comparison:
Supposing an army
consists of four hundred companies each of
which have different uniforms of their
own, are provided with different kinds of
rations, equipped with different types of
weaponry, and use different medicines when
the occasion arises. If these companies
are all situated together, without
considering their being different
companies, and yet, out of his perfect
compassion and based on his extraordinary
power and miraculously encompassing
knowledge and with utmost justice and
wisdom, a single peerless king equips each
with their particular uniforms and
weaponry and provides them with foods and
medicines proper to their need without any
confusion and forgetting none of them and
without needing any help--you may
understand what a powerful, compassionate,
just and munificent king he is.
Similarly, if you
desire to see the manifestations of
Almighty God’s Names the All-Merciful,
the All-Compassionate and the Truth in
wisdom and justice, look at the
magnificent armies of plants and animals
consisting of hundreds of thousands of
different families, genera and species
which set up their tents on the face of
the earth in spring: although all those
families and species exist one mixed with
the other, and each have different kinds
of uniforms, provisions, weaponry,
instructions, life-styles and
demobilization, and although they have no
tongues with which to voice their needs
and no power to meet them, see how the One
with the Names the Truth, the
All-Merciful, the All-Provider, the
All-Compassionate and the All-Munificent,
provides, maintains and raises them in
perfect justice and wisdom and without
confusing and forgetting any of them.
Is it ever possible
that another hand should have had a part
in this amazing order and
all-comprehensive organization based on an
absolute measure and balance? Who other
than the Single One of Unity, the
Absolutely All-Wise and All-Powerful One
would have a hand in this art, regulation
and government, and this raising and
sustaining?
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