Monday, July 30, 2012

The Divine Love: Non-Attachment To Desires & Appetites of the Lower Self

This is a short teaching from my master Sidi Muhammad (www.sufimaster.org)...


Allah the Praised and Most High said to His Holy Prophet, "Go tell the
people: If you love Allah Follow me (the prophet) and Allah will love you."
And Allah, Great and Exalted said, "They who truly love me will have deep
love for their brothers and sisters-this love for them ever increasing
their love for Me." The Prophet, may the blessings and peace of Allah be
upon him, said, "You become a true believer when your love for Allah and
His Messenger becomes greater than anything else." And he also said, "Love
Allah for the blessings He has given you and love me for Allah's love
towards me."

Know, and may Allah bless you, that loving is a noble state given by the
Truth to mankind and He has told man about His love towards him. For the
Truth, Praised and Exalted is He, is attributed with loving His servant and
the servant attributed with loving the truth. Loving Allah means not to
associate anything with Him in the complete love. This is a central and
important issue in the Faith of Unity. The one who truly loves Allah,
loves the Prophet, the family and others but he loves them for and through
his love for Allah.


The human being who knows the true value of loving Allah and His Prophet
crosses the nonessential characteristics of the outer world, fighting and
going beyond worldly possessions, finding the gratification of Allah and
obeying the orders of the Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation.
The words of Allah are very clear to each human being facing such a state,
"If it be that your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your mates or your
kindred, the wealth that you have gained, or the dwelling in which you
delight are dearer to you than God or His Apostle or the striving in His
cause, then wait until God brings about His decision; and God guides not
the rebellious." (sura at-tawba: 24)

The state of loving Allah and His messenger-were it to be compared with the
station of indifference to worldly things (zuhd), brings a human to become
a fighter (mujahid) for Allah, a truthful fighter.
The jihad, the holy
war, is the test in which man confirms his non-attachment to following his
desires and appetites and his struggle to comforting his lower self (nafs)
and his attachment to people, money, and other things (such as alcohol or drugs).
 
Divine Love is not only an emotional and mental state, it is an emotional state followed by
deeds and by true jihad.


In love there are two kinds of lovers-those who are believers and are
attached to Allah and those who have taken the world as what they love,
becoming slaves in their relation to this outer world (dunya). They become
slaves to the world similar to those who worship for the hereafter, asking
for Paradise and fearing Hell. Allah's Anger comes upon them and He
describes them, "Yet there are men who take (for worship) others besides
Allah as equal (with Allah), loving them as they should love Allah. But
those of Faith overflow in their love for Allah." (al-baqara:165) Divine
Love is the longing of the slave to meet his Lord and to find His
contentment. This means the believer must follow the example of the
Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation to do as he said and to
keep away from things that he denied. This is clarified in the words of
Allah, "If you love Allah, follow Me and Allah will love you."

Al-Qurtubi said in his explanation of the words of the Sufi Sahl B.
Abdullah on the love of Allah, "The sign of loving Allah is loving the
Quran. The sign of loving the Quran is loving the Prophet, Allah blesses
him and grants him salvation. The sign of loving the Prophet is loving the
hereafter. And the sign of loving the hereafter is loving oneself. The
sign of loving oneself is leaving the outer world. And the sign of leaving
the outer world is taking from it only what is needed for survival.

Questions arise: "What is the Divine Love? And when is this love
exchanged between Allah and His slave?"


The beginning is that the human being directs himself completely with no
regard to Allah. He listens not to what satisfies Allah, with his eyes
wondering about things ordered by Allah. He does not walk only to what
Allah commanded. We hear about this behavior from the words of the holy
people in the hadith Qudsi, "The one who becomes the enemy to one of My
holy people is in war with Me. The sweetest way to come closer to Me is by
following what I have ordered for humanity. And he comes even closer
through supererogatory deeds until I love him. And when I love him I become
the ears he hears through and the eyes he sees through and the hands he
strikes through and the feet he walks with. And if he asks for something,
he is given, and if he asks for refuge, he is granted and I will not
hesitate in giving him everything, for I am his Doer. The believer hates
death and I hate to cause him any harm, because if I kill him I owe him and
there is no difference between He and I." This means Allah loves the holy
people after their love is true to Him and they have deep yearning to come
closer to Him. Once they reach this state all their deeds begin to satisfy
Allah. For their love of Him causes them to obey Him keeping them away
from all that is forbidden. The believer, the Beloved of Allah, tastes a
sweetness and joy in his emotions and heart. This is given only to the
true worshippers of Allah.


