sharing of spiritual dreams | the Beloved's ways are beyond this heart

1.
Introduction to A New Series on Dreams

Welcome to a new series on Dreams at Inspirations and Creative Thoughts. We are very much blessed that among those who are drawn near here, many of them are gifted with powerful spiritual visions and dreams. In this segment we will be sharing some of these original dreams with exclusive permission from the dreamers and where appropriate by preserving anonymity. Dreams / Visions are significant and interpretation of dreams is a sacred Islamic wisdom tradition which is still preserved by advanced guides on the Sufi Path. For the Sufis, for serious seekers - dreams hold greater significance than what we understand as dreams in the everyday sense.

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, a contemporary Naqshbandi Shaykh writes in the opening section of his book, In the Company of Friends - Dreamwork within a Sufi Group on why dreams are important: "Dreams come from the unknown. Sometimes they retell the images of our daily life or lead us down confused corridors. But some dreams speak with the voice of the soul. They have a quality, a music, a depth of feeling that belong to the sacred part of ourself. They open a hidden door into a beyond that is also the most intimate part of our inner being. Listening to these dreams we can hear the voice of our deeper self. Speaking to us in its own language, a language of images, symbols, and feelings, a dream can guide us through the tortuous maze of our psyche. As both teacher and guide, these dreams are of infinite value on the inner journey. They call us inward into the mystery and wonder that is our real nature. When the body is asleep, when our everyday life has laid down its burdens, these dreams tell us of another world and of a winding pathway that can lead us into the depths."

Ith qala Yoosufu li-Abeehi: Ya Abati innee raaytu ahada AAashara kawkaban wa ash shamsa wa al qamara raaytuhum lee sajideen.

Behold! When Joseph said unto his father: O my father! Lo! I saw in a dream eleven planets and the sun and the moon, I saw them prostrating themselves unto me.  - The Quran, the Chapter of Joseph, verse 4

From the dreams of the Prophet Joseph and Nebuchanezzer down through the ages to our own time, there has been no community which has not regarded dreams as messages to be decoded so that their meaning can be understood and benefited from in the spiritual as well as the temporal domains. Another contemporary Sufi guide Kabir Helminski meaningfully writes, "In one sense, the process of spiritual realization is the progress from subjectivity to objectivity. This progress is reflected in the quality of our dreams when they are consciously observed: gradually they change from confused, personal, subjective imagery to objective and meaningful symbology, to states... and sometimes to clear communication with sources of knowledge... the nature of our dreams changes when we have come into contact with an authentic source of spiritual transformation. This state of mind is the natural (not supernatural) human state in which our intelligence (which is the intelligence lent us by Allah) is not veiled from us by desires, obsessions, or other forms of negative conditioning."

The primary intentions behind this sharing of dreams in this series are:
- to hold a sacred space for the often lost voice of our soul, to affirm its vivid presence through those to whom they are given new life by the Sole Giver
- visions even though may come in personal soul-space and state, yet they carry elements which can be hints and signposts to others, specially who are spiritual companions and fellow seekers of similar energy
- in Islamic sacred tradition, earlier reference of dream interpretation by the holy Prophet, upon him be peace, inform us that in his early community, often he would invite the companions to share their dreams among gathering (particularly after the fajr prayer) and there are many wisdom in it. The sharing in this series is in the footstep of that tradition.
- the holy Prophet said "When the time draws close, the dreams of a believer will hardly fail to come true, and a dream of a believer is one of the forty-six parts of prophethood." (Bukhari), thus this sharing is also intended to be a sharing of truth.
- to remain alert, to pay attention and to witness every gift sent by God is a real practice for every seeker. These sharing of dreams, if can do nothing but if at least inspire you to pay attention and become witness to your own dreams, that itself will be beautiful.

In Sufi Path, an enlightened authority with preserved chain of transmission, an advanced guide with special affinity for dream interpretation is an ideal person who could be counseled for dream interpretations. For this particular series, there will be no attempt to interpret any of  the dreams, but will be plainly shared here with a prayer and hope that they may speak the language of your heart and soul, and with Allah's permission may become helpful to you who chance upon here. If you wish to share your dreams, feel free to send to mysticsaint@gmail.com.

2.

Receive the Dust of the Eyes of Truthful Dreamer

Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said, "Nothing is left of Prophethood except glad tidings."

Those with him asked, "What are glad tidings?"

He replied, "True dreams / visions."
- Sahih Al-Bukhari

Time changes for ever, energy of age shifts, humanity moves from one cycle to another. There will never be the same level of epiphany equal to the encounter of Mighty Messenger Moses at the Burning Bush on the sacred valley or God speaking from an invisible voice on Holy Mount Sinai. There will be no more revelation on the same level of intensity as it did to Blessed Mother Mary at her veiled station in the holy temple, or the opening of heaven experience for Beloved Master Christ on the bank of River Jordan at the moment of his baptism or the descend of Archangel Gabriel in the Cave of Hira for Prophet Muhammad, the Chosen. The age of manifest revelations are sealed by the advent of the Seal of Prophets, Muhammad Mustafa, yet the door of subtle revelation of true visions / dreams are left open for humanity.

