LOVE as experienced by the Sufis is a strong and Existentialist Commitment. The mystics feel that the love they experienced was not their own work but was called into existence by God’s activity as Quran says, “He loves them and they love Him,” (Sura 5:59) a word that shows that God’s love precedes human love. “Only when God loves His servant can he love Him and he cannot refuse to love God since the initiative comes from God,” says Annemarie Schimmel.
Abu Yazid Bastami expresses the same feelings:- “I thought, I remember Him and I know Him and I love him, but when I reached Him, I saw that His remembering of me, preceded my remembrance of Him and His love towards me was more ancient, than my love towards him and he sought me in order, that I would begin to seek Him.” “It is not strange that I love you because I am a weak servant, but it is strange that You love me, when You are the King of Kings.”
This relationship is like fire, which consumes and burns you. Rumi says, “I was raw, than I was cooked, than I was on fire.” Rumi says,” The people of the world are like three butterflies in front of a candle flame. The first one went closer and said, “I know about love.” The second one touched the flame lightly and said, “I know love fire can burn.” The third one threw himself in the heart of the flame and was consumed, He alone knows, what true love is.”
Ibn Arabi says, “Listen O dearly beloved! I am the reality of the world, the centre of the circumference, I am the will established between Heaven and Earth. I have created perception in you only in order to be the object of my perception… Dearly beloved! I have called you so often and you have not heard me. I have made myself fragrance so often and you have not smelled me…. Why can you not reach me through the object you touch, Or breathe me through sweet perfumes?”
In Hadees Qudsee, God said,” I was a hidden treasure and I loved to be known intimately.” Here is a divinity, who is desirous to be known (mahrafa). This is not a discursive knowledge, but needs to be experienced. The example is of the word honey written on the black board, you know it is sweet, but when the honey is in your mouth, you know the taste, and there is no need to speak of it any more.
This relationship with God always has an element of Transcendence, but to this vertical dimension, the Sufis bring an element of intimacy. Isphani says, “When I am out in public, I will call you my Lord and when we are in private, I prefer to call you my Beloved.” In public the adab or protocol is observed, but in private you can dare to be intimate. In the traditional respect of lord servant relationship, you add an element of affection. The Sufis sometimes use the word dosti or friendship.
In Quran we hear the primordial voice, ‘Alastu be Rabekum.’ “Am I not your Lord,” Some heard it, “Am I not your friend and some would hear, Am I not the only the only one that exists.” One of the early mystics was asked, what is the path of love, that you speak about. “Bakhudarahatbudan,” to be at ease with God. Shibli was asked how do you experience God and he replied, “I experience God, the way a child learns his being in the Mama’s lap, a deep inner feeling that you are safe, loved and protected.”
A simple Shepard in Khurasan, Abul Hasan Kharaqani was one of early giants of Sufis. He has a visionary dream and God is teasing him playfully, “Abul Hassana,” Do you want me to tell the people, of every dirty little secret that I see in your heart, all the ways, you fall short, all your acts of hypocrisy that only I see and if I do, they will stone you.” Kharabani talks back the way you would to a friend, “My Loving Lord, do you want me to go to the town and tell them, just how intensely You love them and if I do then they will know that You love them more than a mother loves her new born child and You will never throw any of them in the hellfire, and if I do, not a single one of them will pray or fast, or do all the things you want them to do.” There is a long pause and he hears God’s voice, “How about this, “You say nothing and I will say nothing.”
These are the mystics, who never miss a prayer and this loving relationship is not a license to flout the Commandments of God. They speak of prayer as means to have their own Mehraj. Karbani at another point says, “I need to repent from Allah any time I said I love you. I was still hanging on to the notion of I. I just want to lose that I and I want it to be about You.” Rumi says, “You and I have to live as if You and I never heard of a You and I.”
—The writer is author of various books based in Rawalpindi.
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