By Ghufraan Sarguroh
Affection is a wonderful experience and a precious gift to have. It can help to overcome those everyday or occasional obstacles and one can feel secure and emotionally nourished and able to deal with any situation. It is a gift from Allah s.w.t. that can nurture a sense of humanity and therefore the feeling of being responsible for one another. It is a bonding that should be based on understanding, co-operation, & socio-cultural compatibility.
But when one loves someone to the point that one feels that you can not 'do without each other' it takes on a different form. It becomes possessive and fearful and does in fact hinder ones growth. You stop listening to your will and sense of reason and everything you do comes under the control of your heart. It's an extremely strong emotion that can only sustain itself for a short period of time. After the initial need for intimacy dies down you come to terms with the real issues that govern our lives. Besides, an affection, which is based on the ephemeral foundations of the drifting sands of physical attraction & romantic inclinations often, if not always, results in desperation.
Harun Yahya, in his book 'Romanticism a weapon of Satan' has given an excellent exposition of this very fact. :
"People, who live absorbed in this sentimentality, are often unaware of the dangers into which they have put themselves. Being caught in this mindless love, men and women, who have made idols of each other, are sometimes led into acts of self-destruction. For example, two young people in love with each other may be deluded to the point of committing suicide. When the circumstances do not permit two young people to be together, they may jump off a bridge, hand in hand, in order to "immortalise" their love, or so that "their souls may be together for eternity," or for some such other irrational motive. In committing such a forbidden act, without seeing the error manifest in it, they believe that they will be reunited not with God but with each other after their death. This they will realise when they see the Angel of Death, at their final moment, but it will be too late. We can read in the newspapers of the deeply-saddened letters left behind by people who have committed suicide because of unrequited love. These are clear examples of how romanticism can completely shut up a person's mind and conscience.
However, when the blindfold is removed, and a person sees that the promise of eternal torment is real, he will finally try to save himself by offering as ransom that very partner to whom he had blindly devoted himself, and turned into a god under the influence of romanticism. We will find that romantic men and women will openly declare to each other, "I worship you," "Wherever I go, I think about you," and other such expressions.
As we have been examining, romantic affection appears to be an innocent kind of love. Satan blinds people to the truth, and so, in this case, he has again warped the truth to make it seem pleasant, and to make people follow the way he shows them:
By God, We sent Messengers to communities before your time, but Satan made their actions seem good to them. Therefore today he is their protector. They will have a painful punishment. (Qur'an, 16:63)"
Satan made their actions seem good to them and so debarred them from the Way, even though they had been granted insight. (Qur'an, 29:38)
A believer's love is pure and clear as light, and creates a lightness in the heart, because the true object of love is God & from it follows the love felt for a person or creation who/which manifests the qualities of the Almighty. contd......