ISLAM AND LOVE

Islam and love

By: Hasib Hossain

Hasib Hossain Ms. Murata 4 / 24 / 2000

Islam and Love Love is an important aspect of Islam. In the Sufi Path of Love, written by Rumi, Love is the central theme. Rumi speaks alot about love and its branches and ramifications. According to Rumi, Love ddominateds most of the Sufi way of life.

In a translation of Sufi Path of Love written by William C. Chittuck, Sufi says: "No matter what I say to explain and elucidate Love, shame overcomes me when I come to Love itself. Love cannot be contained within our speaking or listening/ Love is an ocean whose depths cannot be plumbed.... Love cannot be found in erudition and science, books and pages. Whatever is duscussed by people- That is not the way of lovers. Whatever you have said or heard is the shell; The kernel of Love is a mystery that cannot be divulged." Chittuck's translation of this is that Love cannot be explained in words but that it must be felt to be understood. There is not possible way that you can tell someone what love is or write it down to someone so the person may understand. To Rumi, If love isn't felt, then the person will not truly know what love is.

To understand the Islamic conception of Love, you must know the Koran's defenition of the term. The Prophet Muhammad once said, "God is beautiful, and He loves beauty." It can be also defined like this: "If something is beautiful, it is worthy of love." In the Vision Of Islam, it says that that whenever God is said to love something, the object of his love are human beings but his love aren't for all human beings. His love is for those who do things and have traits that are beautiful. Some verses in the Koran that prove this are: "Do what is beautiful! Surely God loves those who do what is beautiful." " Whoso fulfills his covenant and is wary of God- surely God loves the god-wary." "Truly God loves those who repent, and He loves those who cleanse themselves." " Trust in God. God loves those who have trust.: "Make things wholesome among them equitably, and be just. Surely God loves the just." One of the most important things about the Koran's use of the word love is that God's love is always for humans and to nothing else. In the translation of Sufi Path of Love, Rumi tells us that God is the source of all love.

The question that is asked also, however, is God really love? God is love but he is also other attributes as well. He is also Mercy, Knowledge, Life, Power, and Will. He possesses all these things not just one. So even though He is Love, He does not let it exhaust his reality. Rumi also says that Love is desire and need. Yet God is beyond all need. In the Koran, it says that God said, "I desire to be known, so I created the world." Also, God's love for exhibiting the Hidden Treasure through the prophets and saints was the motivation in His creation of the universe. Everything that happens on Earth is because of the original Love. In a verse of the Koran, it says that God wants people to love him and that their love for him follows up upon his love for them. That quote is this: "O you who have faith, should any of you turn back on your religon, God will bring a people whom He loves and who love him, who are humble toward the faithful and disdainful toward the truth-concealers, who struggle in the path of God and fear not the blame of any blamer. That is God's bounty,- He gives it to whomsoever He will. He is All-embracing, All-knowing." What this verse says is that that loft is God's gift or prize to us.

Everything in reality partakes in God's love so that would mean that all things are lovers. So that means everything has a need and desire for everything else and yearns for a union with everything. This quote proves this fact: "God's wisdom in His destiny and decree has made us lovers of one another. That fordainment has paired all parts of the world and set them in love with their mates. Each part of the world desires its mate, just like amber and straw. Heaven says to the earth, "Hallo! Thou drawest me like iron to a magnet!"

... This quote from Rumi summarizes everythings needs and desires for everything else to survive. Human being's love can be sperated into two different kind of loves. There is "True Love" which is the love for God. Then there is "Derivative Love" which is the love for anything else that's not God. When you take a good look at it, however, that both loves are actually a love for God. Since everything has come from God and whatever exists is his reflection or shadow. So "Derivative Love" just ends up in human's loving God anyways. Here is a quote from Rumi that helps understand this: "All things in the world- walth, women, clothing- are desired for the sake of other things, not for their own sake. Do you not see that if you had a hundred thousand dirhams and were hungry, but you could nto find food, you would not be able to eat those dirhams? Wome are for children and for satisfying passion. Clothing is for warding off cold. So it is with all things, which are linked together, one after the other, all the way to God. It is He who is desired for His own sake, not for something else. He is better than all things, nobler than all, pleasanter than all. So how should He be desired for the sake of what is less than He? So He is the Goal.

When He is attained. The Universal Object of Desire has been attained. There is no passing on." So Love has been described and Love's signifigance to Islam. It has been concluded that Love is for God and everything that has been created by God. Love is to desire and need something. All human beings, no matter what religon and how they feel, according to Rumi, needs God. So all human beings Love God.

Reference:

[www.College TermPapers.com]
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