Visions and Dreams are sent from alam al-mithal (the active imaginal realm of reality) in arabic, or mundus-imaginalis in Latin, The mundus imaginalis is a level of reality in which "meanings" are embodied as images which have a kind of autonomous existence. The alam al mithal is an "interworld" in which visions, which are simultaneously meanings, are experienced by a psycho-spiritual faculty, the active imagination, or what Sufis would simply call the "heart." It is important to realize that this level of perception was reliably available only to those souls which were to some extent "purified" (credit). May we all be blessed to attain that level of purity as to make us worthy to be recipient of true visions and dreams.

Many wonders are manifest in sleep:
in sleep the heart becomes a window.
One that is awake and dreams beautiful dreams,
he is the knower of God (aaref bi'Llah)

Receive the dust of his eyes.

- Rumi

3.

The 
Beloved's 
Ways 
are 
Beyond 
this 
Heart

Sharing of Spiritual Dream # 1



This is all true. though the essence may be, as these things are, illusive. but, I will try to write the simple facts and try to avoid excessive subjectivity.

"I am sitting in a hall painted white, though not glaring and brilliant. a calm color. It is rather large but not overwhelmingly so. There are as many as a two dozen dervishes scattered about in my peripheral vision, both behind me and to the sides. I do not see them clearly. To my direct left is a Sheik who I know to be my guardian (he is bald with a grey beard that may or may not have been red at one time, his robes are embroidered in soft ocher yellow and red on ivory).

Though I know I am not like the others, a dervish - we are all on roughly a yard square sheepskins, cross legged on the floor facing a wall. Arrayed before us are five musicians. Two drummers, an upright two or three stringed instrument and directly before me and slightly to my right is another Sheik, the Sheik of sheiks. Equal but 'above' the guardian sheik to my left. He has a dark beard rimmed into a clean spade shape and is deeply tanned with an eagles face, that is one of great authority and piercing eyes.

A dark turban wrapped about a low white cone shaped hat. his robes are clean though humble plain spun cotton natural in color with a dark shawl. His left arm is a ney of ebony and gold and ivory. The music it makes is a true voice that speaks though the words are not as regular words but somehow still music. They, meaning the musicians begin the music of a sema, then they stop just as the breathing and song of the dervishes' begin.

Then the Sheik of sheiks points the arm / ney at my guardian and admonish him to not be so rough and hard on me, it is a mistake, and that he must be gentler as he watches me in his duty. My guardian reply's that he has no idea that he was mistaken and realizes that the Sheik of sheik is correct and will make it so.

I am overwhelmed with remorse at my guardian being corrected in public and throwing myself to my left so that I may fall over at his feet cry out in tears that I am sorry for being so difficult and that I will try even harder to make his guardianship easier. I am nearly inconsolable with my shame.

My guardian lays his hand on my head to comfort me when the Sheik of sheiks speaks. I sit up wiping my tears away so that that I can pay proper attention when I notice that the Sheik of sheiks has spoken and given me a gift. In my lap sits a wounded swan, its head trying to tuck under it's wing, but it can not.

I am in wonder at this gift and suddenly feel a deep compassion and gentleness towards it. I internally vow to care for it forever if it takes that long. I feel suddenly humble, knowing I am not a dervish like the others and wonder how I, of all people have been given this task.

Then I awoke to the most astonishing sight ...

The early morning sky was quite literally gold ... the whole sky, not just the horizon, but the whole sky. The leaves of the trees glowed a brilliant emerald green. In all my years of watching the dawn, I've never seen the entirety of the sky either that color nor have I seen the whole sky that color. Gold and green completely pure in tone. I closed my eyes in an effort to remember as exactly as possible the effect so that it would not fade from memory.

When I awoke further as is usual I went to the computer to check my mail. When I do this I usually put some music on as I love to listen to music early in the morning. To my surprise there was a song of Mercan Dede's in my music file. I have no memory of downloading.

The Beloved's ways are beyond this heart."

- Shared from M. | Dervish, Wanderer
may God protect, guide and bless him and raise his station


# Further Resources:
. The Dream of the Sleeper | Dream Interpretation and Meaning in Sufism
. Accessing the Imaginal Realm to Heal our Planet
. Searching for Sufism in Art, Music and Dreams
. Audio Page of Golden Sufi containing some discourse on Sufi Dreamworks 
. In the Company of Friends - Dreamwork within a Sufi Group
. Dreams in Islam (pdf)
. Dreams, Sufism, and sainthood: the visionary career of Muhammad al-Zawâwî
. Dream Psychology by Sigmund Freud (audio book)

Lalon Song by Farida Parveen | Allah Ke Bojhe Tomar Opar Leele?!

Ke bojhe tomar opar leele?
Allah! ke bojhe tomar opar leele?

Tumi Aapni Allah, dako 'Allah' bole!

Who can comprehend Your endless play!

Allah! who can comprehend Your endless play?!

From Your Lord-Self
You cry out 'Allah' - Your Name Supreme!

Nurer kare tumi Nuri

Chile dimbo avatar e.

You are 'Light upon Light',

Without ceasing in

every incarnation.

Shakare srijon korle tri-bhuban

Eshe akare chomotkar bhab dekhale.

Allah ke bojhe tomar opar leele?

In form You've created the entire existence,

Your descent in every manifest form

dazzles our heart and mind.

Allah! who can comprehend Your endless play? !

Nirakar Nigumbho Dhani

Taoto shotti shobai jani

The First Command and Word

arose from You, Truth is this.

Tumi agomero phul

Nigome Rasul

Eshe Adam er qalbe jaan hoile.

Allah ke bojhe tomar opar leele?

