The lover longs to be with his beloved.
The state of the lover will become the state of the beloved...
He will merge with, become one with and live with his beloved, to the
extent of his love...
Because we do not really understand what love is, oftentimes we confuse ‘love’ with ‘like’.
When one likes one wants to own!
When you like something you want to possess it and have some form of control over it. This trait is common to all creation.
Some want to carry what they like in their pocket, some want to
put a leash on it and show it off, and some want to capture it and put
it away... But every creature, according to its creation and nature,
wants to have some degree of control over the thing they like...
Love, on the other hand, is very different...
When you love, you only want to live for your beloved!
You only want to be with the beloved, you only take pleasure
from the things from which the beloved takes pleasure, and refrain from
what the beloved dislikes. Your mind, thoughts, soul, your entire being
becomes so filled with the beloved that everything reminds you of her,
even when you are by her side, you long for her! Closeness seems far!
You disappear, in you only the beloved remains! You look with her looks
and evaluate with her evaluation, you begin to speak with her lips! Your
eyes see none but her, your ears hear none other than her voice, your
hands do not reach out to anyone but her!
You want her to have her grip over you at all times, to guide
and administer you, to embrace you at all times! Even bodily closeness
will seem like a terrifying distance. You will long to merge with her
and become a single body, a single soul, a single consciousness!
If your nature appropriates it, love will burn you until you
become annihilated in your beloved... and a time will come when others
will see the beloved in your face, your eyes, your demeanor, and they
will say, “You have become her!”
The one who likes will want to own... But the one who loves will
give up everything, even his own existence and become naught in his
beloved!
And then there are some who smell of love, they think they are
in love! But when it comes to giving something up for the beloved, the
smell of love will be washed away by the soap of attachment!
He will not be able to detach from his money, his status, his
close ones... He will not be able to detach from his environment, from
‘others’!
Then he will begin to recognize faults in the one he thinks he
loves... He will begin to notice shortcomings and inadequacies... First
these will change his love into a feeling of sympathy; he will begin to
watch from afar sympathetically... Then what he thought was love will
eventually turn into a nice memory. This experience will show him his
nature does not have the program of love, and that he only thought his
liking was love!
If the distancing was not instigated by him but by his assumed
beloved, then his sense of liking will turn into hatred. He will begin
to develop the desire for revenge and sway between his conscience and
feelings of vengeance, thinking he was rejected, abandoned, and put
through what he did not deserve.
Whereas in reality, he will only be living the consequences of
the love his nature is devoid of. He likes someone for their wealth,
beauty, status, knowledge and/or qualities that appeal to him, but when
he can not possess his beloved, he falls apart by the disappointment and
choses to live in pursuit of his own benefits.
The lover on the other has accepted to fall apart, to become
isolated and to lose his money, fame, status, friend or family... His
love comes from his nature, his servitude is to love... The Creator has
created him to experience love through him... Thus he does not mind
giving up his parents, his wealth, his world!
The lover loves unrequitedly!
The one who likes always expects a return! The one who likes
will say, “If you live the way I want you to live I will lavish all my
wealth and possessions on you!” Such a person is devoid of love, he does
not know what true love is! His only occupation is the thing upon which
he has been created. He will work like an ant, mate like a monkey, care
for his offspring like a lion, but he will not be able to love as much
as a moth, he will not be able to throw himself into the flame of love!
Love leads to burning! Liking leads to fleeing!
According to the majority of those who like, ‘love’
is a type of insanity. They will not understand it, they will not
comprehend how one can go against all odds, regardless of what others
say, just for the sake of the beloved. ‘Insanity’ they will call it...
Liking is like a hobby... Sometimes it lasts a lifetime,
sometimes a few years, and sometimes only a few months! But love is
eternal! It has no end... Sometimes it settles and sometimes it
overflows, but it never diminishes.
