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FIGURATIVE
LOVE AND DIVINE LOVE
Love is
the raison d’étre of this universe.
O my selfish soul! O
worldly friend! Love is the raison d’étre of this universe. It is also the
bond between all things, and the light of existence and its life. Since man is
the most comprehensive fruit of existence, a love so overflowing as to invade
the whole universe has been included in the heart of that fruit, which is its
seed or core. One who deserves such an infinite love may therefore only be one
with infinite perfection.
Therefore, O soul and
friend, there are in man’s nature two faculties, one being the means of fear,
the other, of love. In whichever case, that love and fear is felt for either
the created or the Creator. Fear of the created is a painful affliction, and
love of the created, a troublesome pain. For you fear such things or persons
that they neither have mercy on you nor accept your request. If this is so,
fear of the created is a painful trouble. As for love of the created, those you
love either do not care for you, or as is the case with your youth and your
possessions, leave you without saying farewell. Do you not see that ninety-nine
percent of lovers complain of their beloved ones. Because love of the idol-like
worldly beloved from the bottom of one’s heart, which is the mirror of the
Eternally-Besought-of-All, is unbearable in the view of the beloved ones and
therefore rejected. For man naturally rejects and repels what is unnatural and
undeserved. (Animal love is out of question here.)
The
worldly beloveds either do not care for you or
belittle you or do not accompany you
In short, those that you
love either do not care for you or belittle you or do not accompany you.
Contrary to your desire, they leave you. Since this is so, turn your fear and
love toward such a One that your fear will be a pleasant humility and your
love, a happiness free of humiliation. Fearing the All-Majestic Creator means
finding a way to His Compassion and taking refuge in Him. In fact, fear is a
“whip” to stimulate one into the embrace of His Compassion. As is known to
everybody, a mother frightens her child away from something or someone and
attracts him into her arms. That fear is very pleasurable for the child because
it draws him into the arms of care and compassion. However, the care and
compassion shared by all the mothers in the world is only a ray from the
Compassion of God. That means, there is a very great pleasure in fear of God.
If there is such great pleasure in fear of God, you can understand what
infinite pleasure there is in love of Him. Furthermore, the one who fears God
is freed of the worrying, troublesome fear of others, and his love of created
beings in the Name of God does not cause pain and separation.
O soul,
if you have a sound mind, give all the love you divide among beings to the One
Who deserves it truly, and be saved from all those pains and troubles.
Man’s first love,
before all others, is his self. Then, he loves his family and kin, his nation,
living beings, the world, and the universe. He has relations with each of these
spheres. He takes pleasure in their satisfaction and happiness, and feels pain
at their pain. However, since nothing remains in a fixed state in this
tumultuous, ever-changing world, the heart of helpless man is continuously
wounded. The things he clings to slip out of his hands, scratching, cutting
them. He always remains in pain, or throws himself into the drunkenness of
heedlessness. Since this is so, O soul, if you have a sound mind, give all the
love you divide among beings to the One Who deserves it truly, and be saved
from all those pains and troubles. Only One Who owns infinite perfection and
beauty deserves infinite love, and only when you are able to assign that love
to its rightful owner, then for His sake and in respect of their being mirrors
to Him, you may love all things without suffering any pains and troubles. That
is, that love must not directly be assigned to existence for the sake of
existence itself. Otherwise, while being a most pleasurable divine grace, love
becomes a most painful ailment.
O soul!
In the same way as darkness shows the strength of light proportionally to its
density, according to the rule of contrasts, you should act, through those
essential elements of your nature, as a mirror to the All-Majestic Creator’s
Perfection, Grace, Beauty, Power, and Mercy.
There is another aspect
of the matter, which is this: O soul! You assign your love to your self. You
idolize yourself and see it as worthy of adoration, which must be assigned to
God only. You sacrifice everything for your self, and revere it as though the
Lord. Whereas, something is loved either for its perfection-for perfection is
loved because of itself-or for its benefit or the pleasure it gives or the good
it brings or something else of a similar nature. Now, O soul! I have
convincingly argued in some of the Words that your nature is “kneaded
together” out of defect and deficiency, and destitution and impotence. In the
same way as darkness shows the strength of light proportionally to its density,
according to the rule of contrasts, you should act, through those essential
elements of your nature, as a mirror to the All-Majestic Creator’s
Perfection, Grace, Beauty, Power, and Mercy.
So, O soul! You should
cherish not love but enmity for your self [because it tries all the time to
seduce you] or have pity on it. Or after it has attained to the rank of being a
peaceful self due to its full conviction of the truth of the principles of
faith and satisfaction in worship, you should show care and mercy to it.
O soul!
If you love your (carnal) self, since it is addicted to pleasure and always
looks after its own interest, it means you have been captivated by pleasure and
self-interest.
If you love your
(carnal) self, since it is addicted to pleasure and always looks after its own
interest, it means you have been captivated by pleasure and self-interest. Do
not prefer such pleasures and self-interest, which are quite insignificant,
over boundless true pleasures and advantages. Do not be like a firefly! For it
drowns all its friends and everything it loves in the fright and solitude of
darkness, and contents itself with a tiny glow of its own. You should love the
Eternally Beloved One in Whose favor, together with your animal pleasures and
interests, the interests of all the beings with whom you have relations and
from whom you receive benefits and whose happiness makes you feel happy,
originate. By doing that, you may take pleasure in the happiness of all of
them, and receive the same infinite pleasure as that which you receive from the
Absolutely Perfect One.
O soul!
Your intense love for your self is, in fact, the innate love for His Essence,
which you unconsciously carry in yourself but wrongly appropriate for your
self.
Your intense love for
your self is, in fact, the innate love for His Essence, which you unconsciously
carry in yourself but wrongly appropriate for your self. That being the truth,
tear apart the “I” in yourself and show “He.” Also, all the instances
of love which you share among the beings in the universe are, in fact, the love
implanted in your being for Him, because of the misappropriation of which you
suffer pains and troubles. For the return of an “illicit” love cherished
for those that are unworthy of it is pitiless ailment. The Eternal, Beloved
One, through His Names of Most Merciful and Compassionate has created an abode
like Paradise full of houris, where you will be able to satisfy all of
your bodily desires. Through His other Names He has prepared for you in that
Paradise eternal favors with which to meet all the needs of all of your
immaterial faculties including your spirit, heart, intellect and innermost
senses. In each of His Names are numerous immaterial treasuries of favor and
munificence. An atom of love for the Eternal Beloved may compensate for the
whole universe. Rather, the whole universe cannot compensate for a single
particular manifestation of His love. If this is so, listen to the following
eternal decree which the Eternal, Beloved One made His beloved declare, and
follow it:
If you really love
God, follow me that God may love you.
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