You are the Holy Flower of Essence

The Name and the Named,

You pass Yourself as life giving spirit

within the secret heart of Adam.

Allah! who can comprehend Your endless play?!

Atma tatto jane jara

Shai'er nigur leela dekhche tara.

Those who've cognized the Self,

ceaselessly witness they

Lord's secret play.

Nire Niranjon, akottho shey dhon

Lalon khuje berae bon jongole.

Allah ke bojhe tomar opar leele?

Tumi Aapni Allah, dako 'Allah' bole!

That Subtle, Pure Supreme Being

Beyond words or descriptions,

Lalon seeks such Treasure here and there, 

everywhere.

Allah! who can comprehend Your endless play?!

From Your Lord-Self
You cry out 'Allah' - Your Name Supreme!

~ Original lyrics by Fakir Lalon Shah ~

mystic and baul of Bengal - may God be pleased with him

an approximate rendition from Bangla to English by Sadiq Salim, Dhaka

. download the song in mp3 .

~

al insano Sirri 
wa ana Sirru hu

God says, "Man is My Supreme Secret 
and I Am his Supreme Secret"
- Hadith (Sacred Tradition of Islam) - 
~

The Sufi Garden | Place of Many Meanings

1.

Come to the garden in spring.

There is light and wine
And sweethearts
In the pomegranate blossoms.

If you do not come,
These do not matter.

If you do come,
These do not matter.

- Mevlana Rumi, 
Coleman Barks (Recitation via Youtube)

2.

For the Sufi the garden had many meanings. It was a place of repose, a centrally located space which allowed one to enter any number of buildings, a place of beauty and meditation, a horizon where Allah had indicated the signs of life and a place where one could find the Gardener.

Every tekke, or prayer lodge, of the dervishes (sufis) had a garden which was shielded from the outside by exterior walls. The garden was a heart to the many buildings which, like the projecting wings of a great bird, would make up the tekke. The semahane, (for the Mevlevis the place for turning and for other dervish orders the place for their ceremony of the remembrance of Allah), the majlis (the room for spiritual conversation), the women’s quarters, the kitchen, library, ablution fountain, the sheikh’s residence and the mosque could all be accessed from the garden.

The garden court in the Konya Mevlevi tekke is spacious and in the interior space below below the conical tower, blue-green tiled and fluted with a pointed roof, rests the tomb of Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi. On special occasions a sema would be performed in this garden under a sky dotted with birds and billowing clouds.

        Rumi said: “I am a bird of the heavenly garden,
        I belong not to the earthly sphere.
        They have made for two or three days,
        A cage of my body.”

During these two or three days the dervish remains hidden, his concealment a protection, like the beautiful rose protected by the thorn. He is disguised by clothing or a mental attitude. Many sheikhs wrote verses about love. Like Rumi they were writing of metaphysical love, that which was beyond the physical, but not everyone understood this. Farid ud-Din Attar engaged in the trade of a chemist and had a shop in the bazaar. Others wrote on literary matters, were booksellers, poets, or pursued other callings. They concealed who they really were so as to avoid the “pestering” of worldly persons.

The Prophet Muhammad said: “Allah has hidden the true men of piety.”

Mevlana once said in such a discourse that God had a collyrium which, when applied to one’s eyes, opens the inner eyes, and one is able to see the mystery of existence and know the meaning of hidden things. One can be illuminated by the gaze of a sheikh.

Rumi reminds us that when the inward eye is opened one sees that the flowers that grow from plants are living but a moment, while the flowers that grow from reason are ever fresh. The flowers that bloom from earth become faded while the flowers that bloom from the heart produce a joy. Know that all the delightful sciences known to us are only two or three bunches of flowers from that Garden. We are devoted to these two or three bunches of flowers because we have shut the Garden-door on ourselves. “Behold our words!” Rumi said, “They are the fragrance of those roses - we are the rosebush of certainty’s rosegarden.” The fragrance of the rose can lead one to the rose and even the Rose-seller.

But sometimes Mevlana was anxious that time not be wasted, as he indicates in this poem.

    My poetry resembles Egyptian bread;
    When a night passes over it you cannot eat it anymore.
    Eat it at this point when it is fresh,
    Before dust settles upon it.

For Mevlana the sema was an emotional relationship between man and God. In his Divan he states:

Sema is only for the restless spirit - so jump up quickly, why do you wait? Do not sit here with your own thoughts - if you are human, go to the Beloved. Do not say, “Perhaps He does not want me.”
What business has a thirsty man with such words?
Does the moth think about the flames?
For Love’s spirit, thought is a disgrace.
When the warrior hears the sound of the drum, at once he is worth ten thousand men.

The sema has become a window towards Thy rosegarden; the ears and hearts of the lovers peer through the window.

Several kilometers outside of Konya, sitting peacefully on a hilltop in Meram was the house of Husamuddin, Rumi’s khalifa and confidant. The wooden house was spacious with a generous garden and an orchard. Mevlana often came to this garden to meditate, give spiritual discourse and make a sema where he was joined by many of his disciples. Mevlana turned internally, his arms close to his body holding his robe; not like the turn we see today from the Whirling Dervishes which was created by Rumi’s son Sultan Veled. Mevlana’s nature was filled with kindness and so he allowed his disciples to gently embrace him as he turned and for a short time to turn with him.

