Love – the means to perfection. The 4th part of A Walk Through the Shareefiya Garden
With the name of Allah most Beneficient ever Merciful
“Listen to the reed (of a musical Instrument) how it tells a tale, complaining of separations Saying, ‘ever since I was parted from the reed bed, my lament has caused man and woman to moan. I want a bosom torn by severance, that I may unfold (to such a one) the pain of love–desire.”_ Matnawi 1:1.
These are the opening lines of the greatest work on Tasawaff and Rumi (RA) is telling the reader that his book will best be understood by a person that loves (his bosom torn).
The most important part of Tasawaff is to love the Pir O Murshid who is an agent of Allah Subhanatallah. It is only after experiencing love that one can truly learn to better oneself spiritually.
Our Pir O Murshid Hazrath Poona Wale Shah Saib (RA) also stressed this. He said “Pir dil me uterna, ye sab se barie baath.” Put your pir into your heart, this is the biggest thing. Everything else in Tasawaff is secondary because if we love our Pir O Murshid then everything else would automatically fall into place.
Literature and knowledge in Tasawaff is mainly about love showing again, that love is the most important aspect of Tasawaff. Just to give a few examples. In Tasawaff literature one is sure to come across the intoxication of love and the analogy of the bar. The bar is the meeting place, the bartender is the spiritual guide and that which flows between their eyes is the wine. The spiritual guide serves the wine of love or “Sharabe Tabaura” which is “paak” (pure) wine.
When the mureed drinks of this wine he experiences a sort of intoxicated state which is referred to as ‘haal.
So in-depth is the knowledge of love in Tasawaff that they even differentiate between a person actually loving a person for who he really is and a person loving someone so that he could enjoy the intoxicating feeling of love.
Here is the example of the beloved telling the lover the reality of his love: _”You are in love with your (intoxicated) ‘state,’ You are not in love with me: You are attached to me in the hope of (experiencing) the ‘state.’_ Matnawi 3:1428
Now it is this love that is the basis by which our souls are purified and our characters refined. In order to understand how love cleanses our souls we have to understand a few things first.
We have all come across the word “Ar Rahman” which is the 2nd most important name of Allah Subhanatallah and it is a description of His most popular and most glorious attribute.
Hazrath Ali (RA) reported that: _”I heard the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ say: “For everything there is an adornment (beatification), and the adornment of the Quran is “Ar Rahmaan” (The Merciful)._ Al Hadith.
“Ar Rahmaan” is translated to mean compassionate or merciful or beneficent. What does compassion mean? According to the dictionary, it means to feel for someone else, to have sympathy, to consider others, to be kind to others, to have empathy, to care.
Now this feeling of compassion stems from love and love alone. Love, therefore, is important because it brings about compassion (and caring) which is Allah Subhanatallah’s greatest attribute.
When we love Allah’s Chosen Ones, then we feel and care, for not only our beloved, but also everyone around us. Even the second most important name that He is known by, “Ar Rahiem”, has a similar meaning and stems from love.
Now the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ loved Allah Subhanatallah with all his heart and he went through great trials and made great sacrifices for Allah Subhanatallah.
It is this love that made him so compassionate towards the people around him. His mission was love from the start to the end. He taught the untamable, most ruthless people on earth to love and care.
With love he joined the warring tribes into one nation, he removed the barriers of race, religion and sexuality so that people could love then respect and care for one another.
When the Meccans migrated to Medina then he asked the people of Medina to share by giving half their belongings and they did it because they loved him.
He himself borrowed to give to the needy even though he knew that it is not good to incur debts. So we see that it is Love for Allah Subhanatallah that made him so compassionate and kind to others.
When his companions loved him they in turn became kind and compassionate. When they loved then there was no place in their hearts for hatred, spite and greed.
Material things meant nothing to them. By just loving they perfected and purified their beings. “But he will prosper who purifies and Inwardly himself (both outwardly) and remembers the name of his Guardian Lord, and prays.” Al Quran 87:14. And also 91:9
Love, is the means to perfection. The character and personality of the Pir O Murshid is like his Pir O Murshid and his is like the previous Pir O Murshid and in this way our pir O Murshid’s character and personality is like that of the Holy Prophet Muhammad ﷺ because they are all linked.
In essence, when we grow to love our Pir O Murshid we therefore grow to love the character and personality of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ who is the perfect human being.
Tasawaff teaches the concept of “fana” which is when the lover sacrifices everything, including himself to the beloved. The disciple has no wants and needs of his own. His only attachment is his spiritual guide, and finally, the disciple is so in tune with the spiritual guide that he becomes one with him.
