“The Dervish drinks the poison of Love as nectar.”

What is “Love” to a dervish?

Love has ever-deepening meanings according to the level of one’s understanding and evolution. When we talk of love today, we think of the most common-place emotion that is a rather vulgarized version of the sacred term. The word counterpart of Love in Persian would be Ishq. Ishq in Persian literally means a love that is so intense that it kills or makes one languish. The ivy plant is also called Ishq in Persian. It is because of the intense attraction that the plant sticks to the surface where it grows, in time growing over the object in a way that it takes on its very shape and form. And this is what we mean when we refer to the term Ishq-Allah or Ishq-e-Ilahiyya. This Love is a transformative power that robs the lover of his personal identity and colours him/her with the dye of Allah’s Qualities. That which keeps you stuck in your personal selfish gratification may be lust or attraction but it can never be Love. Love is another name for self-annihilation and therefore the Path of Love is always laden with thorns. But to the lover these thorns are gifts from the Beloved.

Whatever one loves—whether duty, human beings, art, friends, an ideal, or one's fellow-creatures—one has certainly opened that door through which to pass in order to reach that love which is God. The beginning of love is an excuse; it leads to that ideal of love which is God alone. HIK.

The soul on its way to manifestation passes through four states, 'Ilm, 'Ishq, Wujud, Shuhud. 'Ilm is the original state of the consciousness, the pure intelligence; 'Ishq is love, the next step of the intelligence towards manifestation; therefore intelligence and love are the same in their essence. Wujud is the objective world, whose purpose it is to be loved, for love could not manifest unless there were an object to love. Shuhud is the realization of love's experience, in whatever aspect it may be. HIK.

Therefore Murshid says,”In love abides all knowledge.”

Love is like the fire; its glow is devotion, its flame is wisdom, its smoke is attachment, and its ashes detachment. Flame rises from glow, so it is with wisdom, which rises from devotion. When love's fire produces its flame it illuminates the devotee's path in life like a torch, and all darkness vanishes.

When love is centered in one object it is love. When it is for several objects it is named affection. When it is like a cloud it is called infatuation. When its trend is moral it is devotion. When it is for God, the omnipresent and omnipotent, in fact, the whole Being, then it is called divine love, the lover becomes holy. HIK.

The seed of love is present in the depths of the human soul for the creation of the human being was the result of God’s Love or Ishq. As the human being develops through stages in his consciousness, at the level of an infantile consciousness love is felt in the form of fulfillment of personal needs; at the level of an adolescent consciousness it manifests in the form of attraction; at the stage of adult consciousness it appears in the form of admiration ; but at the level of truly ripened consciousness it is self-effacement before the Object of Love.  'Whoever enters the school of lovers, the first lesson he learns is not to be.' If the Dervish drinks the poison of Love as nectar , it is because he/she knows that which tastes bitter in the beginning will ultimately turn into the sweetest nectar that has ever existed. In other words it is on the Path of Love or through Ishq-bazi, gallantry on the Love-Path , that the Lover learns the etiquette of Love i.e to be content with what the Beloved wishes, never to be the means of annoyance for the Beloved, never to speak of the pain that is inflicted on one by the Beloved, to bear with pleasure even the betrayal of the Beloved. There is a long list of the “Dastoor-e-Ishq” catalogued by the true Ashiqeen and I have enumerated just a few. The glance of the Beloved is enough to revive the dying breaths of the lover even if it be accidental.        

There is a verse of Hafiz on resignation to the will of the beloved: 'I have broken my bowl of desire against the rock of the beloved's will. What may be done when my heart is won by the obstinate beloved, who does her own will and casts aside the desire of the lover?' HIK

A story is told that Moses was going to Mount Sinai and on his way he met a very pious person, who said to him, 'Moses, speak to God of me. All my life I have been pious, I have been virtuous, I have prayed to God, and I have had nothing but troubles and misfortunes.' A little later Moses met a man sitting in the street with a bottle of liquor. He called out, 'Moses! Where are you going?' Moses said, 'To Mount Sinai.' The man called out, 'To Mount Sinai? Then speak to God of me', for he was drunk.

Moses went to Mount Sinai and he told God of the pious person whom he had met. God said, 'For him there is a place in the heavens.' Then he told God of the drunken man whom he had met. God said, 'He shall be sent to the worst possible place in hell.'

Moses went away and first he met the drunken man. He told him, 'God says you shall be sent to the worst possible place in hell.' The man said, 'God spoke of me?' and he was so overjoyed that he could not contain himself but began to dance, just as a poor man might be overjoyed if he heard that a king had spoken of him, even if the king had said nothing good of him. Then he said, 'How happy should I be that He, the Creator and Sovereign of the universe, knows me, the great sinner.' Then Moses told the pious person what God had said. He said, 'Why not? I have spent all my life in the worship of God and in piety, sacrificing all else in life; and therefore I am entitled to have it.'

Both the pious person and the drunkard died, and Moses was curious to know what had become of them. He went to Mount Sinai and asked God. God said, 'The pious person is in hell, and the drunken man is in heaven.' Moses thought, 'Does God break His word?' God said, 'The drunkard's joy on hearing that We had spoken of him has wiped out all his sins. The pious person's virtue was worthless. Why could he not be satisfied if We made the sun shine and sent the rain?' HIK.

The imitation of gold can be as beautiful as real gold; the imitation of the diamond as bright as a real diamond. The difference is that one fails in the test of endurance, and the other can stand it. Yet one must not be compared to objects. People have something divine in themselves, and they can prove this by their endurance in the path of love. HIK.

In other words the quality of Love in us is the gauge for measuring our divinity.