A similar movement to this can be seen in the Bedevi Topu as done by the Halveti dervishes. The sheikh breaks the turning zikr circle and holds the hands, crossed at the wrists, of one of his dervishes as they slowly turn together repeating the Name of Allah. The other dervishes form concentric circles around them with the baraka of the inner reaching the outmost circle.

It was on such a summer evening in the garden of Husamuddin that Mevlana began to speak of the Prophet Muhammad. “The Prophet is not called unlettered because he was unable to write. He was called that because his letters, his knowledge and wisdom, were innate, not acquired. Is a person who made inscriptions on the moon unable to write? What is there in the world that such a person does not know, when all learn from him? What can partial intellect have that the Universal Intellect has not? The partial intellect is not capable of inventing anything it has not seen before. Remember the story of the raven: when Cain killed Abel and stood not knowing what to do with the body, one raven killed another, dug out the earth, buried the dead raven and scratched the dirt over the body. From this Cain learned how to make a grave and bury a body. All trades are like this. The possessor of partial intellect needs instruction. Those who have united the partial with the Universal Intellect and become one are prophets and saints.”

Rumi says :

    The one who sleeps in the midst of a garden wants to be
awakened. But the one who sleeps in a prison, to be awakened
is a nuisance.

A hadith of the Prophet Muhammad states: When you pass by the meadows of the Garden, graze! They asked: O Messenger of God, What are the meadows of the Garden? And he replied: The circles of remembrance.

For the Muslim the greatest of all gardens is Paradise. Rumi expresses this with a concise verse:

    The gardens may flow with beauty
    But let us go to the Gardener Himself.

- by Shems Friedlander (credit)

3.

In Quranic spiritual landscape and discourse, Heaven - the Final Place of Bliss for the Returned Soul to their Source is often and repeatedly called as 'Garden' (Jannat). And the Garden of Divine Presence and Bliss is often mentioned as the final abode and reward for the devotees. Manifesting 'the Garden' is also symbolized for opening the Judgment.

And when the Garden is brought near -
(Then) shall each soul know what it has put forward.
- The Quran, 18:13-14

Wa ama man khafa maqama Rabbihi 

wa naha an nafsa AAani al hawa
Fa-inna al jannata hiya alma'wa.

And as for one who fears to stand in the presence of his Lord 

and forbids the soul from low desires,
Lo! the Garden - that is the abode.

- The Quran, 79:40-41

Ya ayyatuha an nafsu al mutma-innatu
IrjiAAee ila Rabbiki radiyatan mardiyyatan
Faod khulee fee AAibadee
Waodkhulee Jannatee.

(To the righteous soul will be said:) "O soul, in (complete) rest and satisfaction!
Come back thou to thy Lord, well pleased (with Him),
and well-pleasing (unto Him)
Enter thou, then, among My devotees!
Enter thou My Garden!"
- The Quran, 89:27-30

Love for Fully Awakened Human Being

1.
Be a beauteous blossom of love.
- Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti

For every fully awakened master (human being who have mastered over his or her own selfhood) of every age, those who gathered around that luminous figure, there has been a common denominator. And that commonality being 'single pointed love' for that human being. We observe in every age, even in our time if we looked at the right places we would delightfully discover that a great devotion is placed in the niche of human hearts, a pure love of wholly different kind is kindled inside for the human being who have progressed in the Path, who have reached a nearness of higher rank. A saintly being, a spiritual master, a guru, a shaykh, a pir or a sagacious master, no matter of what faith tradition will attract such love from those around him. Lest we forget, this a free gift bestowed by the Real to the divine lovers.

There is a tradition that showers light in a dramatic fashion using the celestial language why such love is generated in the heart of others for a person who become a Lover of the Divine and in becoming attains Nearness. The Prophet of Love, Muhammad Mustafa transmits directly from the Source of Love where God says, "If I love one of My servants intensely, I summon Archangel Gabriel and say: 'I love this servant, so you too much love and support him.' Then the Archangel speeds throughout the heavenly realms, crying, 'Allah Most High Loves this servant, so all of you must love and support him.' Thereafter, profound love for this particular servant of Allah is gradually established among the beings on earth."

If we are to look at the intense love of the companions and apostles of Christ, if we are to look at the single pointed love of the sahaba (companions) of the Last Prophet, if we are to look at the disciples and immediate successor and of every sufi master (and authentic spiritual teacher of any faith tradition in that matter), we would know what reality of love we are trying to realize.

Within Islamic faith tradition, this Secret of Love is encapsulated in the saying of the Prophet where he says, "None of you will have faith, till he loves me more than his father, his children, and all humankind." In another hadith in Bukhari Prophet Muhammad said: "None of you believes until he loves me more than he loves himself." Reading plainly this may suggest an air of impossibility of how to love someone to such degree?! But the secret is, one whom God loves and who loves God - loving that person become an obligation for those who's heart is made open to the reality of Love. It is about actuating and activating a pure love within ourselves, and we being human beings, such activation happens through the love of  / for a fully awakened human being.

For those who follow the teachings of Krishna, for them devotion and love (bhakti) for him is essential to progress in the Path. Similarly for those who follow the teachings of Christ, for them loving Christ in a single pointed love and passion is absolutely essential to progress in the Path. Then at the end of Christ's age when the Seal of Prophet arrived, such concentration of divine love focused upon Muhammad Mustafa who now remains the Gate for every lovers who claim to love God.

