True Lovers

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate

Assalaamu alaykum

Love is an emotional state whose reality cannot be described in words. However, the ability to love is inherently present in all human beings. We have been gifted with this attribute since the creation of our souls in Heaven. This deeply rooted quality manifests in us from the instant we were born.

Attraction is the initial stage of love. The higher stages of love result in tremendous energy, zeal, determination, going out of control, etc. All of us have experience it and are therefore capable of understanding the initial stage of love, namely attraction, but higher stages are experienced only by a few. However the nature of all human beings is endowed with an unlimited capacity to develop and refine their love.

There are countless stages of love and countless forms of its manifestation. The fruit of love, however, depends upon the stage of love and the status of the beloved.

Most people associate love with a variety of worldly objects. In these cases due to the dissipation of its power, love does not surface with any significant force or impact. However, those who select a single attractive worldly object and focus all their emotions upon it, do achieve success. But their love and the beloved worldly object are of such an inferior quality that these lovers are not counted amongst true lovers.

A few select the most valuable worldly object, namely a human being, as their beloved. Their love surpasses that of those who choose other worldly objects. This superiority is clearly due to the excellence of the human being over everything else in this world, in their unrivaled beauty and the ability to reciprocate the emotions of the lover.

The love story of Layla and Majnun is well known, but there are countless such lovers in this world.

We have seldom considered what these lovers gained by spending their precious love upon a created object, namely a man or a woman. No doubt their loves show hair-raising cases of sacrifice, determination, enormous will power, negation of ego, and eradication of major human shortcomings such as arrogance and pride, etc. But it needs to be asked however, what else did such lovers achieve. It is well known that they have invariably been ruined, thus becoming losers in this world and the hereafter. Such utter failure is the result of spending this most valuable gift from Allah, namely love, upon a perishable object. The beloved and the brilliant qualities which emerged in the lover, both having a finite life, the result was bound to be destruction.

Loving a mortal cannot be long-lived
Rather love the Living, the Eternal

A few of the many attributes of love are, incessant restlessness and never ending desires etc. For the fulfillment of these eternal desires, the beloved must also be never ending, looking at whom enhances the desire to continue looking, without ever quenching the thirst to look and admire. Clearly, such a beloved can be none other than Allah. Therefore it is extremely unfair to associate one’s love with anyone whose existence and attributes are finite.

There are and have been many lovers who were blessed with the guidance to apply their love upon the Everlasting. Such lovers achieve eternal success and are known as “the pious.” Those who make further progress and choose Allah as their beloved, gain entry into the group of “the near ones".

Story of Malik Bin Dinar and the Beautiful Slave

Following is the story of Malik b. Dinar (mercy be upon him), who invited a person engrossed in the love of this world towards eternal love.

Once Malik b. Dinar was passing through the streets of Basra, where he happened to see a female servant walking with the kind of pomp and show generally displayed by the maidservants of kings. Upon witnessing the manner of her walking Malik called her and said,: “O handmaid, would your master like to sell you?” She was really surprised to hear this and said, “What? Repeat it again.” Malik did accordingly, at which she said, “Would a beggar like you be able to purchase me if the master agreed to sell at all?” He replied in the affirmative, adding that he could purchase a better one than her. On hearing this she laughed and ordered the servants to take the beggar along with them (just as an amusement for the master). On reaching home she narrated the event to her master, who laughed boisterously and ordered Malik to be brought before him. When Malik was brought forward, the master was over-awed and asked, “What do you want?” In reply, he advised him to sell his handmaid to him. The master asked, “Can you pay her price?” Malik replied, “For me her price is no more than two stones of dates.” On hearing this the whole audience began to laugh. The master asked, “What prompted you to fix this price for her?” He replied that there were many shortcomings in her. Upon the master’s request Malik enumerated them thus:

