Faruk Dilaver - Divine Love

1

THE DIVINE LOVE by Faruk DİLAVER

2

L

ove is an innate essence in man from birth. The egoism or sense of “I” that results in a growing doubt and lack of confidence within man negatively affects his capacity to love. This distrust as far as man‟s capacity to love is concerned fully corresponds to the harmful character of man‟s egoism or “I”. Love is the only reason for physical events in the cosmos such as the movements of the planets, stars, and nebulas in space or changes in the vegetable kingdom. Even an electron of an atom, which is one of the smallest particles of matter, simultaneously rotates around itself and a fixed center because of love. The rotations of the Moon and the Earth in the same manner are because of the attractiveness of Love. Love is the reason for God‟s creating everything and the yearning of the existent things for unity (birlik). The sole reason and aim of God‟s creating the cosmos and man is only unity. The created things are separated from the Creator. They all yearn for Him. Love is the yearning of the part for the whole. Love is the manifestation of the Holy Creator from Himself to Himself between the lover and the beloved to witness His divine names and attributes. From the past to the future, the Mighty Creator exhibits infinite dramas of love from Himself to Himself. The veils of His Divine Essence (dhat) are again His attributes (sifat) just as colors are only the veils of light. We see colors and we like colors; we believe that colors belong to the existent things so we define and attribute things with their colors. We admire the existent things that are decorated with their own colors; however, we forget colors are only the attributes of light and they are spread out in the cosmos only through the rays of light. Therefore, we cannot see light because it has already been veiled by colors. This is just because of the countless dramas of Love exhibited by the Creator Himself. Love requires self-sacrifice. Love does not accept “I” or the self. Bad and good, sorrow and remedy, beautiful and ugly, disharmony and harmony, and all opposites become one and united only in Love. When true love exists, lust, passions, desires, and self-interest disappear. What is left is the exaltation with the spiritual unity and the drunkenness because of this ascension. No one can imagine the purity of Love when the feeling of possession and self-interest arises. Love is a relation within the realm of souls. Therefore, the one who does not know anything of his soul cannot have any share from Love. The one who is far away from his heart cannot be close to Love. The costs of Love are the various trials and examinations that the lover undergoes. Yearning feeds love while suffering intensifies it. Man can hear the resonance of his heart through it. It is only because of Love that man can receive divine revelation within his heart. It destroys all distance. The one who does not love only the Beloved within every existent thing has yet to mature in his love. Love is an affair of the heart. Therefore, the one whose heart is purified can experience pure Love. Without relinquishing the claim of egoism or saying “I” and without relinquishing the claim of being always right in every affair, the lover is always troubled by sorrows and sadness. They will never leave him if he is stubborn in such claims of “I”. If the

3

lover does not prefer the sorrows of love over all else, the pains and sufferings of the world will not leave him. The sorrows of love come from the Beloved and they are sweeter than honey. Those who swallow the sorrows of love lose themselves. They are annihilated within the Beloved. Mankind cannot plunge into Love‟s Ocean. It is only after leaving physical attachments that one can take a share in love. At the beginning, what the lover feels are flavor, pain, joy and sorrow. However, if the lover breaks all physical attachments and plunges into the ocean of unity, pain, sorrow, fear, and hopelessness disappear. Within the unity of Love, the created one annihilates himself within the Creator who is Himself not created. Gains and interests of this world do not exist in Love. There is only love and the lover only loves the Beloved. The lover protects his heart from every thing that can separate him from the Beloved. The lover protects his eyes and his ears. He does not turn his eyes nor give his ears to the things that will harm his heart. Love has two sides. From the Beloved‟s point of view, love is the mirror for the lover. From the lover‟s point of view it is the mirror of the Beloved that aims to show his names and attributes to the lover. In truth, there is only one face, but it is perceived as two faces since it is between two mirrors. The one who does not see any good side in any event cannot have any share of Love. Even if a ray from Love‟s light touches his eyes, such a man entirely becomes blind to the truths. He must first pray to God and ask for His help to save himself from such negative and harmful perceptions. Oh, the soul that yearns for love! Attend the meeting of lovers, and try to drink Love‟s wine served by the cupbearer without using your mouth. That wine neither gives you a headache nor does it upset your stomach. It only makes you feel drunken and enchanted. Let us drink that wine until we become satiated so that your mind becomes intoxicated while your heart is awakened! Love chases man with the secrets of unity. It saves one from falling into the traps of base desires, and the ego-self (nafs). Love reveals the manifestations of God (tajalli) with no forms and attributes on the face of the Beloved. Love offers pleasures of spiritual beauty to the soul. It emancipates man from being a slave to his base desires, his ego-self and serves the wine of unification with the Beloved. Suspicion and doubt weakens love while disbelief and uncertainty kills it. The lover must trust and surrender himself to the Beloved in all cases. The lover must believe in what the Beloved says, not what he himself sees. Losing his will (irade) in the Beloved‟s will, the lover must become a satellite of the Beloved just as the Moon is the satellite of the Earth. Indeed, love resembles the scheme of satellites. All satellites in space are revolving because of the power of love‟s attraction. Rumi, the great master of Love, when he discovered this secret, started whirling around Shams, his heart‟s sun, just like a satellite. Love starts with affection towards somebody, but what we need first is to know and recognize who is worthy of such affection. Who deserves to be loved? Who must we love? How must we love? To what extent must we love?