Say, (O Muhammad, to humanity): If you love God, follow me; God will love you and forgive your falling short (from perfection). And God is Ever Forgiving, Merciful. - The Quran 3:31

2.

God says: "On the Day of Resurrection, I will call out, "Where are those who Love one another through My Divine Glory alone and for the sake of My Glory alone? Today I Am offering them refuge and sweet refreshment in My Shade, for this is a day on which there is no shade but My Shade." - Islamic Sacred Tradition

3.
On the Love for the Prophet of Allah, Lex Hixon Nur al Jerrahi provides a Meditation through the following writing of his, quoting from Atom from the Sun of Knowledge:

No person can experience the complete, spontaneous affirmation of Reality - not only with every prayer or even with every breath but with one's very life and being - before loving the fully awakened human being more than any other, including parents, children and all humanity. Love for the Messenger is the way to awaken to the crown of creation, to the true humanity within all persons. To love Muhammad intensely - even above the mystic shaykhs who inherit the spiritual wealth and beauty of the Prophet - lifts one into perfection. This state of completeness is simply to be through the Being of Allah, to live through the Life of Allah, to see through the All-Seeing, to hear through the All-Hearing, to know thorough the All-Knowing. This the true affirmation of Unity, which is not merely verbal, conceptual, or conventionally religious. This is Allah affirming Allah through perfect humanity. This is la ilaha illallah muhammad rasulallah.

To love any human being, no matter how close or dear, who has not reached perfection more than one loves the perfect human being places further veils over the light of the hidden perfection of one's own humanity and the humanity of the other. To love the perfect human being above all other human beings, by contrast, removes obscuring veils from the hidden perfection of one's own being and the others whom one loves.

To love the Prophet Muhammad, who is the Lover of Humanity and the Pearl of the Universe, vastly accelerates our progress, our awakening to ourselves and to others as pure souls, as rays from the Source of Light, who are simply the Affirmation of Unity blossoming as the Divine Drama of Revelation. Loving the noble Muhammad of Love enhance immeasurably our love for other human beings, on all levels of development, by revealing the infinite reservoir of love within us. Failing to love the Muhammad of Love above all beloved persons saps the energy of our love, marking it finite and linking it with imperfection.

Love him for his perfection of love! Love him as the light of true humanity within every heart! We place our hand upon our heart when we speak his most beautiful name, Muhammad, because he is the true human heart - the essence of our own mystical heart, hidden far behind the heart of life throbbing within the human breast. He is not in the desert of Arabia, but in the heart. Love him and you will love all persons abundantly. Fail to love him, and you will fail to love anyone truly. Love him who is the perfection of human love, and you will overflow with love for Allah, Who is the Source of Love. Disappear with ecstatic love into the Prophet of Allah, and you will disappear into Allah in mystic union. Fail to lose yourself in the love of the Prophet, and you will never directly encounter the Love of Allah.

Walk only on the way of Love. Love only for the sake of Love. Live only for the Good Pleasure of Allah, the Essence of Love. The Caretaker of the Ocean of Love, the uniquely beloved one of Allah, is the very principle of Allah's Self-Revealing Love. To love Muhammad, the Most praiseworthy, is the unveiling of Divine Love. Love unveiled is the play of lover and Beloved, the very life of the universe, the song of atoms, the sweetness of human touch, the fragrance of prayers. The rose perfume of the Prophet's love drenches his lovers.

Thus Muhammad Mustafa, the Mercy of Allah to all Worlds, calls out through his living Oral Tradition: None of you will have faith, till he loves me more than his father; his children, all humankind.

4.

It is related that a man came to the Prophet, was looking at him without turning away, and said, "Messenger of Allah, I love you more than my family and my possessions. I remember you and I cannot wait until I can come and look at you. I remember that I will die and you will die and I know that when you enter the Garden of Presence, you will be raised up with Prophets. When I enter it, I will not see you."

Upon his expression of sorrow, Allah then revealed:

Waman yutiAAi Allaha wa ar Rasoola faola-ika maAAa allazeena anAAama Allahu AAalayhim mina an-nabiyyeena, wa as-siddeeqeena, wa ash-shuhada-i wa as-saliheena. Wa hasuna ula-ika rafeeqan. Zlika al fadlu mina Allahi, wa kafa biAllahi AAaleeman (4:69,70).

"Whoever obeys Allah and the Messenger, those are with those whom Allah has blessed among the prophets, the sincere ones, the witness of divine reality and the doers of beautiful action. Ah! what a beautiful fellowship! This is grace from Allah, and sufficient is Allah as Knower." Then the Prophet, upon him be peace, called the man and recited the verses to him.

In another hadith the Prophet said, "Whoever loves me will be with me in the Garden of Presence."

5.

O Culmination of Prophecy, Muhammad Most Praiseworthy, Caretaker of Divine Revelation, al-amin, Absolutely Trustworthy One, Six-Dimensional Mirror, Full Moon of Truth Shining in the Night of Divine Mystery, Sweet Voiced Nightingale of Love. 

O Sultan of Hearts in the Garb of a Humble Man, Matchless, Incomparable Pearl, efendimiz, Most Precious Spiritual Master. al murshid al-akar Incomparable Spiritual Teacher and Guide.

