| Excerpts From Kashf al Mahjub |
| This Website is created and maintained by Seema Arif |
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| (pages 304-313) |
| LOVE |
| Sumnun Muhibb has said, �The lovers of God have borne away the glory of this world and the next: Hazrat Muhammad (SAW) has said �A Man is with the object of his Love.� Therefore they are with God in both worlds, and those who are with God can do no wrong. The glory of this world is God�s being with them, and the glory of the next world is their being with God. Yahya b. Muadh al Razi has said, �Real Love is neither diminished by unkindness nor increased by kindness and bounty,� because in Love both kindness and unkindness are causes, and the cause of a thing is reduced to nothing when the thing actually exists. A lover delights in the affliction that his beloved makes him suffer, and having love he regards kindness and unkindness with the same indifference. |
| Sumnun al Muhibb holds a peculiar doctrine concerning Love. He has asserted that all �states� and �stations� are stages of Love, and that every stage and abode, which the seeker may destruct, except the abode of Love, which is not destructible in any circumstances so long as the way itself remains in existence. Other shaykhs agree with him on this matter and to keep the doctrine of Divine Love hidden, they have named it �purity� or (safawat), and the lover they called Sufi; and they use the word �poverty� (faqr) to denote the renunciation of the lover�s personal will in His affirmation of the Beloved�s will, and they call the lover �poor� (faqir). |
| Amr b. Uthman Makki says in the Kitab-i Mahabbat that God created souls (dilha) seven thousand years before the bodies and kept them in station of proximity (qurb), and that he created the spirits (janha) seven thousand years before souls and kept them in the degree of intimacy (uns), and that he created the hearts (sirrha) seven thousand years before the spirits and kept them in the degree of union (wasl), and revealed the epiphany of His beauty to the heart three hundred and sixty times every day and bestowed on it three hundred and sixty looks of grace. He has caused the spirits to hear the word of love and manifested three hundred and sixty exquisite favors of intimacy to the soul, so that they all surveyed the phenomenal Universe and saw nothing more precious than themselves and were filled with vanity and pride. Therefore God subjected them to probation: He imprisoned the heart in the spirit and the spirit in the soul and the soul in the body; then mingled reason (aql) with them, and sent Prophets and gave them commands; then each of them began to search its individual station. God ordered them to pray. The body betook itself to prayer, the soul attained to Love, and the heart found rest in union with Him. The explanation of Love is not Love, because love is a feeling (hal), and the feelings are never mere words (qal). |
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| Secret Doctrine of Divine Love |
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| There is much controversy about it among Shaykhs. Some regard it allowable towards God, but that it does not proceed from God, Such attributes they say, is the attributes of one who is debarred from his beloved, and Man is debarred from God, God is not debarred from Man. Hence terms �love� (Mahabbat), and �pure Love� (safawat) are correct. Moreover, according to them excessive love (`ishq) cannot possibly arise without actual vision: therefore it cannot be felt towards God, who is not seen in this world. |
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| The Book of Love |
| Ishq � Excessive Love |
| Man�s Glory |
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