Chapter 1: Loving
My Dearest
There is no going back and
forth at the dominion of love.
There is also no explanations and descriptions. And delays and
procrastinations
find no path to this valley and the people who only understand the
Soorat (physical
shapes and forms) comprehend nothing of this.
This valley and its thirst
quenching brooks are lofty and
different (that anything else).
Although it is divine but not
meant for preaching/listening.
This wine is to be drunk and
no listening and no enquiring
shall bring you to the point of sipping.
There are three types of love:
- Causal
- Creation’s
- True
The Causal,[1] is mostly due to lust and desires.
The
Creation’s,[2] mostly due to destiny and
circumstances. The True Love is
endowed (divine from heavens). [3]
The love that arises from
Causalities of life shall descend
upon the Nafs (Self) and shall pull the Nafs lowly. The Creation’s Love
shall
gravitate the Nafs towards the same direction (creation). But the True
Love
shall give Nafs the true existence and life.
And that love that rises from
the Creation shall land on the
heart and shall destroy the heart. [4]
And that love that rises from
the Truth shall incubate
within the heart until taking him from “him self” away and make him
anew by It
Self.
The sign of (True) love is
when drown in the beauty of
Beloved, must face the Beloved without “him self”, and gaze upon the
Beloved
via the Beloved:
Forsaken
all that is my self [5]
Cognizant
of all that is the Beloved
Roasting
midst the fire of Its love
Smoldering
as much as I endured [6]
This love found in the
splendid court of the nonpareil One,
and one single meaning [7] for the phrase “They will love It”
and entire
creation are madly in love with the Creator:
Without
the being of you “It will love them”, I said
The pearls
of “They will love It”, I thread
Other than
I, none else, heard what I said
I was and
I heard My Self and I said
Chapter 2: Desire
The Desire is the fire that
its flames arose from the blazes
of love and the fragrance of existence, the incense fuming by the
burning face
of separation [8]. Longing is the destruction [9] and the lover in duress with
no sleep. It is the sole cause of yearning although It Self has no
case,
Beloved is the carrier to the valley of love and (lover) drinking from
the
brook of intimacy. Until the river of affection boils over and the
lover moans
and screams (with lover in its boiling waters). Indeed Mankind in fear,
hope,
deprivation and endowment drinks the poison to succumb to desire.
Because human
being capitulates only to the desire and withdraws. Yearning to be
without “him
self”. It is this precise moment where the lover is emptied (from all
else and
himself thus in comfort):
Though in
heartthrobs and withering away
At last
burnt and left with comforting solace
[1] For example sexual desire is a form
of love that pulls
two people together. It is Causal because caused by hormonal and other
physiological aspects for the most part (Koran [3:14]):
Beloved gave us this form of
loving in order to build
communities and nations and survive the elements of this often harsh
planet.
However, Mankind goes overboard with this lowest of love forms, and
succumbed
to it as the goal for life.
[2] Someone adopts a child and the
child grows up to love
the adopted parents. This is an act of destiny, which caused the
gravity
between lovers.
[3] I feel the best way to examine this
love is to find no
explanation for it. Someone or something or some act or some belief you
love
very much. And you cannot explain why? All contradictory events
surrounds this
love to the contrary i.e. dislike and hate but… you are in love. I
suspect that
is the True love divine. Example I have found true with a historic and
deep
personal experience is mentioned in Koran [8:63]:
Arabs are the children of
Prophet Abraham PBUH from the side
of Ishmail. And they roamed the Arabia since before Prophet Moses and
Jesus.
They never formed any serious civilization in terms of nation building
and
infrastructure like the Greeks or Persians or Romans. To their
astonished eyes
and later on to the shocked eyes of the King of Persia this nation of
nomadic
people of few formed an amazing civilization in less that 30 years and
conquered Iran and sat on the borders of Rome making demands. Beloved
tells us
that this love came from It for the Arabs surrounding the Prophet.
Notice no
explanation can be given to this rise of weaklings and people of almost
no
resources and populations.
[4] For example the nationalistic love
for the country or an
ideal of government, once gone to excess as you see these days,
destroys people
and nations. And yes destroys their humanity, as Ansaari said destroys
their
heart. Therefore, a Sufi must teach his people to observe limits on the
first
two types of love. Self-restraint in this loving is necessary for
bother
individual and their nations as well as the survival of their hearts.
[5] To forsaken one’s self is not to
fast each day, sleep
little, abstain from sexuality and leave business and what not. That is
Yoga!
That is no Sufism! I do not mean to belittle Yoga or such teachings by
no
means. My best understanding of what this term or shall I say state of
the
heart means is rather subtle: Live as though you mean not to leave any
lasting effect
on anyone or anything, like a traveler passing through or like a
patient living
his last day. You might still eat well, but if you do not eat, you are
not sad
or depressed. You might have a lover, but if you are alone, you are
just the
same in terms of happiness. You might do business, but if you do not,
you are a
fine man struggling with poverty. This topic is central to my research
and we
will come back to it many more times INSHALLAH.
[6] The more patient you are in the
trials and tribulations
of the Beloved, the more you love It and burn in Its desire to meet.
[7] The Arabic word ‘Nass’ has been
translated into
‘verbatim’ but I expanded the meaning by saying “one single meaning”. I
felt
that is more true to the feeling of the text.
[8] We exist in this form because of
two factors:
- Creator the Beloved loved us and thus
we are formed
- Separated from the Beloved and
imprisoned on this planet
So Ansaari says we are filled
with desires because of the
love that has created us. Some desires to go back to the Creator and
some
desires for this world but nonetheless the desires emanates from the
fire of
the Creator’s love.
In our current form on this
planet we are like the fragrance
of existence i.e. from all direction we exist and we see existence like
the
vapor of a perfume filling up the space. And this fragrance is the
burning of
the incense of separation from the Beloved. Amazing poetry and amazing
accuracy. No ambiguous words.
[9] Love and its longing are the
fundamental destroyer of Mankind. We love to
live and going through this life we cause ourselves and bodies damages
that
eventually brings us to our death. We love to eat and most of what we
eat
damages our bodies and we wither away. We love our people and things
and we
fight for them and sometimes we die from conflicts. But for the Sufi,
that love
that really destroys him is the love for the Creator. First it destroys
“him
self” by taking him away from the self. Second, it catapults him to the
Beloved and
his heart dies and nothing of self left except the Beloved. So Ansaari
claims,
Love and its longing are what cause a Sufi to die.
©
2003-2002,
Dara Shayda
