“Moonlight floods the whole sky from horizon to horizon; how much it can fill your room depends on its windows.” —Rumi
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) that shows that God’s love precedes human love.
“God apparently initiates love for a people, who will also love Him in return implies a certain degree of reciprocity.
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.
“ At another place Bastami says, “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.
” Rumi says, “No lover would seek union if the beloved was not seeking her.
When the lightning bolt of love for the friend has shot into this heart, know that there is also love in that heart.
When love for God doubles in your heart, have no doubt that God also loves you.
Have you ever heard the sound of one hand clapping?
A thirsty mam moans, ‘O previous water.
’ The water also moans, ‘Who wants to drink me.”
Rumi says, “I have seen the truth of unseen world.
I have come upon the eternal ecstasy.
I have gone beyond the ravages of time.
I have become one with You.
Now my heart sings, I am the soul of the world, where Lover, loving and loved are one.
Every moment is made glorious by the light of love.
Oh beloved take me liberate my soul, fill me with your love release me from the two worlds.
If I set my heart on anything but You, let fire burn me from inside.”
Chittick writes, “The Quran is God’s self-revelation with the specific goal of guiding human beings to knowledge of reality.
” No wonder Quran calls itself by yet another well known name Al furqan meaning the discernment implying that revelation is geared up to the master purpose of showing the difference between good and evil, so that correct choices can be made.
Quran emphasizes that when any lapse occurs, the mercy of God, who is forgiver of sins and Whose grace knows no limits takes notice of man’s repentance and forgives his sins.
Man is called to perform his part, beg for forgiveness (Tawbah).
This Tawbah means striving to return to the point where deviation took place and restarting the labour of returning the path that is straight, the path, which Quran calls (al sarat al mustaqim).
The Quran refers characteristically to two paths, that are available and stresses the desirability of choosing the more difficult path.
In the words of Quran:- “Thinketh he that none beholdeth him?
Did we not assign unto him two eyes?
And a tongue and two lips, And guide him in the partying of the mountain ways, But he hath not attempted the ascent….
Ah what will convey what the ascent is, It is to free a slave, And to feed in the day of hunger An orphan near of kin.
Or some poor wretch in misery,
And to be of those who believe and exhort one another to perseverance and exhort one another to pity. ”(XC, 5-7).
The Divine Nature.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr writes, “The Quranic verse, “He is the First and the Last, the Outward and the Inward ” (LVII, 3) refers not only to the Divine Nature, but also to God’s role and function, for God is central to Islamic spirituality and all dimensions of spirituality revolve around Him and seek Him as the goal of human existence.
The raison d’être of the Quranic Revelation and the religion of Islam is the unveiling of the doctrine of the Divine Nature in its fullness, knowledge of God as He is in Himself, not as He has manifested Himself in a particular message or form.”
“At the heart of the Quranic message lies the full and plenary doctrine of God, as both Transcendent and Immanent, as both Majesty and Beauty, as both the One, and the source of the Manifold, as origin of Mercy and Judge of all human actions, as the Originator and Sustainer of the cosmos.
He is the goal to which all journey begins, as the supra personal Essence, beyond all creation and as the Personal Deity, Whose Will rules over all things, Whose love for knowledge of Himself is the cause of creation and Whose Mercy is the very substance, of which the threads of His creation are woven.”
“The Quranic doctrine of God reveals Him as Absolute, Infinite, and Perfect, as the source of all reality and all positive qualities manifested in the cosmic order.
Islamic spirituality is nothing other than knowing, loving and obeying God through the means revealed in the Quran and promulgated and exemplified by the Prophet on the basis of the full doctrine of the Divine Nature contained in the Quran and Ḥadith.
This doctrine is explicit and it is unfolded in traditional works of wisdom written by Muslim Gnostics, Philosophers and Theologians over the ages.
” “God guides to Himself whoever turns to Him. ” Quran(13:27)
—The writer is author of various books based in Rawalpindi.(muhammadtahir50@hotmail.com)