O Glory of All Realms, Glory of Prophets and Messengers, habibullah Most Profoundly Beloved of Allah, Perfect Guide along the Mystic Way. Rose in the Meadow of Prophecy, Central Pole in the Tent of Relative Existence, may the Peace of Allah and the mystic union with Divine Love exalt you eternally and exalt your noble family and your spiritual companions throughout time and eternity, gathering all souls together into the Culmination of Light and Love. 

as-salatu wa-s-salamu alayka ya rasulullah
as-salatu wa-s-salamu alayka ya habibullah

Heartfelt and profound greetings to your sublime soul,
O incomparable Prophet and uniquely beloved one of Allah.

The Gaze of Love is Something Else

1.

Irshaad Hussain's resourceful website Islam from Inside recently published an inspiring talk by Professor William Chittick, one of the most prominent scholar of Islamic Mysticism of our time, may God accept his beautiful service. Delivered at the Carleton University, this fascinating talk explores the theme of "The Role of Love in the Qur'anic Worldview" and trust me, its one of the best discourse you can ever hear pregnant with many signposts on the path of ma'arifa (gnosis) of God and Love.

The talk centers around a ubiquitously well known verse in the Qur'an: yu Hibbu hum wa yuhibboona Hu, "He loves them, and they love Him." It's a verse which Chittick has touched upon again and again in his many works and which he turns to with a more focused intent in this particular lecture.

2.

As I listened to the discourse, I transcribed few selections which I share here, but at the same time I strongly recommend to listen to the talk in full.The audio link is provided at the end of this post.

Professor Chittick begins his lecture by mentioning how a statement by Shams e Tabriz, the famous spiritual master of Rumi caught his attention while he was studying this enigmatic personality. Shams e Tabrizi said "Quran is Ishq-e-Nama, a Love Book".

Now most people who read the Quran, specially now a days may be don't get that expression. So William C. Chittick worked through the worldview that Shams lived in and what kind of notion allowed him to say something like that.

Shams e Tabrizi explains

Most people dont see Quran as a Book of Love. Shams e Tabrizi explains why so many people fail to understand that the Quran is the Book of Love. He says, "The flaw is that people do not look at God with the gaze of Love. They look at Him with the gaze of learning, or the gaze of science, or the gaze of philosophy. The gaze of Love is something else." According to Shams in order to see that the Quran is a Book of Love, we need to look at God with the gaze of Love; not the gaze of jurisprudence, not the gaze of engineering, not with the gaze of neurobiology.

But what exactly is Love?

For us now a days it is an emotion typically understood through the lens of biology or physiology as one of the many phenomena of human situation, a by product of biological processes or social forces. But this, from Islamic point of view, is to begin at the bottom, rather than the top. Rumi contrast the top view with the bottom view in the verse, he says, "For the elect Love is a tremendous eternal light. For the common people love is a form of sensuality."

So in the Quranic worldview Love is identical with the eternal light of God. In order to understand Love we need to begin at the top, with the Divine Reality Itself. Once we know that God is Love and then we hear that God created man in His own image, then we should be able to understand .. if we grasp the reality of Love, we might understand the role of Love in human affairs in the entire universe. 

Two Axioms of Unity

 

To see how Love fits into the Quranic worldview you got to go back to Quran's basic teachings. The most basic of all of these can be boiled down to two axioms, first "there is god but God"; second "Muhammad is God's Messenger." They are known as Shahada or bearing witness, the witnessing and the Shahada is the first act of muslim practice.

Now when you look at the sentence, "there is no god but God" taken on its own, its called the formula of Tawhid. Tawhid means 'asserting the Unity of God'. Its the first principal of Islamic faith.  A typical way to understand God as He presents Himself in the Quran is to place any Name of God mentioned by the Quran.

For example, the Quran says: God is Living, Alive. What does it mean?

This mean that there is nothing alive but God, there is no true life but God's Life and the life that we experience is in fact not true life. If it were true life there would be no death or deaths.

The Quran says that God is Knowing. This means no one truly knows but God. Our knowledge is infact ignorance, masquerading as knowledge. What little knowledge we may have is a gift from God. As the Quran says, "they encompass nothing of His knowledge save as He wills." The Quran says that there is no true reality but God's reality and everything other than God is derived from the Reality of God, always and forever. So that's the first axiom, Tawhid.

The second axiom is "Muhammad is God's Messenger" which also means that Quran is God's message and part of this message I remind you is that God sent Prophets to all human beings, from the time of Adam to the time of Muhammad. Adam was the first Prophet.

So the Quran provides us two basic axioms about the nature of things. First, 'no reality but Supreme Reality', second, 'human beings get access to that Reality only by the Prophetic reality and Scriptures or Messages.'

Creative Command and Religious Command

 

One of many ways the Quran talks about this dual perspective is in terms of two source of Divine Commandments (Amr) issued by God. The first is called the Creative Command (example, 'and God brings the universe into existence'), the second source is often called the Religious Command, by means of theis second sort of command, God issues instruction.

Example of Creative Command, 'When He desires a thing, His command is Be, and it comes into being.' This Command is eternal and its outside of time and God is always bestowing existence.

By means of the Religious Command, God issues instruction, the ten commandments for example. Notice that implicit in the notion of Religious Command is the idea of free will. The religious command is directed at those who have the capacity to accept or reject it. Those who follow the Command is called abdal or servant, servants of God.

The most obvious way in which the Creative Command differs from Religious Command, is in this question of free will. People are free to obey or disobey the Religious Command, but no  one can disobey the Creative Command. From the point of Religious Command, only those who obey are called servants. From the standpoint of the Creative Command, everything is God's servant by definition because God is constantly creating everything with the eternal word, "Be".