4

It is important to recognize who is worthy of being loved. Nobody can love someone who is not known to him. The recognition of someone means to know and to believe in him. However, when we feel some instant feelings and sensations towards somebody these should not be accepted as love. They are mere fancy caused by the appearance of that person or an excitement resulting from curiosity towards the unknown, since man has a tendency to accept at once every charming gaze and beautiful image that he has not seen before. Beauty must be considered as a whole. It is composed of appearance, acts, character, and temperament. Thus one cannot feel true Love unless he witnesses the beautiful attributes of the Beloved one, and he knows and believes in him. Some people fall in love with the beautiful appearance of a person and without any further acquaintances with that person they start dreaming of them. In their dreams they exaggerate that image and their love for the person increases to such a degree that they cannot live without this image. Only then they see the true face of that person, they realize they do not deserve to be loved. Finally, they understand their mistake: They have fallen in love with an appearance! In true Love, man chooses and accepts who deserves to be loved through his mind, reason, and all of his perceptions. Love is not an ordinary affair developed by a random interaction. It is a matter of admiring and yearning for the exhibition of recognition and belief in this apparent beauty. In true love, the Beloved with all their attributes is an ideal for the lover. The Beloved is the only being who deserves to be loved and praised. As a final point, the lover accepts and imitates the Beloved to the degree that he starts to act and live just like the Beloved. Wherever he looks he only sees the Beloved and conceives himself as the Beloved. Therefore, after losing his self, the lover finds both the Beloved within himself and himself within the Beloved. In such love, the perception of the lover enhances while his love for the Beloved increases. As the lover‟s perception of the Beloved sharpens, his admiration of the Beloved increases over the months and years. Within this perception, all faults and imperfection that the lover saw before in the Beloved‟s acts diminish one by one. Therefore, the Beloved becomes perfect and holy for the lover. This love becomes Divine Love between the lover and the Beloved. At this point, the Beloved also admires and falls in love with the lover. Now both the Beloved and the lover fall in love with each other. Now the One falls in love with the One. He loves He. The love between them is a perfect Love. Being flawless and perfect is the attribute of the One and Only Being, namely, God. In Divine Love, they disappear within the secret of “Ve-Hu-Ve”. God who is represented by “Hu” is in-between the lover who is symbolized by the first “wav” and the Beloved who is also symbolized by the second “wav”. In other words, both the lover and the Beloved find Truth.1 He is flawless and perfect. He is Love. He is the Truth. We are the children of this love!

1

VE-HU-VE can be translated as AND-HE-AND. It is composed of the three letters, wav, ha, wav of the Arabic alphabet. The two wavs (and) here represent the lover and the Beloved while hu stands for He, God. It depicts the state of being in union with God since the lover and the Beloved eventually find Him.

5

O lovers, you must love your Beloved without seeing any flaw in His acts. You must witness him with the eye of perfection. This is the path to Divine Love. You must know every imperfection you see will be a veil for you. You must destroy all of these veils; only then will the Creator bestow upon you His love within the embodiment of your Beloved! I wandered and traveled all through the world I saw the one, I only loved the one, I accepted Him perfect and flawless, I witnessed Him without imperfection, I opened my eyes and my heart, I came to you, my true Beloved, My true darling. The lover is contented with the Beloved because he has already made his decision with his eyes, his heart, his mind, his reason, his insight, and his consciousness. The lover never falls in love with someone else other than the Beloved; he never looks for someone else other than Him; he never sees someone else other than Him. For the lover, the only beautiful one is the Beloved and He is the most beautiful one of the whole creation. My eyes saw you, My heart felt love for you, You are the most beautiful one, I have ever seen, You appeared to me, As the most beautiful of all beings. The love for appearances or physical love is an aspect of love, which is merely related to the apparent realm of existence. Such a love is the most common state of love observed in the world. It is only concerned with images and appearances. As it becomes purified and divine in time, it embraces the whole of existence without any discrimination. Love starts to scatter from its true source. Awe and rapture occur within the lover, which actually depicts the establishment of the true tie between the lover and the source of love. Sometimes the source of love attracts the lover like a magnet and sometimes releases him. This state is called Divine attraction caused by love (jazba). At the moment of Divine attraction, the lover sees, hears, and touches the Beloved because of the state of his exaltation. He is now only manifesting the attributes of the Beloved. It is the moment when the lover attains Divine love. In the past whenever I heard anything of love, My heart would shake, my body would tremble. After I lost myself within your beautiful eyes, No rapture was left within me. At each moment the Beloved shows the lover a different face through one of his attributes. The lover gains a different perception in every gaze. The more the Beloved

