Book of Healing - Spiritual Healing - Heavenly Love
Heavenly Love
Tags: Heavenly Love, Annihilation, Divine love, Love
1. If the love for God, the Prophet and the Commander of the faithful is true and perfect, then it is heavenly love in every respect. For, the command of this love is in the heavenly Book, namely, the Qur'an, and its honourable mention and magnificent publicity is made among the angels of all heavens, as it is said in a noble Hadith:
"When God loves one of His servants, He tells Jibra'il that He loves so and so, therefore he also should love him, and Jibra'il starts to love him. Then Jibra'il tells the people of heaven that God loves such and such a person, you should also love him. The people of heaven start to love him and then he becomes loved in this world." (Bukhari, IV, 291; Tirmidhi, II, 502)
2. Those who have no religion are called atheists. Hence in their case, neither is God's friendship conceivable, nor His enmity, for they do not believe in God at all. The rest of the people who have a religion, all claim to have the friendship of God. But, according to Divine law, this claim can only be justified if someone obeys the holy Prophet absolutely, and this is the decision of the wise Qur'an itself (3:31). Here it is also essential to note that, without loving the true Prophet, there is no true obedience.
3. The holy Prophet says: "By Him in Whose hand is my soul! none of you will have faith till he loves me more than his father and his children." (Bukhari, I, 20). In short, the Qur'anic verses and Prophetic Ahadith regarding true heavenly love are so numerous, that it is not possible to mention them all here.
4. Frankly speaking, the sacred and angelic teaching of the love for God and that for His beloved Prophet is acquired from that living university, which in the Sufi language is called murshid-i kamil or the Perfect Guide. Since heavenly love is the greatest and most effective panacea for all spiritual diseases, its acquisition is equally difficult. The proof of this reality is obvious: annihilation in God is not possible directly, without annihilation in the Prophet, which in turn is not possible, without annihilation in the murshid or the Spiritual Guide. For the door of divinity (uluhiyyat) is prophethood and that of prophethood is walayat. Have you not read that there are doors to the heavens? Are these doors not those of the spiritual heavens (7:40)? Otherwise, where are the closed doors to the physical heaven?
5. A mu'min cannot have the slightest doubt in the fact that, in the religion of nature (Islam), the rank of the Siddiqin, namely, awliya' has to be after the Prophets (4:69). But it is necessary to know: How does every wali on the straight path, follow the Prophet and lead the people? Is the diagram of obedience in the above-mentioned verse (4:69) not as follows?
6. Indeed, love and annihilation have three levels: walayat, nubuwwat and uluhiyyat. You may have studied the virtues of the awliya' of God in the holy Qur'an and the noble Hadith carefully, as mentioned in verses (10:62-64): "Behold! Verily the friends of God have no fear nor do they grieve; those who believe (perfectly) and fear God; for them are glad tidings in this life and in the Hereafter." Fear is related to the future and abad; grief is related to the disappointments of the past and azal. But God shows His awliya' the secrets of azal and abad together, in which they see their "Higher I (ana-yi `ulwi)", free from fear and grief. For, there is an ever-lasting Paradise, where all the bounties are always available intact.
7. When a wali receives glad tidings from God, then it is of a practical and a personal nature. Such glad tidings mean to have a constant feeling and comprehension of the marvels of the subtle (spiritual) world, which includes the wisdom-filled conversation of the intellect and the soul and the ma`rifat of all great secrets. Here, it must be remembered that every Prophet is a wali (friend of God), but it is not necessary for every wali to be a Prophet. Thus, in the above-mentioned verse (10:62) all the awliya' (friends) of God (Prophets and Sidiqin) are mentioned together. Therefore, its explanation and glad tidings embrace all spiritual and intellectual stages. That is, the mention of the awliya' with the Prophets, necessitates that their spirituality be extremely sublime.
8. Heavenly love is a light, a helping angel, a spiritual burning and movement, a sweet pain which is a panacea or universal cure, a minor Resurrection which is pure awakening and an awareness, a Paradisiacal melody which only the soul hears, a unique fragrance which is the essence of all fragrances, a precious pearl from which flow the rivers of knowledge and wisdom, a bright sun which contains the prosperity of the soul and the intellect, a soul-nourishing cellular pleasure, the highest insight, an extremely useful miracle of `Izra'il, an instrument of Israfil which causes one to melt and shed tears, a magnificent angelic tumult, a heavenly purification which is caused by the rays of the light of love, a silent prayer in which the Divine vision is sought, a curative current of the lightning of Sinai, a Shirt of Yusuf, a wisdom-filled effacement and annihilation, a glad tiding of the sempiternal life, an echo of the exalted Throne and a Divine mercy.
9. Heavenly love becomes fresh and mellow every time by knowledge and wisdom and dhikr-u `ibadat. This is the single means through which the veils of the beauty and majesty of jabarut and lahut are lifted. For, under the influence of the manifestation which had happened on the mountain of azal (tur-i azal) or the mountain of intellect, it had smashed into countless pieces of gems, which are all in the wise Quran. Thus, if such a gem is observed with the inner eye, then certainly, in it will be seen the reflection of ma'rifat of the Divine manifestations of azal. This is the greatest external miracle of the glorious Qur'an and by this vision of knowledge, you can always make true love fresh and mellow.
10. Among the three stages of annihilation, the most difficult is the stage of annihilation in the murshid. First of all, it is not easy to recognise the True and Perfect murshid. If, fortunately, the murshid is found, even then effacement and annihilation cannot be attained unless there is absolute certitude of his hidden beauties as a result of struggle in the light of knowledge and ma`rifat, and through which the fire of love is kindled. If by the help of God, the Blessed, the Exalted, all these difficulties are overcome, then, God willing, this sign is the glad tiding of progress.
11. The simile and similitude of Divine love is given from the example of fire. Thus, when an individual becomes the son of Adam in the sense of faith, knowledge and piety, then the sacred fire descends from the spiritual heaven and eats his sacrifice (the sheep of the carnal soul), just as the sacrifice of Hazrat Habil (a.s.) was accepted (5:27). This is a great spiritual event. Nonetheless, there are also partial examples, namely, the subsidiary ranks of the miracle of love, so that the spiritual diseases of people may be cured gradually.
12. Question: It is said in a Hadith: "He who loves the Qur'an, let there be glad tidings for him" (Dirimi, II, 433). From this Hadith, it becomes clear that love for the Qur'an is extremely necessary. The question arises: Is annihilation in the Qur'an possible, while it is in front of us?
Answer: Yes, it is absolutely possible. But this annihilation is not different from the three above-mentioned annihilations. Thus it is incumbent upon every wise mu'min to act upon the command of "Mutu qabl an tamutu (Die (spiritually) before you die (physically)", so that he may find himself annihilated in the glorious Qur'an. Such are the marvels and miracles of heavenly love. Thus this love is the best alchemic prescription for all spiritual diseases.
9 Rabic II, 1409
20th November, 1988.
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