CHAPTER VIII
THE LOVE OF GOD
The love of God is the highest of all topics,
and is the final aim to which we have been tending hitherto. We have spoken
of spiritual dangers as they hinder the love of God in a man's heart, and
we have spoken of various good qualities as being the necessary preliminaries
to it. Human perfection resides in this: that the love of God should conquer
a man's heart and possess it wholly, and even if it does not possess it
wholly it should predominate in the heart over the love of all other things.
Nevertheless, rightly to understand the love of God is so difficult a matter
that one sect of theologians have altogether denied that man can love a
Being who is not of his own species, and they have defined the love of
God as consisting merely in obedience. Those who hold such views do not
know what real religion is.
All Moslims are agreed that the love of God is
a duty. God says concerning the believers, "He loves them and they love
Him," [1] and the Prophet said, "Till a man loves God
and His Prophet more than anything else he has not the right faith." When
the angel of death came to take the soul of Abraham the latter said, "Have
you ever seen a friend take his friend's life?" God answered him, "Have
you ever seen a friend unwilling to see his friend?" Then Abraham said,
"O Azrael! take my soul!" The following prayer was taught by the Prophet
to his companions, "O God, grant me to love Thee and to love those who
love Thee, and whatsoever brings me nearer to Thy love, and make Thy love
more precious to me than cold water to the thirsty." Hassan Basri used
to say, "He who knows God loves Him, and he who knows the world hates it."
We come now to treat of love in its essential
nature. Love may be defined as an inclination to that which is pleasant.
This is apparent in the case of the five senses, each of which may be said
to love that which gives it delight; thus the eye loves beautiful forms,
the ear music, etc. This is a kind of love we share with the animals. But
there is a sixth sense, or faculty of perception, implanted in the heart,
which animals do not possess, through which we become aware of spiritual
beauty and excellence. Thus, a man who only acquainted with sensuous delights
cannot understand what the Prophet meant when he said he loved prayer more
than perfumes or women, though the last two were also pleasant to him.
But he whose inner eye is opened to behold the beauty and perfection of
God will despise all outward sights in comparison, however fair they may
be.
The former kind of man will say that beauty resides
in red and white complexions, well proportioned limbs, and so forth, but
he will be blind to moral beauty, such as men refer to when they speak
of such and such a man as possessing a "beautiful" character. But those
possessed of inner perception find it quite possible to love the departed
great, such as the Caliphs Omar and Abu Bakr, on account of their noble
qualities, though their bodies have long been mingled with the dust. Such
love is directed not towards any outward form, but towards the inner character.
Even when we wish to excite love in a child towards anyone, we do not describe
their outward beauty or form, etc., but their inner excellences.
When we apply this principle to the love of God
we shall find that He alone is worthy of our love, and that, if anyone
loves Him not, it is because he does not know Him. Whatever we love in
anyone we love because it is a reflection of Him. It is for this reason
that we love Muhammad, because he is the Prophet and the Beloved of God,
and the love of learned and pious men is really the love of God. We shall
see this more clearly if we consider what are the causes which excite love.
The first cause is this, that man loves himself
and the perfection of his own nature. This leads him directly to the love
of God, for man's very existence and man's attributes are nothing else
but the gift of God, but for whose grace and kindness man would never have
emerged from behind the curtain of non-existence into the visible world.
Man's preservation and eventual attainment to perfection are also entirely
dependent upon the grace of God. It would indeed be a wonder, if one should
take refuge from the heat of the sun under the shadow of a tree and not
be grateful to the tree, without which there would be no shadow, at all.
Precisely in the same way, were it not for God, man would have no existence
nor attributes at all; wherefore, then, should he not love God, unless
he be ignorant of Him? Doubtless fools cannot love Him, for the love of
Him springs directly from the knowledge of Him, and whence should a fool
have knowledge?
The second cause of this love is that man loves
his benefactor, and in truth his only Benefactor is God, for whatever kindness
he receives from any fellow-creature is due to the immediate instigation
of God. Whatever motive may have prompted the kindness he receives from
another, whether the desire to gain religious merit or a good name, God
is the Agent who set that motive to work.
