Found weeping and asked the reason, Sulaiman ad-Darani (d. 830) said: "Why should I not weep? For, when night falls, and eyes are closed in slumber, and every lover is alone with his beloved, and the people of love keep vigil, and tears stream over their cheeks and bedew their oratories, then God Almighty looks from on high and cries aloud - 'O Gabriel, dear in my sight are they who take pleasure in My Word and find peace in praising My name. Verily, I am regarding them in their loneliness, I hear their lamentation and I see their weeping. Wherefore, O Gabriel, dost thou not cry aloud amongst them - "What is this weeping?" Did ye ever see a real beloved that chastised his lover? Or how could it beseem Me to punish folk who, when night covers them, manifest fond affection towards Me?
By Myself I swear that when they shall come down to the Resurrection I will surely unveil to them My Glorious Face, in order that they may behold Me and I may behold them."
2.
Huwa Allahu allazee la ilaha illa Hu.
Aalimul ghaybi wa-sh shahadah,
Huwa ar-Rahmanu ar-Raheem.
He is Allah, there is no divine reality but He.
Knower of the Unseen and Witness of all,
He is the Universally Merciful, the Intimately Compassionate.
- The Quran, Chapter of the Exile (59:22)
Love, al-Qushari states, is a "noble state" in which God reveals himself to the servant. God loves the servant and the servant loves Him. Love of God on the part of man is a state of his heart too subtle to bear description. This state will move man to glorify God, to prefer His satisfaction (to anything else), to be impatient of separation from Him, to yearn for Him, to be restless without Him, and to feel close to Him in his heart through remembering Him unceasingly.
But the servant's love of God does not mean that God should show him affection nor that He should comprehend God. How could this be, seeing that true infinity is too holy to be reached, attained or joined. It comes close to the truth to say that the lover perishes in the Beloved than to say that the lover joins the Beloved. Qushairi seems to feel that there is no better word than "love" to explain the servant's state, however much this may leave unexplained.
- Medieval Islam: a study in Cultural Orientation, by Gustave Edmund Grunebaum
3.
Shaykh Sidi Hamza el Qadiri el Boutchichi in his teachings transmit the following about Love (Mahabba):
Love (Mahabba) is the crowning glory of men’s actions.
I hold to love more than all other things. Let us pray that GOD does not withdraw this bounty from us.
It is love which provokes a wound, a cry. The cry comes from he who is drunk with the love of the master.
Love between disciples (Fuqara) and the master is infinite and increases constantly. One desires never to be separated. This love is a result of a spiritual secret and exists because we are united only for GOD. This love causes all cultural differences to vanish.
When love inhabits the heart, nothing is difficult and everything which happens to one can be turned to spiritual profit. This is because, thanks to love, the veil separating us from reality becomes ever thinner. One experiences thereby a deep joy from this proximity and one becomes flooded with a profound perception of beauty.
When GOD loves His servant, his qualities are covered with the Qualities of his Lord. It is as if a king invites us into his company and we find ourselves without clothes which are suitably clean and fitting to be in his presence, the king clothes us in his clothes and introduces us into his presence.
Love all creatures, whatever their religion might be or their race and opinions. Everyone has his place in the divine pattern. It is not for us to judge.
4.
Love and remembrance of the object of Love goes hand in hand. He who claim to love a person or a thing, but forget about that very person or the object is not a truthful one. What ones loves, one remember.
Divine Remembrance or Dhikr is the pure alchemy of heart for the lover of God. They love God and in their love they remember God whom they love. On remembrance / dhikr Shaykh Sidi Hamza transmits:
Two things are necessary and inter related in the practice: Invocation and orientation. If one has a grimy mirror with which to reflect the sun’s rays, two operations are necessary: The mirror must first be polished. The polishing is done with Dhikr. The mirror must be well directed towards the sun that it may reflect its rays more brightly.
Dhikr practiced regularly progressively makes carnal desires and impure thoughts vanish. In like manner if hunters go hunting in the forest and fire shots, all the animals take fright and flee only to return later in the day. But if the hunters come every day into the forest, the animals will eventually move to another location in the forest.
The key to the answer is in the dhikr. Thanks to dhikr, you may have the intuition to serve you in every situation. The important thing is to be there and to set down one’s roots in the dhikr and to persevere.
The two royal gates to access GOD’s mercy are invocation (dhikr) and generosity.
5.
