Secrets of the Love of Allah (s.w.t.)

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

A Sufi poem goes: 

“That which one yearns for, he loves,

And this yearning makes him great,

By transforming the depth of poverty,

In the yearning of His slave,

His need and his longing to give Him everything,

What his heart truly desires.” 

This himmah, yearning, is oil in the fire of God’s Passion which makes this fire in the heart of the lover grow very hot and strong and bright.  Sparks fly as the lover turns to the right and left, cooking in the fire of love, and becoming more and more tender and ready to be consumed.  The quality of Love of which we speak is such that both lover and Beloved are consumed by a single flame and whether by union or by seeming separation, by presence or absence, the flame is fanned.  The lover kills himself to live in his Beloved and destroys all his qualities; he empties the cup of his existence so that it may be filled entirely with the Qualities and Presence of his Lord. 

Why does Allah (s.w.t.) Name this quality of love “mahabbah”, “gift of love”?  This is because this fire purifies the heart of everything but al-Mahbub, the Beloved, and al-Mahbub is One Who Puts the lover’s neck on the doorsill of his Beloved and whose heart is inseparable from his Beloved, breath to breath, moment to moment; and his heart is eaten by the Fire of the Beloved; yet this Fire is not fire, but Light upon Light.  Then, when he speaks, he speaks with his Lord; and when he walks, he walks with his Lord; and when he sleeps, he sleeps with his Lord.  As Allah (s.w.t.) Says to His prophet, David (a.s.), “I forbid the hearts of My lovers any love except My Love.” 

But the Love of Allah (s.w.t.) has two sides: the love of the Truth for the human being and the love of the human being for truth.  When Truth loves a person, the truth of love within him moves him to love whatever he loves.  Not understanding what is inspiring him to love, he attaches the energy of his feeling to what appears to him without as the object of his love.  For example, when the love moves a man to love a woman, and he stops with her body, the very body he thinks he loves becomes a strong veil to the essence of the love which is moving him.  Then, he is moving as an animal moves and loving as an animal loves.  In this, he touches only some of the love, the smell of the love, and the heat of the fire, but this is not enough for him to taste the fullness of the truth of the love which is moving him. 

When the fire of his love touches the essence of the love of the soul of the woman he loves, then the sparks and the waves of flame flash out and return to their source in the blaze of ‘Ishq Divine Passion, and his body disappears; her body also disappears.  All the veils, all the fascination of coming and going between them disappears in the experience of their indivisible Unity and God Returns to love Himself Alone.  But He Creates these people and the fire between them to realise the Essence of His Love.  Whereas in the beginning, the man thought he loved a woman, when he comes to realise the essence of the fire, he sees that he himself is the Beloved, and she is also the Beloved and in this; Allah (s.w.t.) Alone is the Beloved and no other Exists. 

As Allah (s.w.t.) Says, “I was a Hidden Treasure that Desired to be known.  So, I Manifested all Creation to reveal the essence of the deep secret Knowing of Myself.  He who I Created to Reveal the Treasure carries, within himself, this Treasure, but he must explode the mountain of his existence to discover the Treasure which is Hidden within.”  When man thinks he loves the body of the woman, the body is a veil to his true Love; then the body of his entire existence is a veil, like a mountain in which the Treasure is Concealed.  Allah (s.w.t.) Created this mountain of His water and clay, exactly in order that He could Bury His Treasure within. 

This is the first side of the love in which Allah (s.w.t.) Breathes all the creation into existence, and the second part of the Love is the return, in which the creature breathes his existence back into his Lord.  But how do we explode the mountain of our entire being?  We plant the flaming seed of our yearning in our own earth.  When the man loves the woman, it is to know her as himself, to love her, to enter her as himself, as Adam (a.s.) entered Eve who was of his own substance and truth, to penetrate her body as a veil and touch the essence within her, within himself.  When we use the fire of our passion to open ourselves, to know ourselves, and to know the Treasure which is hidden within us, the fire of our yearning explodes in the depth of our own substance, creating an opening within, a space within. 