When you meet someone who manifests the qualities which
you contain in your essence but which you have not yet effectuated, you
fall in love. The love in your essence determines the extent of your
love towards them. Most times, we are drawn to love those who reflect
our own potential... And sometimes that reflection occurs from one’s own
essence... That is when they say, “He has fallen in love with Allah”...
Allah has chosen the lovers for Himself... Those who live love from their essence are the muqarriboon, who have attained the state of divine closeness.
He created all things as a display of His ingenuity...
He created the beloveds to love!
He created the lovers as His eyes to observe through their eyes!
The masses will not understand this love! They will not know this is love!
The true lovers are those who, like moths, throw
themselves into the flames of love, and annihilate themselves in Him,
and thus become everlasting (Baqi).
They are those who have come with a special code; they
have come to fall in love! The world and its possessions will not mean a
thing for them. They will never strive for worldly achievements. The
call “Say Allah and leave the rest” is what they live by.
It is they who live love in the real sense, and through
them, He experiences love, sympathy, mercy, and compassion, for these
are the qualities with which he created them!
But come my friend, let us go back to our world, these
fairytale-like words have soaked us, let us dry up... Let us go back to
our world, strive, labor, struggle and work strenuously to please and
flatter others! And then claim we are doing all of this for the sake of
‘god’, pardon me, for ‘Allah’ (!) and comfort our conscience...
If the heart has not been created for love what is the point of all this talk...
To amuse ourselves with religious hobbies?
AHMED HULUSI
2 August 1998
New Jersey - USA
Many people think reciting the Arabic letters of the Quran (without
knowing their meaning) is akin to ‘reading the Quran’. Some even think
they are reading the Quran simply by reciting its translation. Though
the aforementioned may be necessary as a preparation, READing the Quran
is much beyond this.
Reading the Quran is like reading the system. It's about grasping the spirit of its message.
But how can one understand the spirit of the Quran?
For which purpose has the Quran been revealed?
What does the Quran aim to make people gain?
What kind of a life has the Quran been disclosed to prepare humanity for?
Which of the qualities of mankind does the Quran reveal?
Has the Quran been revealed to force and confine humans into a
restricted lifestyle and shield them from progress, or has it come to
show them the path to continual growth and development, to awaken them
to their rights which have been ripped away from them, and to inform,
both men and women, of the way to realizing their inherent divinity?
Does the Quran aim to enable people to live in mutual respect and
harmony, in continual growth and development, or to regress them back to
the old?
If we can answer these questions we may begin to understand the
spirit of the Quran and the gate to READing the Quran will be unlocked.
On the contrary, when people fail to do this they ask:
“Muhammad came as a Rasul 1400 years ago to a tribal community of
approximately 5000 people, most of whom were very extremely primitive in
thought. They buried their daughters alive, out of fear they would
shame and dishonor them, and bought and sold their women, regarding them
more as a commodity than humans! Surely then, it was the issues that
arose in that community and that time and their respective
solutions that which have shaped the Quran. Had Muhammad inhabited
another area, say the North Pole rather than the Arabian Peninsula, the
book he disclosed would have been in relation to the eskimos and their
environmental conditions, traditions, issues, culture, etc.
So how can modern man be governed by the laws contained in this
ancient book, which has obviously been disclosed according to the
intellectual level of that time and age? Let alone addressing future
generations, these outdated laws would have rendered the book obsolete
along time ago. How can the innumerous nations of the modern world be
addressed by a book that was written according to the understanding of
1400 years ago? Is the Quran trying to lead the people to paradise by
taking them back 1400 years?”
Thus is the ‘intellectual objection’ of the atheists of late.
My answer is:
As long as humanity exists the knowledge contained in the Quran
will continue to shed light to humanity and enable them bliss in their
eternal life if and only if the spirit of the Quran is understood!
To clarify this with an example:
The core reason that underlies the drafting of a new law is in
fact the ‘spirit’ of that law. Appropriate wording will be drafted to
correctly reflect that ‘spirit’ and thus the law will be passed. When a
judge sets out to enforce that law, s/he evaluates cases based on the
motive driving the case and its connection to that particular law.