His actions and habits (sifath) are like that of the guides. As they get even closer their essence “zaath” becomes one. This is the state of ‘baqua.’ It is as if the mureed no longer exists.
The mureed at this point has imbibed the character and habits of his pir O Murshid which is that of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and he in turn becomes the lamp illuminated to which others are attracted to.
_”Since the sun has gone and has branded us, is not the lamp the only source in his stead? Since union with the beloved has vanished from before our eyes, we need a vicar as memorial of him. Since the rose has passed and the garden ravaged, from whom shall we get the perfume of the rose. From rosewater? In as much as God comes not into sight, these prophets are the vicars of God. Nay I have said this wrongly: for if I suppose that the vicar and He Who is represented are two, it is bad, not good. Nay they are two so long as you are a worshipper of form: but they have become one to him who has escaped from form… If you count a hundred apples or a hundred quinces, they do not remain a hundred but become one when you crush them together. In things spiritual, there is no division and no numbers, in things spiritual, there are no partitions and no individuals.”_Matanawi 1:670
It is easy to see that we today, live in a materialistic society and we are becoming more and more materialistic by the day and this in turn is making us selfish and this obsession with the world distracts us and takes us away from love and compassion.
Today, when we are burying the deceased it is generally the older men that fill in the grave while the youth are busy with their cell phones, if an old person is carrying a package then the young do not offer to help. Few give lifts today or assist someone in the case of a breakdown.
Recently someone had a breakdown at one in the morning about 300km from his home on a lonely highway and he phoned his cousin who lived nearby. His cousin told him to wait in the car and her husband would come over to assist him at eight in the morning.
Today it is common for the youth to abandon their old parents. This is a very sad story which happened recently; one father was discharged from hospital but his son did not come to pick him up after he had repeatedly phoned him and after a few days of waiting in hospital the father died of what I would think was a broken heart.
This lack of love and compassion not only affects us in our immediate families but it affects our entire society. The medical profession is about helping and serving the sick to alleviate pain and suffering, but today, it is only about money.
The police are supposed to protect us but today it is about extorting bribes. The government is supposed to find ways to make the lives of its people better but today they only spend their time thinking of more ways to tax their subjects.
We definitely need to change the way things are, for our own good and the future generations.
Change does not come about by changing the government or fighting with the doctors, rather it comes about from within ourselves first. We must not become ruthless, selfish people chasing after the world but instead we must become loving, caring people.
In order to do this, we have to change the focus of our lives and return to the way of the Prophets and the Aulia Allah. We have to start paying attention to our Pir O Murshid by having him in our thoughts at all times.
In this way we will grow to love him and when we do, we will become compassionate, caring people once again. Loving, caring and helping does not come for free but we have to make sacrifices:
_”to gain righteousness you have to sacrifice that which you love (in terms of the world).” Al Quran 3:92._
It is not easy to help someone. It might take time or resources which we would have to part with and we would feel the strain. Our Pir O Murshid quite often said: “No pain, No gain.” And there definitely is great gain.
Love is not what we see in the movies. The Western culture that we are exposed to, and that which we are tending to follow, does not know anything about love. In their literature one would not come across in-depth works or knowledge on love.
Yes there are plenty romance books which are more like phonographic movies in words but there are no real in-depth works on love. These romance books are not love stories but are more stories based on sensual, carnal pleasures.
In Islamic literature there are in-depth works on love, some of which have been translated into English. All of these works stem from Tasawaff or Sufism.
Unlike the western concept of love which is mainly based on a man-woman relationship, the Islamic concept of love is based on a disciple loving his spiritual guide who is a man of God.
Abu Zarr (RA) reports that the Prophet ﷺ came to us and asked: Do you know which of the actions is dearest to the Glorious Allah? Someone replied prayer and charity and someone else said Jihad. The Holy Prophet ﷺ said: _The action dearest to the Almighty Allah is love for Allah’s sake, and hate for Allah’s sake.“_ Al Hadis.
Even when it comes to love songs, western culture cannot compare with the intensity of “Tasawaff qalaams” or “Arifana qalaams” which are Sufi love songs.
The thing about love is that when you give it, you also get it back tenfold. In other words you create an atmosphere of love. Just look at how the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ loved him in return and together they built an environment of peace and tranquility around them in which everyone lived in peace. End
Published by Anjuman e Waris e Mohammedi 2014.
Anjuman e Waris e Mohammedi was founded by Dr Hakim Hazrath Khwaja Sayed Shareef Ahmed Ali Shah RA (lovingly known as Hazrath Poona Wale Shah Saab RA)
Author: Mahomed Hassan Gaffoor WhatsApp: +27 84 910 1486