Anas B. Malik, may Allah be pleased with him, transmitted to us from the
Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, who said, "Three things
bring about the beauty of faith: that one loves Allah and the Prophet more
than anything else, that he loves people for the sake of Allah, and that he
hates going back to sin with the same degree as he hates jumping into
fire." Allah loves his slave and He gives him complete compassion and
care. And when the slave loves Allah he obeys him yearning to meet Him.
The outer world becomes easy for him. He longs to meet Allah. This makes
him a mujahid-one determined and firm for the sake of Allah, not fearing
death and not attached to the outer world.

Know, may Allah protect you, that there are three kinds of love: the
general love, the love of the truthful and convinced, and the love of the
Righteous and Knowers. The state of love flows from the beneficence the
knowers receive from Allah and His mercy upon them. The Prophet, may Allah
bless him and grant him salvation, said, "Their hearts are naturally
disposed to the one that is beneficent and hateful to the one who is
harmful." The condition of this state of love is purity of affection and
desire with constant remembrance (dhikr). For when you love something, you
constantly mention it and it is known that true love means to be in the
heart in accordance with Allah and to be committed to that, to follow the
Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him salvation, and to be
persistent in the remembrance and finding the sweetness of secret
conversation with Allah-Being always in the station of praise and
appreciation of the Beloved and in obedience and in conformance with Him.
As is said:

"If My love is true I will obey you,
For the Lover is obedient to the one he loves."

The second state comes with seeing the richness of the heart of Allah, His
Exaltedness, His Majesty, His Knowing and His Omnipotence. This is the
love of the truthful, the convinced. Blessedness comes to the ones who
have drunk from the cup of His Love, tasting the blessings of His Exalted
Secret Conversations and His Closeness. The sweetness of his love fills
his heart and he flies in pleasure with Allah, in rapture with his longing,
so much in love his only calm lies in Him. The third state of love is the
love of the Righteous and the Knowers, so named for their knowledge of the
everlasting ancient love of Allah; their love for Him is everlasting and
without weakness. The attribute of this love is complete purity. The
complete pure love of Allah removes the senses and the heart from the love
until everything is completely in Allah and from Allah. This is the case
of the true lover of Allah. Love is only complete when the lover stops
seeing the love-seeing only his Beloved, annihilating the love from being
his so that when the lover reaches this state he becomes a lover without
love.

Junayd was asked about love and he answered, "The entering of the
attributes of the lover into the attributes of the Beloved." It is the
seizure of the Beloved over the heart of the lover. Only the attributes of
the Beloved are left, annihilating all attributes of self and the feeling
for them. Even the love vanishes as you rise completely into the One you
love-nothing stays behind. Love is called love because it erases everything
other than the Beloved. Love means that the heart turns to Allah and to
what is of Allah without constraint. It is giving all of what you are to
the one you love. There is a joy in the creation and consumption in the
Creator. Consumption meaning you have no more situations of luck or no
luck; your love has no weakness and you, no defectiveness. Sahl said, "He
who loves Allah lives and he who loves is not alive." Meaning that life
becomes light for the lover who enjoys all that comes from his Beloved, may
it be good or bad. Not being alive means out of his fear of not
reaching-the fear of losing his life vanishes.

Know that the love of the slave to Allah is exaltation, solving secrets no
other can cross. And the love of Allah to His slave is that He draws his
attention to Him so that he is deteriorated from all other. This is the
meaning of the words of Allah, Exalted is He, "I have made you for Myself!"
No other has access to the excess of witnessing the alteration and
observance of the states. Some say love has two faces: The love of ifrart
which is for both the common and the special people and the love of ecstasy
(wajd) in which there is no seeing of the self or creation nor the seeing
of the reasons and purposes. Rather one is completely drowned in seeing
what is for Allah and what is from Him.

Rabi'a al-Adawiyya, may Allah be pleased with her, has expressed what
Divine Love is through her words:

I love You two kinds of love,
A love of longing and a love because You deserve that love.
Through the love of longing I am attracted to You
from all other, through remembrance.
And through the other love,
I cannot see the Universe before seeing You,
But it is not for me to praise in this or in that love,
But the praise is to You in this and that.

Love blinds and deafens. It makes blind all but the Beloved. The Prophet,
Allah blesses him and grants him salvation, said about loving in a poem:

Love has made me deaf from all but His words,
For the one who loves inherits deafness.
My eyes wander upon Him,
For love makes blind
In it lies one's death.

Allah bestow upon me Your love and the love of the ones who love You and
the love of the ones who help me come closer to You. Make Your love to me
be greater than my love to myself.

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