The third cause is the love that is aroused by
contemplation of the attributes of God; His Power and wisdom, of which
human power and wisdom are but the feeblest reflections. This love is akin
to that we feel to the great and good men of the past, such as the Imam
Malik and the Imam Shaf'i, [2] though we never expect
to receive any personal benefits from them, and is therefore a more disinterested
kind of love. God said to the Prophet David, "That servant is dearest to
Me who does not seek Me from fear of punishment or hope of reward, but
to pay the debt due to My Deity." And in the Psalms it is written, "Who
is a greater transgressor than he who worships Me from fear of hell or
hope of heaven? If I had created neither, should I not then have deserved
to be worshipped?"
The fourth cause of this love is the affinity
between man and God, which is referred to in the saying of the Prophet,
"Verily God created man in His own likeness." Furthermore, God has said,
"My servant seeks proximity to Me, that I may make him My friend, and when
I have made him My friend I become his ear, his eye, his tongue." Again,
God said to Moses, "I was sick, and thou didst not visit Me?" Moses
replied, "O God! Thou art Lord of Heaven and Earth: how couldest Thou be
sick?" God said, "A certain servant of Mine was sick; hadst thou visited
him, thou wouldst have visited Me."
This is a somewhat dangerous topic to dwell upon,
as it is beyond the understanding of common people, and even intelligent
men have stumbled in treating of it, and come to believe in incarnation
and union with God. Still the affinity which does exist between man and
God disposes of the objection of those theologians mentioned above, who
maintain that man cannot love a being who is not of his own species. However
great the distance between them, man can love God because of the affinity
indicated in the saying, "Godcreated man in His own likeness."
The Vision of God
All Muslims profess to believe that the Vision
of God is the summit of human felicity, because it is so stated in the
Law; but with many this is a mere lip-profession which arouses no emotion
in their hearts. This is quite natural, for how can a man long for a thing
of which he has no knowledge? We will endeavour to show briefly why the
Vision of God is the greatest happiness to which a man can attain.
In the first place, everyone of man's faculties
has its appropriate function which it delights to fulfill. This holds good
of them all, from the lowest bodily appetite to the highest form of intellectual
apprehension. But even a comparatively low form of mental exertion affords
greater pleasure than the satisfaction of bodily appetites. Thus, if a
man happens to be absorbed in a game of chess, he will not come to his
meal, though repeatedly summoned. And the higher the subject-matter of
our knowledge, the greater is our delight in it; for instance, we would
take more pleasure in knowing the secrets of a king than the secrets of
a vizier. Seeing, then, that God is the highest possible object of knowledge,
the knowledge of Him must afford more delight than any other. He who knows
God, even in this world, dwells, as it were, in a paradise, "the breadth
of which is as the breadth of the Heavens and the Earth," a paradise the
fruits of which no envy can prevent him plucking, and the extent of which
is not narrowed by the multitude of those who occupy it.
But the delight of knowledge still falls short
of the delight of vision, just as our pleasure in thinking of those we
love is much less than the pleasure afforded by the actual sight of them.
Our imprisonment in bodies of clay and water, and entanglement in the things
of sense constitute a veil which hides the Vision of God from us, although
it does not prevent our attaining to some knowledge of Him. For this reason
God said to Moses on Mount Sinai, "Thou shalt not see Me."
The truth of the matter is this that, just as
the seed of man becomes a man, and a buried date stone becomes a palm
tree, so the knowledge of God acquired on Earth will in the Next World
change into the Vision of God, and he who has never learnt the knowledge
will never have the Vision. This Vision will not be shared alike by all
who know, but their discernment of it will vary exactly as their knowledge.
God is one, but He will be seen in many different ways, just as one object
is reflected in different ways by different mirrors, some showing it straight,
and some distorted, some clearly and some dimly. A mirror may be so crooked
as to make even a beautiful form appear misshapen, and a man may carry
into the next world a heart so dark and distorted that the sight which
will be a source of peace and joy to others will be to him a source of
misery. He, in whose heart the love of God has prevailed over all else,
will derive more joy from this vision than he in whose heart it has not
so prevailed; just as in the case of two men with equally powerful eyesight,
gazing on a beautiful face, he who already loves the possessor of that
face will rejoice in beholding it more than he who does not. For perfect
happiness mere knowledge is not enough, unaccompanied by love, and the
love of God cannot take possession of a man's heart till it be purified
from love of the world, which purification can only be effected by abstinence
and austerity. While he is in this world a man's condition with regard
to the Vision of God is like that of a lover who should see his beloved's
face in the twilight, while his clothes are infested with hornets and scorpions,
which continually, torment him. But should the sun arise and reveal his
beloved's face in all its beauty, and the noxious vermin leave off molesting
him, then the lover's joy will be like that of God's servant, who, released
from the twilight and the tormenting trials of this world, beholds Him
without a veil.