We have two sorts of servant in keeping with the two source of commands. First sort are Compulsory Servants, everything in the universe fits into that category. The second sorts are Voluntary Servants, who are also Compulsory Servants but in addition they freely chose to follow the Religious Commands.

The Creative Command is a direct consequence of Tawhid, there is no god but God; there is no creator but God, there is no reality but God, there is nothing that bestows being but God. The statement of tawhid explains the nature of state that God alone is truly Real and everything else is contingent. And He commands things to be and they are. The Religious Command is a direct consequence or corollary of the second half of the shahada, 'Muhammad is God's Messenger'. God's act of sending Prophets brings the Religious Command into existence.

So the Quranic Worldview distinguishes between the realm of being, which is the actual situation of all of reality and the realm of religion in which people are instructed to recognize the fact that they are in fact compulsory servants of God and people are requested to employ the freewill that they have, as little that may be, the freewill they perceive in themselves, they are requested to employ that freewill in appropriate ways, ways appropriate to their servanthood.

Connection

Let me go back to Love and show you what is the connection. In the Quranic Worldview, Love is a single reality, it has different implications depending on how we look at it. From the stand point of Tawhid, Quran's basic axiom, Love motivates the Creative Command.

Why God created universe? Out of Love.

From the standpoint of Prophecy, Love brings the Religious Command into existence. Why did God sent Prophets? Out of Love.

Now, then what exactly is Love?

First, I won't be so fool as to try to define Love, Anyone who has been in Love, knows that Love is indefinable. If its true about human love, its much more true about Divine Love. In Islamic text, almost no one  tries to define Love, because its too close to Being Itself, because its too close to Reality Itself, beyond our understanding.

Nonetheless, numerous books have been written describing the symptoms of the consequences of Love.  Its all yearning. One of the more common ways to sum up the implications of love is to say that Love is yearning for union. The point is very clear. Lovers want to be together. When you are in love, you want togetherness. As a working definition of what Love implies - its a  good one. Its often cited.

At the outset, it seems to me that Quran makes ten basic points about Love. Now the first of these I have already referred to and its simply that God Himself is identical with Love. When the Quran talks about God as Love, the words used: Wud and Hubb, both of them in theology is considered as synonyms. In the usual lists of Divine Names, the 99 Names is al-Wadud is given as a Name of God, from Wud. Al-Wadud - grammatically it means Lover and it also means Beloved. One of those Arabic forms that have both an active participle and a passive participle.

There is no Lover but God and there is none Beloved but God

So that Name which is used in the Quran means that there is no lover but God and there is none Beloved but God. Briefly, God alone is True Lover and God alone is Truly worthy of Love. Thats the basic significance of this Name. Now if we look at God in terms of Himself, as theology does all the time, to say that God is both Lover and Beloved, also means that God is identical to Love Itself.

One of the earliest arabic book of Love from theological and sufic mixed perspective its said, "the root of Love is that God is eternally described by Love. God Loves Himself, for Himself, in Himself. Here Lover, Beloved and Love are a Single thing without division for He is Unity Itself and in Unity things are not distinct."

So the most basic Quranic teachings about Love is that God is identical with Love. Given the fact that God is One, that Love is His own Love for Himself. But the moment we take the universe into existence, we have a different picture, its more complicated. The Quran refers to some of the implications, once we have the universe... in a verse which is quoted more than any other verses about Love. There are lots of verses about Love but this one is the key to much discussion. This is the verse that everyone comes back to. The verse says basically, Yu Hubbuhum, wa yuhubbuna Hu.

"He loves them and they love Him."

Four Issues

 

If you analyze the statement closely, the way its done in traditional text, we have four basic statements. First, 'He loves' - means God is a lover, 'He loves them', means human beings in the context of its object, are God's beloved. The third statement, 'human beings are God's lovers'; and the fourth statement is 'God is the object of their Love'. There are four issues going on here.

If we look at these four statements, are these referring to the Creative Command or are they referring the Religious Command or are they referring to the both Commands? The text maintain that they are referring to both Commands. Here it says, "He Loves them" and its God’s eternal Word. Given that God is Eternal and Unchanging,  His love for human beings are also Eternal and Unchanging.

God loves us long before we were even created. To say this however doesn't mean that human love for is eternal, because God's love for us precedes our existence. But Love, when we use that word, we have in mind usually a two way street. So God's Eternal Love motivated Him to create the universe so there would be someone to Love Him in return.

In the Quran, God's love for the universe and human beings, this Creative Love, is most often called the Rahma, Mercy, Compassion.  The basic meaning of this word Rahma, Mercy (derived from RAHM meaning Womb) is mother's love for her children. There are number of sayings of the Prophet which confirm this understanding. For example the Prophet said, 'Surely God is more merciful towards His servant than a mother is for her child.'

Notice here that this saying can be read, should be read and the reference to God’s love for all things, for all things  in the universe are God’s servants. The Quran makes this point explicitly by associating the universal servanthood of all things with the Name All Merciful, ar Rahman.

The Quran says, "there is no one in the heaven and in the earth that does not come to the All Merciful as servant." Commentaries of the Quran commonly explains that the Name All Merciful, ar Rahman designates in as much as He loves all beings without exception, whereas Ever Merciful (ar Rahim) refers to specific sort of Love. Mercy is a kind of Love, but Mercy and Love are not synonymous. The basic distinction between the two is that Love is Mutual, Mercy only goes one way. God Loves human being, human being can love Him back.