Before, when the fire went outside, the earth within was dense and obscure, but now the density breaks open inside after this holy fire of Love cleans the inner earth.  Then, we plant our tree; put the seed back into our earth, water it with the living water, the essence of love; fertilise it with all the accumulated compost of our mind and self and let it grow up in the Light of Knowing and keep the breath of dzikr moving around it so that the garden of the soul does not stagnate, and the tree always has space to grow.  When the tree is grown, we keep this tree inside us.  Then, we sit under it, and take a branch in our hand and take, from the branch, the fruit of the milk of the essence of the love.  By eating this, we begin to live and in so giving birth to ourselves, you unearth the Holy Treasure which He Created us to bear.  Then, when we look into the Treasure with the eye of our soul, we see one Who Sees us Looking into the essence of the jewel.  Allah (s.w.t.) Sees us as you see Him.  When we look again, we see there is no us, only He; it is He Who Sees Himself in the mirror of our soul, as it remembers itself in the Treasure of His Essence.  Then, in truth, we live in the garden of love and the breath of love has two dimensions; breathe fully in and out, to embrace the full circle of the love, without losing any breath, any side or dimension, to experience the creation and recreation of ourselves by the Mercy of Allah (s.w.t.), and His Desire to be known.  And with all this, return. 

Love is eternal between Allah (s.w.t.) and His Creation and the circuitry of His Love Flows through everything.  If not for this, nothing would move that moves; nothing would live that lives.  Because every planet in its orbit and every cell in its course is a witness to the Love of Allah (s.w.t.) and a Sign of His Wisdom.  We keep this love inside us and live with it all the time, because the moment we lose it, we lose ourselves; we lose Him.  This is the Message from Allah (s.w.t.): “I am the Love. I am the Wine.  Drink this Wine to know Me well.” 

As we drink, Allah (s.w.t.) Tells us to listen with the spiritual ear of the presence of the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) within us; we are one of his people.  We are with Allah (s.w.t.) in all our senses, and prepare to receive wisdom from within our heart which is bound to the Prophet’s (s.a.w.) heart, having been annihilated in the overwhelming Love of Divine Essence.  The language of speaking is inadequate to reveal this teaching and the language of body, heart and soul.  We must listen to the tongue of Allah’s (s.w.t.) Caring because if He did not care, He would not be calling us.  For that reason, He Speaks to us by means of the tongue of His Love for is, Addressing us in the Qur’an. 

When one is in this state, he is prostrate before his Beloved in the qiblah of Love; he is annihilated in his Beloved to remain beloved by Him.  This is the meaning of the term of absolute eternal life.  The two are annihilated in each other so that both will remain Beloved of the other.  It is here that the Sufis say: 

“He who loves Me, knows Me,

And He who knows Me, finds Me,

And He who finds Me, becomes inflamed by My Passion.

I have Killed him, so that I may Bring him back to Life

And he whom I have Killed, I Owe him,

And to the one that is Owed,

I become That which is Owed,

There is no difference between Me and him,

Because I am he and he is I.” 

For the one who loves Allah (s.w.t.) in this fashion, it is imperative he truly taste the fire of Divine Passion.  This fire is not a fire of the senses; it is light upon light; light issuing like the fire of Moses (a.s.) when he stopped on the Mountain of Tajalli.  It is the same fire which issues from the Light of Allah (s.w.t.) to all His lovers and through the Insan al-Kamal, who carry the Presence of the Reality of the love of the Essence which is inherent in everything. 

Regarding the station of descent, it is not descending; its possessor stands on the summit of Divine Existence.  One who is inflamed in passion and slain by the One in Whose Passion he is inflamed, becomes the One Who Owes, and he becomes that which is Owed.  Therefore, the station of ascension teaches him about existence and the station of descent causes him to realise he is existence and none other.  There is nothing contained in existence except Allah (s.w.t.).  The station of ascension is a path that has two dimensions: the human being and God, and each of these is distinguishable.  As for the station of descent, it is Absolute Truth.  When all the senses disappear from a person, and he is Slain by the One in Whose Passion he is inflamed, he is finished with all the worlds.  The image of the human being disappears from him, and he reverts to his initial reality.  He returns to where he was in pre-eternity without method or dimension, without colour or form.  That his reality is the Reality of God.  For this reason: 

“He who loves Me by means of the veil of My Image,

Knows Me by means of My Knowledge that is My Image.

And he who knows Me by means of My Knowledge that it is My Image,

Finds Me in his image by means of My Image.

Then, he who finds Me in his image by means of My Image,

Becomes inflamed in My Passion by means of My Reality.

And he who becomes inflamed in My Passion by means of My Reality,

Is Slain by My Reality.

And whoever is Slain by My Reality,

My Reality is that which Owes him.

Whomever My Reality Owes,

There is no difference between him and My Reality.” 

This is talawwuh, consumption in the fire of Divine Reality, because when one has become inflamed in Divine Passion in this station, he becomes light upon light; a guiding light that reveals the way to people, outwardly to those who look without, and inwardly to those who look within.