Yahya lbn Muaz relates, "I watched Bayazid Bistami
at prayer through one entire night. When be bad finished he stood up and
said, 'O Lord! some of Thy servants have asked and obtained of Thee the
power to perform miracles, to walk on the sea, and to fly in the air, but
this I do not ask; some have asked and obtained treasures, but these I
do not ask.' Then he turned and, seeing me, said, 'Are you there, Yahya?'
I replied, 'Yes.' He asked, 'Since when?' I answered, 'For a long time.'
I then asked him to reveal, to me some of his spiritual experiences. 'I
will reveal,' he answered, 'what is lawful to tell you. The Almighty, showed
me His kingdom, from its loftiest to its lowest; He raised me above the
throne and the seat and all the seven heavens. Then He said "Ask of
me whatsoever thing thou desirest." I answered, "Lord! I wish for nothing
beside Thee." "Verily," He said, "thou art My servant."
On another occasion Bayazid said, "Were God to
offer thee the intimacy with Himself of Abraham, the power in prayer of
Moses, the spirituality of Jesus, yet keep thy face directed to Him only,
for He has treasures surpassing even these." One day a friend said to him,
"For thirty years I have fasted by day and prayed by night and have found
none of that spiritual joy of which thou speakest." Bayazid answered, "If
you fasted and prayed for three hundred years, you would never find it."
"How is that?" asked the other. "Because," said Bayazid, "your selfishness
is acting as a veil between you and God." "Tell me, then, the cure." "It
is a cure which you cannot carry out." However, as his friend pressed him
to reveal it, Bayazid said, "Go to the nearest barber and have your beard
shaved; strip yourself of your clothes, with the exception of a girdle
round your loins. Take a horse's nosebag full of walnuts, hang it round
your neck, go into the bazaar and cry out, 'Any boy who gives me a slap
on the nape of my neck shall have a walnut.' Then, in this manner, go where
the Qadi and the doctors of the law are sitting." "Bless my soul!" said
his friend, "I really can't do that, do suggest some other remedy." "This
is the indispensable preliminary to a cure,' answered Bayazid, "but, as
I told you, you are incurable."
The reason Bayazid indicated this method of cure
for want of relish in devotion was that his friend was an ambitious seeker
after place and honour. Ambition and pride are diseases which can only
be cured in some such way. God said unto Jesus, "O Jesus! when I see
in My servants' hearts pure love for Myself unmixed with any selfish desire
concerning this world or the next, I act as guardian over that love."
Again, when people asked Jesus "What is the highest work of all?" he answered,
"To love God and to be resigned to his will." The Saint Rabia was once
asked whether she loved the Prophet: "The love of the Creator," she said,
"has prevented my loving the creature." Ibrahim Ben Adham, in his prayers,
said, "O God! in my eyes Heaven itself is less than a gnat in comparison
with the love of Thee and the joy of Thy remembrance which thou hast granted
me."
He who supposes that it is possible to enjoy the
love of God is far gone in error, for the very essence of the future life
is to arrive at God as at an object of desire long aimed at and attained
through countless obstacles. This enjoyment of God is happiness. But if
he had no delight in God before, he will not delight in Him then, and if
his joy in God was but slight before it will be but slight then. In brief,
our future happiness will be in strict proportion to the degree in which
we have loved God here.
But (and may God preserve us from such a doom!)
if in a man's heart there has been growing up a love of what is opposed
to God, the conditions of the next life will be altogether alien to him,
and that which will cause joy to others will to him cause misery.
This may be illustrated by the following anecdote:
A certain scavenger went into the perfume sellers' bazaar, and, smelling
the sweet scents, fell down unconscious. People came round him and sprinkled
rose-water upon him and held musk to his nose, but he only became worse.