Do human beings have mercy, yes they have. It comes with the Divine Image, but it should be given others. Mercy is a quality which is due to other creatures like ourselves.

Beauty, Jamal and Husna

This verse of mutual verse that 'He loves them' - God's Love is directed specifically to human beings. In this discussion of the object of Love, typically brings in the issue of Beauty, Jamal and Husna.

Beauty like Love is impossible to define, though we all have some idea of what it means. In Islamic text Beauty is typically explained as that which attracts Love, that which is Lovable. People love things because they find them beautiful. But this not an accessory of biology or psychology but rather of direct consequence of Creative Command.

The Prophet expressed the divine root of Love in a very famous saying, "God is Beautiful and He Loves Beauty." So Beauty is there to Love in imitation of God. Now if God is Beautiful, the formula of Tawhid that there is nothing beautiful but God. When God loves, He is loving Beauty. He alone is truly Beautiful, so He is Loving His own Beauty. He loves His own Beauty first by Loving it in Itself and second by Loving it in created things as its reflected in creation. The Quran says, "God is described by the Most Beautiful Names (al-asmaul husna) ." In addressing mankind, the Quran says, "God formed you and He made your form beautiful."

When that verse of mutual love says "God loves them" - it means that God is Loving His own Beauty, reflected in the forms of human beings.

Islamic anthropology, the Islamic notion of human nature is founded on this two parallel statements, one is God Loves Beauty, the other is God Loves them, human being. God Loves human being because they encapsulate and reflect the totality of the divine beauty - that is all the perfections designated by God's Most  Beautiful Names. Human beings alone were created in God's all comprehensive Beauty. They alone were taught all the Names - according to Quran.

The verse of mutual Love says, they Love Him. The human beings Love Him. If your read this in terms of Creative Command, this means that human beings were created to be Lovers. They can not avoid being Lovers. At the same time there is no longer but God, Tawhid. So the root and source of human love is God's Love.

Rumi, among others frequently talks about  human love as the reflection of God's Love in the world. "They Love Him", this means not simply that people love by definition, but also people love God by definition.  They Can not NOT love God and they can not in fact love anything else because all others are the Signs of God, the Manifestations of God, the Creations of God. All things are manifestation of His Beauty. They are the traces and properties of His Most Beautiful Names, so when you love something, you are loving His beauty in reflected form.

If people don't recognize that 'there is no Beloved but God' and if they don't accept that they are servants of All Merciful by definition - this is simply because, as the Quran puts it, "Adam forgot". People have inherited their father's forgetfulness.

And this is precisely in Islamic view, why God sent Prophets. So this brings us to the role of Religious Command. Up until now, Love is built into the Universe, there is no escape from it. From the stand point of Creative Command, God said "Be" out of Love for creatoin. From the stand point of Religious Command, this same Love motivated God to remind people 'who they are' by sending the Prophets. And the role of the Prophets is to bring guidance so that people can recognize God and Love Him in return.

Just as God's Creative Love is identical with the all comprehensive Divine Mercy (ar Rahman), God's Guiding Love is identical with a specific kind of Mercy (ar Rahim) directed towards those who live upto to the innate Beauty of their soul.    

In terms of the Creative Command, God loves human beings unconditional. In terms of Religious Command, His Love is conditioned. The Quran refers to the conditionality of Love and this verse which is addressed to Muhammad, "Say Muhammad, if you Love God, then follow me, and God will Love you."  Although God Loves you in any case, if you want God to Love you even more, then you have to follow Muhammad.

This specific verse provides the rational for Islamic practices for the sunnah (way of the Prophet) simply because Prophet is embodied with the beautiful character traits of the divine. So the Quran says, "You have a beautiful example in God's Messenger." The fact that God's Messenger is Beautiful, is sufficient proof that God Loves Him. So Muhammad should be followed because He is God's beloved (habib Allah). If people do follow him,  they also can become worthy of God's Love. (From the talk by William C. Chittick, draft  and partial transcription)

3.
Download the Discourse: The Role of Love in the Qur'anic Worldview

Chittick's lectures are a delight to attend as he weaves beautifully insightful tapestries of traditional Islamic thought in a very expressive manner. He also has a delightful sense of humor that comes through in his physical expressiveness and his turn of phrase.You may download the talk from the links below as highlighted:

.. Shorter Mp4 version, Only Talk
.. Longer Mp3 version, with Questions and Answers

About: Professor William C. Chittick

William C. Chittick is a leading translator and interpreter of classical Islamic philosophical and mystical texts. He is best known for his groundbreaking work on Rumi and Ibn 'Arabi, and has written extensively on the school of Ibn 'Arabi, Islamic philosophy, Shi'ism, and Islamic cosmology. Born in Milford Connecticut, Chittick finished his BA at the College of Wooster in Ohio, and then went on to complete a PhD in Persian literature at Tehran University under the supervision of Seyyed Hossein Nasr in 1974.

 "[Chittick’s] books will always remain most important milestones in the study of Islamic mystical theology." - Annemarie Schimmel, author and scholar on Islam and Sufism

".. The range and authenticity of [Chittick’s] books have no parallel in the list of English-language books on Islamic spirituality." - Frederick M. Denny, University of Colorado

. William Chittick’s life and work 
. Professor Chittick Page at Stony Brook Univesity