Finally, here is a very beautiful sacred tradition of Islam as transmitted by Prophet Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, which speaks of the value of Dhikr and what Allah says about those who remember Him in unison:
Allah, glorified and exalted be God, has supernumerary angels who rove about seeking out gatherings in which Allah's name is being invoked: they sit with them and fold their wings round each other, filling that which is between them and between the lowest heaven.
When [the people in the gathering] depart, [the angels] ascend and rise up to heaven.
Then Allah, mighty and sublime is God, asks them - [though] He is most knowing about them: "From where have you come?" And they say: "We have come from some servants of Yours on Earth: they are praising You (tasbih) and magnifying Your Name (takbir) and glorifying You (tahmid), and giving You the best Attributes (tamjid), witnessing that there is no god but You (La ilaha illa llah) and asking of You."
Allah the Most High asks, even though nothing is veiled from His all encompassing knowledge, but He asks so that gnosis be transmitted in every level and He asks: "Have they seen Me?"
The angels answer: "O our Lord! They did not see You."
Allah the Most High says: (They are praising Me without seeing Me,) "And how would it be were they to have seen Me!"
The angels answer: "O our Lord, if they saw You, they are going to do more and more worship, more and more praise (tasbih), more and more remembrance (takbir and tamjid)!"
Allah says: "What are they asking?"
The angels say: "They ask of You Your Paradise."
Allah says: "And have they seen My Paradise?"
They say: "No, O Lord."
He says: "And how would it be were they to have seen My Paradise!"
They say: "If they see Paradise, they are going to be more attached and attracted to it!"
The angels say: "And they ask protection of You."
Allah the Most says: "From what do they ask protection of Me?"
They say: "From Your Hell-fire, O our Lord."
He says: "And have they seen My Hell-fire?"
They say: "No O our Lord."
He says: "And how would it be were they to have seen My Hell-fire"
The angels reply: "If they see your fire, they are going to be running from it more and more, and be even more afraid of it."
The angels further say: "And they ask for Your forgiveness."
Then Allah the Most Merciful says: "I am making you witness and Allah is sufficient as witness that I have forgiven them and I have bestowed upon them what they have asked for, and I have granted them sanctuary from that which they asked protection from."
They say: "O Lord, among then is so-and-so who did not belong to that group, but came for some other need."
And Allah declares: "And to him [too] I have given forgiveness, salvation: he who sits with such people shall not suffer."
By Myself I swear that when they shall come down to the Resurrection I will surely unveil to them My Glorious Face, in order that they may behold Me and I may behold them."
2.
Huwa Allahu allazee la ilaha illa Hu.
Aalimul ghaybi wa-sh shahadah,
Huwa ar-Rahmanu ar-Raheem.
He is Allah, there is no divine reality but He.
Knower of the Unseen and Witness of all,
He is the Universally Merciful, the Intimately Compassionate.
- The Quran, Chapter of the Exile (59:22)
Love, al-Qushari states, is a "noble state" in which God reveals himself to the servant. God loves the servant and the servant loves Him. Love of God on the part of man is a state of his heart too subtle to bear description. This state will move man to glorify God, to prefer His satisfaction (to anything else), to be impatient of separation from Him, to yearn for Him, to be restless without Him, and to feel close to Him in his heart through remembering Him unceasingly.
But the servant's love of God does not mean that God should show him affection nor that He should comprehend God. How could this be, seeing that true infinity is too holy to be reached, attained or joined. It comes close to the truth to say that the lover perishes in the Beloved than to say that the lover joins the Beloved. Qushairi seems to feel that there is no better word than "love" to explain the servant's state, however much this may leave unexplained.
- Medieval Islam: a study in Cultural Orientation, by Gustave Edmund Grunebaum
3.
Shaykh Sidi Hamza el Qadiri el Boutchichi in his teachings transmit the following about Love (Mahabba):
Love (Mahabba) is the crowning glory of men’s actions.
I hold to love more than all other things. Let us pray that GOD does not withdraw this bounty from us.
It is love which provokes a wound, a cry. The cry comes from he who is drunk with the love of the master.
Love between disciples (Fuqara) and the master is infinite and increases constantly. One desires never to be separated. This love is a result of a spiritual secret and exists because we are united only for GOD. This love causes all cultural differences to vanish.
When love inhabits the heart, nothing is difficult and everything which happens to one can be turned to spiritual profit. This is because, thanks to love, the veil separating us from reality becomes ever thinner. One experiences thereby a deep joy from this proximity and one becomes flooded with a profound perception of beauty.