At last one came who had been a scavenger himself; he held a little filth
under the man's nose and he revived instantly, exclaiming, with a sigh
of satisfaction, "Ah! this is perfume indeed!" Thus in the next life a
worlding will no longer find the filthy lucre and the filthy pleasures
of the world; the spiritual joys of that world will be altogether alien
to him and but increase his wretchedness. For the next world is a world
of Spirit and of the manifestation of the Beauty of God; happy is
that man who has aimed at and acquired affinity with it. All austerities,
devotions, studies have the acquirement of that affinity for their aim,
and that affinity is love. This is the meaning of that saying of the Koran,
"He who has purified his soul is happy." Sins and lusts directly
oppose the attainment of this affinity; therefore the Koran goes on to
say, "and he who has corrupted his soul is miserable." Those who
are gifted with spiritual insight have really grasped this truth as a fact
of experience, and not a merely traditional maxim. Their clear perception
of it leads them to the conviction that he by whom it was spoken was a
prophet indeed, just as a man who has studied medicine knows when he is
listening to a physician. This is a kind of certainty which requires no
support from miracles such as the conversion of a rod into a snake, the
credit of which may be shaken by apparently equally extraordinary miracles
performed by magicians.
The Signs of the Love of God
Many claim to love God, but each should examine
himself as to the genuineness of the love which he professes. The first
test is this: he should not dislike the thought of death, for no friend
shrinks from going to see a friend. The Prophet said, "Whoever wishes to
see God, God wishes to see him." It is true a sincere lover of God may
shrink from the thought of death coming before he has finished his preparation
for the next world but if he is sincere, he will be diligent in making
such preparation.
The second test of sincerity is that a man should
be willing to sacrifice his will to God's, should cleave to what brings
him nearer to God, and should shun what places him at a distance from God.
The fact of a man's sinning is no proof that he does not love God at all,
but it proves that he does not love Him with his whole heart. The saint
Fudhail said to a certain man, "If anyone asks you whether you love God,
keep silent; for if you say, 'I do not love Him,' you are an infidel; and
if you say, 'I do,' your deeds contradict you."
The third test is that the remembrance of God
should always remain fresh in a man's heart without effort, for what a
man loves he constantly remembers, and if his love is perfect he never
forgets it. It is possible, however, that, while the love of God does not
take the first place in a man's heart, the love of the love of God may,
for love is one thing and the love of love another.
The fourth test is that he will love the Koran,
which is the Word of God, and Muhammad, who is the Prophet of God; if his
love is really strong, be will love all men, for all are God's servants,
nay, his loves will embrace the whole creation, for he who loves anyone
loves the works he composes and his handwriting.
The fifth test is, he will be covetous of retirement
and privacy for purposes of devotion; he will long for the approach of
night, so that he may hold intercourse with his Friend without let or hindrance.
If he prefers conversation by day and sleep at night to such retirement,
then his love is imperfect. God said to David, "Be not too intimate with
men; for two kinds of persons are excluded from My presence: those who
are earnest in seeking reward and slack when they obtain it, and those
who prefer their own thoughts to the remembrance of Me. The sign of My
displeasure is that I leave such to themselves."
In truth, if the love of God really takes possession
of the heart all other love is excluded. One of the Children of Israel
was in the habit of praying at night, but, observing that a bird sang in
a certain tree very sweetly, he began to pray under that tree, in order
to have the pleasure of listening to the bird. God told David to go and
say to him, "Thou hast mingled the love of a melodious bird with the love
of Me; thy rank among the saints is lowered." On the other band, some have
loved God with such intensity that, while they were engaged in devotion,
their houses have caught fire and they have not noticed it.
A sixth test is that worship becomes easy. A certain
saint said, "During one space of thirty years I performed my night-devotions
with great difficulty, but during a second space of thirty years they became
a delight." When love to God is complete no joy is equal to the joy of
worship.
The seventh test is that lovers of God will love
those who obey Him and hate the infidels and the disobedience, as the Koran
says: "They are strenuous against the unbelievers and merciful to each
other." The Prophet once asked God and said. "O Lord, who are Thy lovers?"
and the answer came, "Those who cleave to Me as a child to its mother,
take refuge in the remembrance of Me as a bird seeks the shelter of its
nest, and are as angry at the sight of sin as an angry lion who fears nothing."
1. Koran.
2. Founders of the sects which bear their
names.
table of contents
|