If she does not apply perfume her body emits a foul smell. If she does not clean her teeth they begin to putrefy. If she does not comb her hair it becomes infested with lice. On becoming a bit older she would appear like an old woman not worthy to be loved. She menstruates. She makes water and relieves herself. In other words she emits all sorts of filth (spittle, mucus, saliva). She suffers from agonies and hardships. Being greedy, she shows her love to you merely for her self interests and material benefits. Today, if any loss is incurred by her due to you, the whole edifice of her love would crumble down in no time. She is based on falsehood. As soon as you breathe your last, she will sit by the side of another person and sing of her permanent and everlasting love for him, in the same way as she did for you. “In contrast,” said Malik, “I have a handmaid a thousand times better than your handmaid. Her price is very little. She is made of camphor’s essence. She has been fashioned out of musk and saffron. She is covered by pearls and light. If her spittle is cast in salty water, it will become sweet. Should she speak to a dead man, he would be revived. If her wrist is shown to the sun, it will suffer darkness and eclipse. If she visits a place of darkness, it will be illuminated. If she happens to appear in the world with all her elegance, the whole world will become fragrant. She is brought up in the gardens of musk and saffron. She has played amongst the branches of ruby and coral. Her abode is a place of great blessings. She drinks water from Tasnim (a fountain in paradise). She never backs out of her word. Her love is everlasting.” Malik (mercy be upon him) then asked the master to let him know which handmaid is more beneficial to him. All said unanimously that the handmaid described by Malik (mercy be upon him) was far more valuable. Then Malik said, “Every one can afford to buy her at any time and in every age.” Then Malik described the way to acquire her and the honor one gets in this world and the hereafter. He also described the other rewards which one gets. The master set the maidservant free, and both of them bade farewell to the worldly pleasures and dedicated themselves to Divine love.

There is little benefit in reading this story and other similar stories as a mere pastime and for deriving pleasure. These stories are narrated to invite us to develop our love toward Allah, who by His special Mercy has gifted us with the tendency to love Him by making us believers. In other words Allah intends that we should seek Him as our goal of love.

....وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓا۟ أَشَدُّ حُبًّا لِّلَّهِ...

...Those who believe are staunch in their love for Allah... [Qur'an, Al-Baqarah 2:165]

According to many narrations, love has been stipulated as something essential for faith.

“True belief is that when I and Allah become dearest to you."

In another Hadith:

“None of you can have (perfect) belief till I become dearer than your father, children and all mankind.”

Another Hadith goes beyond this, requiring that the love for the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) should exceed the love one has for one’s own life. The love of Allah being necessary for Iman, [faith] it implies that achieving such love must also be within the reach of all believers. Belief without love is defective. We should strive to remove this deficiency because weak Iman (faith) is unreliable and can perish.

The disobedience of Iblis (Satan) was on account of his being devoid of the love of Allah. Had he been in love, he could not have been arrogant towards his Creator and become a disbeliever.

The preliminary stages of love are the feelings of attraction and its highest stage is incessant yearning for the Beloved. There is no limit to this and it continues growing. The highest level of love was achieved only by our Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wasallam). He was gifted with the highest degree of love. Others get the love of Allah in lower degrees according to their fate. Stories of temporal love become insignificant to those who have observed the lovers of Allah (known as wali or wali-Allah). We should also strive to get our portion of true love, and thereby experience the sweetness of this world and the next. None should consider himself unworthy of Allah’s love. Such despair, if entertained, is the deception by which the devil attempts to keep people away from Allah. It is the Mercy of Allah that He has branded despair as being disbelief.

قَالَ وَمَن يَقْنَطُ مِن رَّحْمَةِ رَبِّهِۦٓ إِلَّا ٱلضَّآلُّونَ ﴿٥٦

...And who despair of the mercy of his Lord, but such as go astray. [Qur'an, Al-Hijr 15:56]

May Allah increase us in love for His beloved Messenger (sallallahu alayhi wasallam), his family and companions.

اللهم إني أسألك حبك، وحب من يحبك، والعمل الذي يبلغني حبك، اللهم اجعل حبك أحب إلى من نفسي، وأهلي، ومن الماء البارد‏

O Allah, I ask You for Your Love, the love of those who love You, and deeds which will cause me to attain Your Love. O Allah, Make Your Love dearer to me than myself, my family and the cold water.

Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa 'ala aalihi wa sahbihi wasallam.

And Allah knows best and He alone grants success.

Wassalaam