6

shows his different faces the more the lover‟s love increases. The lover sees the beauties of the Beloved and his awe and admiration increases. Just as the one whose thirst increases as he drinks, the lover cannot be satisfied while he watches the Beloved. No matter how much the lover witnesses the Beloved, he cannot prevent himself from watching the Beloved again. The manifestations of God become more and more apparent. They continue in infinite and diverse forms since the same manifestation of God cannot be seen again. Every manifestation witnessed by the lover is different and new. With each gaze of mine, I saw your beauty in a different way, To see more of your beauty, I look for different gazes of mine. All sorrows and pains of the lover diminish when the lover starts to suffer from Love. Lovers find their remedies within their sorrows. Oh my beautiful Beloved! You are both my sorrow And my remedy for my sorrow Your lover has no care for Any trouble except you. People who have conversation with lovers witness the secrets of the Creator. Love is the Light (Nur) of God. Lovers take their lot from this Light. In Love the Beloved reveals coyness as the lover pleads. After the lover‟s pleas are accepted, the coyness of the Beloved decreases at each stage. Do not be coy my Beloved Be merciful, Show your compassion To your lover whose entreaty never ends. If someone loves the lovers of God, he actually loves God. When he does not see any faults in the lovers and becomes a true friend of them, the eye and ear of his heart open to Divine Truth. Free from any forms and doubts, he also sees the Light of God, which is the true beauty of the Beloved. He only hears the resonance of God. In your eyes, I saw the divine Light. In my heart, I heard your resonance. I said, “You are my Beloved, I freed myself from all doubts.”

7

For lovers, ugly and beautiful, bad and good, bitter and sweet become one and the same. They do not see any difference between any of them. Lovers give Light (nur) to souls and polish the mirror of the heart. They make people beautiful with their gazes. Like a mirror, lovers show defects and faults of the person who looks at them as if those defects and faults were stemming from their own characters. They explain the ways in which they liberated themselves from those faults. The eyes of lovers are full of tears in yearning; their faces are pale and their hearts are burning with the fire of yearning. If they did not feel the burning of their hearts with Love, they would not be alive. They see themselves as dead at those times when they do not burn with Love. They always burn with the fire of Love. They never become separated from the Beloved within their hearts and souls. They only love God within the whole of the existent things. Their hearts, which are purified and clean, are the place in which He dwells. Their heart embraces the Beloved that the whole of the universe cannot embrace. Ah, your yearning burns me, My cry echoes in the sky, Oh my Lord, what kind of trouble is this? It swallows all my troubles. Initially the soul was perfect and pure like water. As soon as the soul was breathed into the body, it became imperfect as it was mixed with the earth. The soul became purified again with Love; it threw away every veil that hid it. Therefore, with its beautiful appearance, the soul dazzled all who looked upon it. My soul is pure like water, My body is dark like earth, My soul was imperfect within my body, Now it is again pure with my love. As Love matures, both the Beloved and the lover fall in love with each other as a result of the tendency of the Beloved towards the lover. Being influenced by the lover‟s sacrifice and loyalty, the Beloved first shows deep admiration to the lover. Then the Beloved also declares Love for the lover. Therefore, the Beloved while being loved becomes the one who loves also. The Beloved is now the one who both loves and is loved at the same time. I am both the lover And the Beloved I am loved while I love. I am both the one praising And the one praised I am praised while I praise. I am both the one remembering And the one remembered, I am remembered while I remember.