When a judge evaluates a case based on the letter of the law
rather than its ‘spirit’, s/he will often be misled – as understanding
the motive of the law is essential to its application.
Laws should be applied based on their spirit, their motive, rather
than their literal sense, lest deviations occur. The conscience of the
judge exists for the purpose of acting based on the spirit of the law.
The same principle applies for the Quran. One must consider the
motive behind the revelation of a particular verse, who it addresses,
and to which event it is a reference.
It is due to our misunderstanding that we have lost the message of
the Quran, and turned it into the ‘sacred book of centuries’. Yet in
terms of its spirit and purpose the Quran comprises qualities that can
shed light on humanity for as long as it exists; it is a timeless book!
For the most part, the Quran reveals significant beneficial
information about the states of life referred to as Paradise and Hell
and their conditions and necessities. Secondly, it explains the reality
of man and the One referenced as ‘Allah’!
In my previous writings I had talked about the two sources of the knowledge contained in the Quran, namely Nubuwwah and Risalah
and that the knowledge sourced from Risalah preserves its validity
throughout all times and continues to provide new insight to humanity.
The chapters Ikhlas and Fatiha are examples of Risalah based knowledge.
Topics sourced from Nubuwwah on the other hand pertain more to
environmental and behavioral issues and are associated to worldly
affairs such as marriage, inheritance, testimony and retribution - laws
that are only valid during one's life on earth and invalid once the
person passes on.
So let us now try to understand the ‘spirit’ of the Quran...
Has the Quran been disclosed to us to make us return to an
outdated primitive state of life, or to encourage and prepare us for
what is to come by showing us the ways of spiritual development and
perfection?
Hadhrat Ali (ra), whom I believe is one of those who best understand the Quran, says the following:
“Raise your children not according to your current time but according to the time in which they are to live!”
This is the vision of the person who spent his childhood and youth
with Muhammad (saw) and who acquired the ‘spirit’ of the Quran directly
from him...
As for the laws originating from the source of Nubuwwah, it is
evident that the primary motive, more than anything, is to establish
women's rights among a people who hardly regarded them to be human but
used them more as sexual merchandise! The Nubuwwah-based laws prohibited
all forms of assault and exploitation of women, and instead enabled
them the right to be ‘partners’ to men, gave them rights of testimony
where previously they had no say in any legal matters, and empowered
them with the right of inheritance.
The Quran, is prevention of backwardness, termination of
injustice, and encouragement of continual development! For those that
attempt to discern its spirit that is...
The Quran does not present these laws as a definitive measure, but
rather as the formula for further development according to changing
times and conditions. For example, by limiting men's right to be wed to
‘limitless partners’ to only 4 partners in marriage, the Quran has
established the initial stage of the process towards single partnered
marriages. By relaying the benefits of having a ‘single partner’ the
Quran has shown this as the target for the evolved man.
Another example is almsgiving (zakah). While a particular amount
is advised as the minimum amount of payable zakah, the verses about
charity encourage the giving of one's possessions without limit.
In short, the rights given to women in the Quran are not fixed and
absolute; but act rather as the foundation of a ‘legal system of
rights’ that is open to be developed according to changing times and
conditions.
If a woman, who previously had no legal say, was given the right
to testify as ‘one of two women’ (i.e. the testimony of two women being
held equivalent to the testimony of one man), this, according to my
understanding, was not advised as a definitive measure but one that can
be updated as women and the community in general developed themselves.
Giving some right to testimony as opposed to no
right was still an enormous reform in such a primitive community. By
laying this foundation the Quran was implicitly saying, “When you begin
to understand and appreciate the value of women and recognize that they
are also servants of Allah like yourselves and that they are also humans
and vicegerents on earth, do not prevent them from having the same
rights as men.”
If any community or nation gives equal rights to men and women
this does not in any way go against the spirit of the Quran according to
my understanding, if anything, this is what is preferred.
