“Those who know God stammer.” —Rumi
In Hadees Qudsee, God said, “I was a hidden treasure and I loved to be intimately known, so I created the heavens and the earth.”
Here is a divinity, Who is desirous to be known intimately (mahrafa).
This is not a discursive knowledge, but needs to be experienced.
The word, Honey written on the black board, you know it is sweet, but when the honey is in your mouth, you know the taste, and there is no need to speak of it any more.
This relationship with God always has an element of Transcendence, but to this vertical dimension, the Sufis bring an element of intimacy.
Abul Naim al Isphani says, “When I am out in public, I will call you my Lord and when we are in private, I prefer to call you my Beloved.”
In the traditional respect of lord servant relationship, you add an element of affection; the Sufis sometimes use the word dosti or friendship.
In the Quran when we hear this primordial voice, ‘Alastu be Rabekum ’Am I not your Lord?
Some heard it as, ”Am I not your friend and some would hear, am I not the only one who exists.”
All the Sufi paths take you to one destination, ‘Union Mystique’ that you are one with God, the moment, when you break apart to feel what is in the core of your own consciousness, the divine Oneness, the sea from which everything grew.
In Islamic Spirituality, there is a place in the heart, where the Divine world and Human world merge and become one.
The Sufis live the mystery of this moment.
“I am He who is my love and He who is my love is I.
If thou seest me, thou seest Him.
If thou seest Him, thou seest us both.”
Rumi says, ”I have met people who are beautiful, intelligent, rich and gracious, who seem to have everything, but lack the mysterious sincerity, you need for the path and I have met people who have nothing, neither elegance, or attractive intelligence and yet the pearls sat on the palm of their hands, because of the love.
The essential quality to tread on this path is the all-consuming passion, both to love and be loved.
The type of love, which is impersonal, is beyond life and death and belongs to the soul.
Shibli was asked how do you experience God and he replied, “I experience God the way a child learns his being in the Mama’s lap, a deep inner feeling that you are safe, loved and protected.
” Rumi says, “We are all standing knee deep in water and dying of thirst.”
We run around spiritually hungry wondering, where to find God.
We are that fish in water to whom water is invisible and the only way that fish could possibly realize how thoroughly immersed we are in divine rahma, if it was possible to be taken out of this presence just for a second.
The Sufis say take one sip from the wine of divine love and you are lost forever, because it is so portent.
You become a participant into God’s love story, the mysterious way in which he creates love in creation and then draws it back to Himself.
Rumi says, “In the end the man tires of everything except heart desiring soul’s journey.
Sultan, Saint, Pickpockets, love has everyone by the ear dragging us to God by secret ways.
I never knew that God too desires us Quran says, “Allah guides to Allah whom Allah wills.”
Sufism is a path, to love God and to be loved by God.
The Sufi mystics live this life and the secret of existence is to know this heartache, the yearning for God, to find the spark, which glows in all the darkness around it.
It is gift of the people, God unruly friends, who live and die in their love and longing for God.
The longing they express is the homesickness, to go back to God.
Rumi says, “A love sick nightingale amongst the owls, you caught the scent of the roses and flew to the rose garden.
This is the vastness of divine ocean, where the sun never sets, but this can be contained in the human heart.
Allah says in Hadees Qudsyee, “The heavens and earth cannot contain me, but the heart of my devoted servant can.”
Attar says, “When love comes, reason disappears, reason cannot live with the folly of love.
You can be drunk with the spiritual love, like you can be drunk with alcohol.
That is why the Tavern is known as place of drunkards.
A Mystic asks, “Who do you think I am a drunkard, a love sick fool, a slave of my senses, made senseless by desire, understand I have risen above all that.
I am the king of love and majesty, love is the essence of my being, love is fire and I am wood, burnt by the flame.
Love has moved in and adorned the house, myself tied up in a bundle and left in a corner.
You imagine that you see me, but I no longer exist, what remains is the beloved.”
This is the love, which Sufis understand, the annihilation, the incredibly painful, sweet and bitter pill, that makes you a lover of God.
It’s love in which you desire nothing, but which puts your head onto the ground and makes you forget yourself.
You want nothing for yourself, because you feel you have been given everything.
This is the love, which can be given to somebody else to wake up somebody’s heart, to make them realize that they can take the journey back home to God.
What matters is not having love, but wanting love, don’t look for water, but be thirsty.
If the magnet was not loving, how could it attract the iron with such longing.
If love was not there, the straw would not seek the amber.
The mystics see everything in this world moves, because love is there, even the atoms move on the axis of love.
Love is the foundation of light, and the Sufi when he does zikar immerses himself in this love.
“Lord of the Universe, Beneficent and Merciful.
By Thy command only will I carry out the pilgrimage of my life, for the love of all created by Thee and for Thy glory.”
—The writer is author of various books based in Rawalpindi. (muhammadtahir50@hotmail.com)