The continuous spring of love from that divine fountain is situated in the heart of each person.
Once that fountain is open, it purifies the heart; it makes the heart transparent to see the outer and the inner world. The heart becomes the vehicle for the soul to see all within and without. One not only communicates with another person, but also with God. HIK.

There are three ways of seeking God in the human heart. The first way is to recognize God the divine in every person and to care for every person with whom we come in contact, in our thought, speech, and action.
The next way of practicing this religion is to think of the feeling of the person who is not at the moment before us. One feels for a person who is present, but one often neglects to feel for someone who is out of sight. One speaks well of someone to his face, but if one speaks well of someone when he is absent, that is greater.
The third way of realizing the Sufi principle is to recognize in one's own feeling the feeling of God and to realize every impulse that rises in one's heart as a direction from God. Realizing that love is a divine spark in one's heart, one blows that spark until a flame may rise to illuminate the path of one's life. HIK.

The question of the crucifixion of Christ, apart from its historical aspect, may be explained that the life of the wise is on the cross all the time. The wiser the soul becomes, the more it realizes the cross. It is the lack of wisdom which causes the soul to do all actions, good or bad. As it becomes wise, the first thing is that its action is suspended. The picture of that suspension of action becomes a helpless picture, the hands and the feet nailed. Neither can he go forward, nor can he go backward, nor can he act, nor can he move. This inactiveness outwardly may show helplessness, but in point of fact is the pleasure of perfection. HIK.

The great personalities who have descended on earth from time to time to awaken in man that love which is his divine inheritance found echo in innocent souls rather than in great intellects.

It is the stream of love, which leads towards God. HIK.

When the light of love has been lit the heart becomes transparent, so that the intelligence of the soul can see through it, but until the heart is kindled by the flame of love the intelligence, which is constantly yearning to experience life on the surface, is groping in the dark. HIK.

It was to teach this lesson of love that Christ said, 'I will make you fishers of men.'

'Everyone is drawn to me, to become my friend, but none divines what it is in my heart that draws', said Jelal-ud-Din Rumi.

 

There is one moral, the love that springs forth from self-denial and blooms in deeds of beneficence.

Love must be absolutely free from selfishness, otherwise it does not produce proper illumination. If the fire has no flame it cannot give light, and smoke comes out of it, which is troublesome. Such is selfish love. Whether it be for man or for God it is fruitless, for though it appears to be love for another or love for God, it is in fact love for the self. Ideas that come to the mind of a lover such as, 'If you will love me I will love you, but if you do not love me I will not love you either', or 'I love you as much as you love me', and all such declarations are false pretensions of love.

[The True Lover]He takes poison from the hands of the beloved as sugar, and love's pain in the wound of his heart is his only joy. By magnifying and idealizing whatever the beloved does for him and by diminishing and forgetting whatever he himself does for the beloved, he first develops his own gratitude, which creates all goodness in his life. HIK.

The heart is not living until it has experienced pain. Man has not lived if he has lived and worked with his body and mind without heart. The soul is all light, but all darkness is caused by the death of the heart. Pain makes it alive. Selfishness makes the heart bitter but when it is purified by love then no bitterness remains.

It is told that God said to the Prophet, 'O Mohammed, if We had not created thee We would not have created the whole universe.' What, in reality, does it mean? It means that the heavenly beauty, the beauty of the whole Being, loved, recognized and glorified by the divine lover, moved to a perfect satisfaction, says from within, 'Well done, thou hast loved Me completely. If it were not for thee, O admirer of my whole Being, I would not have made this universe, where my creatures love and admire one part of my Being on the surface, and my whole beauty is veiled from their sight.' In other words, the divine Beloved says, 'I have no admirer, though I am standing adorned. Some admire my bracelets, others admire my earrings, some admire my necklace, some admire my anklets, but I would give my hand to him and consider that for him I have adorned myself, who would understand and glorify my Being to the fullest extent, wherein lies my satisfaction.' HIK.

Love is directed by the intelligence; therefore each person chooses his object of love according to his evolution.
The consciousness which is awakened to the material world has its object of love only in earthly beauties. The consciousness active through the mind finds its object in thought and among the thoughtful. The consciousness awakened through the heart loves love and the loving ones. And the consciousness awakened in the soul loves the spirit and the spiritual. HIK.

When love is true it takes away selfishness, for this is the only solution to wipe off the ego. The English phrase 'to fall in love' conveys the idea of the true nature of love. It is a Fall indeed from the pedestal of the ego to the ground of nothingness, but at the same time it is this fall which leads to a rise, for as low as the lover falls so high he rises in the end. HIK. 

Love is the essence of all religion, mysticism, and philosophy, and for the one who has learnt this love fulfills the purpose of religion, ethics, and philosophy, and the lover is raised above all diversities of faiths and beliefs. HIK.

What the Sufi calls riyazat, a process of achievement, is nothing else than digging constantly in that holy land which is the heart of man. Surely in the depth man will find the water of life. However, digging is not enough. Love and devotion, no doubt, help to bring out frequent merits hidden in the soul, as sincerity, thankfulness, gentleness and forgiving qualities, all things which make man a true man, all things which produce an harmonious atmosphere, and all things which bring men in tune with life, the saintly life and the outer life. All those merits come, no doubt, by kindling the fire of love in the heart. But it is possible that in this process of digging one may only reach mud and lose patience. So dismay, discontentment may follow and man may withdraw himself from further pursuit. It is patient pursuit which will bring the water from the depth of the ground; for until one reaches the water of life one meets with mud in digging. it is not love, but the pretence of love, that imposes the claim of self. The first and last lesson in love is, "I am not - Thou art", and unless man is moved to that selflessness he does not know justice, right or truth: his self stands above or between him and God. HIK.