That women were given half of the rights of men to inherit in
those days, when previously they had no right to inherit, does not in
any way mean they should not be given any more right in later times. On
the contrary, a community, which gives equal rights to men and women,
reflects the level of their development in line with the Quran.
As such, by not limiting the rights he brought to humans and
leaving it open for further development, Muhammad (saw) has evidently
established the fact that there is no need for another book after the
Quran and thus another Nabi. Thereby ascertaining he is the last of
Nabis.
To conclude, in terms of its Risalah-based verses the Quran has
brought valuable information about life after death and the path to
knowing Allah. In terms of its Nubuwwah based verses the Quran developed
and updated human rights to the maximum extent according to that time
and age, yet defined this as the threshold, without limiting the potential for development.
This primary principle, according to my understanding, is the
spirit of the Quran, as it confirms the infinite validity of the ‘Book’
and the indubitable fact that there is no need for another book.
To confine the message of the Quran to the reforms it made
addressing the communities of the time of its disclosure thus limiting
its benefits by claiming that it in fact belongs to that time,
is a grave misconception. This is the direct result of not understanding
the spirit of the Quran and thus not being able to read it.
While the Quran says to give one fortieth of one's possessions as
alms it does not forbid giving one twentieth! This figure is only a
threshold – a minimum.
Enabling women the right to inherit half a share when previously
they had none, does not in anyway mean they cannot be given more. Again,
this is merely the minimum. Giving equal share to both men and women
does not go against the spirit of the Quran, in fact, it is what the
spirit of the Quran advises!
In short, the rights that are defined in the Quran constitute a
starting point; with no verse or hadith claiming they cannot be
increased.
When we fail to perceive the spirit of the Quran we fail to
correctly READ it, and thus get we stuck on the literal meanings of its
verses and fail to recognize its actual message.
And then, with this congested perception, we claim the Quran is outdated and not in line with the current times!
To construe the verses that claim freeing a slave is the biggest
worship –keeping in mind enslavement was an established cultural
practice in those communities- as ‘Islam gives consent to enslavement’
can be nothing but perversion of the truth driven by ulterior motives.
To claim Islam is a compulsive and suppressive religion when Islam
does not accept any form of compulsion and even warns the Rasul, “You
are not an enforcer upon them”, is a great injustice and a clear
representation of the failure to grasp the spirit of the Quran.
Democracy in its widest sense is contained only in the principles
of Islam, for the Quran does not impose any form of enforcement upon
anyone.
The Quran only makes suggestions to enable bliss and
tranquility to people's lives, it tells them those who apply these
suggestions will benefit while those who do not will incur a loss that
cannot be compensated...
Apart of these suggestions, neither individuals nor any government
has any right to enforce its application upon anyone according to the
spirit of the religion of Islam. Each person is liable to evaluate these
suggestions with their own logic and intellect, to act without being
under the force or suppression of anyone, and face the consequences
alone.
The incorrect judgments of the ignorant and heedless due to
incorrectly reading the spirit of the Quran are not binding upon anyone.
On the other hand, staying away from Islam and the Quran because of
these misconceptions is not an excuse.
The responsibility to read the Quran and learn the religion of
Islam lies with the individual. The path to learning Islam is through
the Quran, not through the actions and words of ‘Muslims’. Therefore the
consequences of incorrectly interpreting Islam is binding upon the
individual.
So if the Quran has come to make men and women recognize their vicegerency
potential and teach them how to fulfill its necessity, and to inform
them about the conditions of the eternal life and how best to prepare
for it, then most assuredly, to read and correctly evaluate the Quran is
one of the most beneficial things one can do. He who does so will reap
its benefits, he who doesn't, will live its consequences.
Neither the One referenced with the name Allah, nor the
Rasul of Allah, Muhammad (saw), need our faith or deeds. Everything we
do is for our own lives, both current and future.
Blessed are those who ‘READ’ the Quran and live their lives accordingly...
Ahmed Hulusi
27 September 1998