When GOD loves His servant, his qualities are covered with the Qualities of his Lord. It is as if a king invites us into his company and we find ourselves without clothes which are suitably clean and fitting to be in his presence, the king clothes us in his clothes and introduces us into his presence.
Love all creatures, whatever their religion might be or their race and opinions. Everyone has his place in the divine pattern. It is not for us to judge.
Love and remembrance of the object of Love goes hand in hand. He who claim to love a person or a thing, but forget about that very person or the object is not a truthful one. What ones loves, one remember.
Divine Remembrance or Dhikr is the pure alchemy of heart for the lover of God. They love God and in their love they remember God whom they love. On remembrance / dhikr Shaykh Sidi Hamza transmits:
Two things are necessary and inter related in the practice: Invocation and orientation. If one has a grimy mirror with which to reflect the sun’s rays, two operations are necessary: The mirror must first be polished. The polishing is done with Dhikr. The mirror must be well directed towards the sun that it may reflect its rays more brightly.
Dhikr practiced regularly progressively makes carnal desires and impure thoughts vanish. In like manner if hunters go hunting in the forest and fire shots, all the animals take fright and flee only to return later in the day. But if the hunters come every day into the forest, the animals will eventually move to another location in the forest.
The key to the answer is in the dhikr. Thanks to dhikr, you may have the intuition to serve you in every situation. The important thing is to be there and to set down one’s roots in the dhikr and to persevere.
The two royal gates to access GOD’s mercy are invocation (dhikr) and generosity.
5.
Finally, here is a very beautiful sacred tradition of Islam as transmitted by Prophet Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, which speaks of the value of Dhikr and what Allah says about those who remember Him in unison:
Allah, glorified and exalted be God, has supernumerary angels who rove about seeking out gatherings in which Allah's name is being invoked: they sit with them and fold their wings round each other, filling that which is between them and between the lowest heaven.
When [the people in the gathering] depart, [the angels] ascend and rise up to heaven.
Then Allah, mighty and sublime is God, asks them - [though] He is most knowing about them: "From where have you come?" And they say: "We have come from some servants of Yours on Earth: they are praising You (tasbih) and magnifying Your Name (takbir) and glorifying You (tahmid), and giving You the best Attributes (tamjid), witnessing that there is no god but You (La ilaha illa llah) and asking of You."
Allah the Most High asks, even though nothing is veiled from His all encompassing knowledge, but He asks so that gnosis be transmitted in every level and He asks: "Have they seen Me?"
The angels answer: "O our Lord! They did not see You."
Allah the Most High says: (They are praising Me without seeing Me,) "And how would it be were they to have seen Me!"
The angels answer: "O our Lord, if they saw You, they are going to do more and more worship, more and more praise (tasbih), more and more remembrance (takbir and tamjid)!"
Allah says: "What are they asking?"
The angels say: "They ask of You Your Paradise."
Allah says: "And have they seen My Paradise?"
They say: "No, O Lord."
He says: "And how would it be were they to have seen My Paradise!"
They say: "If they see Paradise, they are going to be more attached and attracted to it!"
The angels say: "And they ask protection of You."
Allah the Most says: "From what do they ask protection of Me?"
They say: "From Your Hell-fire, O our Lord."
He says: "And have they seen My Hell-fire?"
They say: "No O our Lord."
He says: "And how would it be were they to have seen My Hell-fire"
The angels reply: "If they see your fire, they are going to be running from it more and more, and be even more afraid of it."
The angels further say: "And they ask for Your forgiveness."
Then Allah the Most Merciful says: "I am making you witness and Allah is sufficient as witness that I have forgiven them and I have bestowed upon them what they have asked for, and I have granted them sanctuary from that which they asked protection from."
They say: "O Lord, among then is so-and-so who did not belong to that group, but came for some other need."
And Allah declares: "And to him [too] I have given forgiveness, salvation: he who sits with such people shall not suffer."
Related by Muslim (also by al-Bukhari, at-Tirmidhi, and an-Nasa'i)
5.
"O Allah! it is not strange that I love You because I am a weak servant,
but it is strange that You love me when You are the King of Kings."
- Cry of Sufi Saint Bayazid al Bistami to his Lord
# Resources:
* Dhikr of Allah
* Forty Hadith Qudsi
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