The Religion of Love

Truly, those who are faithful
and do righteous deeds,
the Compassionate One will endow with Love. - The Quran, Surah Maryam (19:96)

Mevlana Rumi said, "The Religion of Love is like no other." He did not wish to start a new religion but to reveal the essence of all religion, which is submission to God in love. All love leads towards God.

All love is metaphor, a symbol of real love. It is not necessary to replace one religion or no religion with another, but to purify our religion and ourselves with love.

In the religion of love we are not seeking love, because we know that love is not the goal or end, but the original and cause of everything. We are within this field of love. We only need to open up to it. Love created us. Love guides us. And we will all return to love, either willingly or unwillingly. We can go willingly and consciously, by realizing that love brought us here in the first place. Let us trust this truth. Let this be our starting point.

All religion exist because Love is trying to establish itself in human life. Since the object of all religion is One, all religions are related to each other. Sometimes it looks as though the enterprise of religion has been an utter failure on this earth, but who really knows. Appearances can be deceptive. Sometime failure is the seed of greatest success.

They said: "You are crazy in love!"
.......I said: "May God increase my love."
They said: "But your being has vanished."
.......I said: "It's not in me, God knows."
They said: "You are filled!"
.......I said: "I wish I were empty."
They said: "You are burned out!"
.......I said: "I wish I were ash!"
They said: "You are fading."
.......I said, "I wish I had died."
They said: "But you are dead."
.......I said: "God willing."
"The cup," they said.
......."Let me be quenched," I said.
"Drink!" they said.
......."Let me turn," I said.
"The moth," they said.
......."Let me burn," I said.
"Fool!" they said.

......."So be it! It comes from God," I said.
"They said, "O Zeynep, you will be heartbroken,
drunk on love for the rose, like the nightingale.
In the end you will go mad in the way of truth."

.......I said, "What can I do? It's up to God."
(original poem by Zeynep Hatun, translated by Murat Yagan)


- from the book, The Knowing Heart, A Sufi Path of Transformation by Kabir Helminski

"A clear and well-grounded introduction to Sufism ... Perhaps the best beginner's guide now available." - Library Journal

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