8

The lover who has matured in his love cannot feel how he loves. The lover loves the Beloved so much that he thinks he is the Beloved. That is, while he was the lover once, he has now become the Beloved. The lover starts to love himself. The lover continues walking on the path to become the Beloved. With his state, acts, and traits, the lover gradually resembles the Beloved. The lover talks and speaks just as the Beloved does. People who see the lover think that he is the Beloved if the form does not delimit their perception. From now on the lover continues his life as the Beloved. The lover‟s life is now the Beloved‟s life. He makes the Beloved live within himself. Everybody first loves himself He later loves someone more and more. The one who loves someone, Sees himself as his Beloved Because of his Love for the Beloved. When the degree of Love between the lover and the Beloved reaches a certain level, glitters of light are witnessed between the lover and the Beloved just like thunder amongst the clouds in the sky. In this state Love becomes manifest. My eyes meet with your eyes, Between them a flash of lightning occurred, With this lightning, Our eyes are unified. In the stages mentioned above, when Love increases, the lover sometimes feels exhausted. He cannot even move his arms and legs. The lover becomes tired. The lover is overcome with Love. When the lover sees others in joy and happiness with Love, he starts to think in the following way: “This Love has put me in such a state that I feel tired and exhausted. But how excited and energetic they are because of Love! How do they experience such different states? Why does this love make me so tired and exhausted? Maybe I am not a good lover.” Therefore, the lover begins to have doubts about his Love. At this stage, the lover is negatively influenced by other people‟s ecstasies and exaltations. The lover says to himself, “Do I not feel anything like those people do? Why am I not trembling with Love? Why am I not exalted with Love?” Tremblings, exaltations, and ecstasies brought about by Love are not factors that lovers should worry about. What the lover should do is just to love. He must remember that such experiences are all God‟s gifts and if God wishes, the lover also experiences them. The essential aim of Love is to become unified with the Beloved, not to experience such states. Exaltations, ecstasies, and similar experiences are all related to apparent and manifest signs of Love. In the end the lover is liberated from all those experiences and he reaches the stage of not experiencing such states. The lover is unified with the Beloved without even feeling his body.

9

The lover enjoys being together with the Beloved day and night. He wishes to share his every breath with the Beloved. In this way, the lover reaches the depth of Love. When the lover cannot see the Beloved, his yearning increases and he becomes sad with the burning of this yearning for the Beloved in his heart. Since I have fallen in love with you, The light in my eyes, The power in my body disappeared. Neither could I be joyful with happiness, Nor could I be exalted with the joy of Love. I reached you with you, Oh my Beloved, my One, my Unique One. The lover wants to talk to the Beloved; he wants to tell his Love to the Beloved. As soon as the Beloved accepts this wish, the lover starts to tell his feelings. The lover realizes that the Beloved observes and listens to him carefully. Even if the Beloved seems to be interested in something else, while the lover is telling his Love, the lover does not doubt that the Beloved is listening to him attentively. He continues to declare his Love. I am telling something to you, You appear to be listening to me, Indeed you do not listen to me. Anyway I continue to declare my Love, Surely you are interested in me, Though you look uninterested. At one stage, the lover starts to make continuous mistakes in his affairs with the Beloved and he struggles to avoid repeating them. While the lover struggles to avoid repeating these mistakes, he finds himself in a situation whereby he makes even more mistakes. The lover cannot avoid making these mistakes until he realizes they cannot be prevented through his own efforts. As soon as the lover loses all hope about himself, he asks for the help of the Beloved. The lover listens to the Beloved‟s advice on how to avoid making mistakes. Following this advice carefully, the lover finds peace and with this peace he attains His Presence. What a lot of mistakes you made! You are saturated with love, But you cannot avoid Making mistakes It is enough now, Let us put an end to mistakes and faults. The one who is not tired Of mistakes and faults, Becomes tired of Love.

10

When the lover saves himself from mistakes and faults, he drinks Love‟s wine and becomes drunken and charmed. This wine affects the lover‟s mind and his reason becomes numb. This situation leads him to plunge into the sea of Truth and to hear the secrets of Truth. The wine of your love, Intoxicated my mind. My eyes saw with you, My heart heard with you. At each moment the Beloved removes one veil from His face so that the lover can witness Him. The Beloved causes the lover to sigh at each breath. Love is the only cause for every movement in the cosmos. Where is the lover who can see this? Each time the love strikes the strings of the soul, and the sound of music echoes in the infinity. Who listens to this beautiful composition that never ends? The lover carries the secret of love in this world. The lover hears and witnesses this secret from the mouth of every creation. Remove the veil from your face, oh my Beloved, Let our eyes and hearts satisfy their desires, When we see your holy face, We give what we have taken from God to God. The Divine Beloved at every moment tells His secret to His ears from every mouth. At every moment He hears His words with every ear. At every moment He watches His beauty with every eye. He is apparent on the faces of all the existent things like the Sun. He speaks with every mouth; He hears with every ear; He sees with every eye. Still neither His mouth nor His eyes nor His ears are visible… You are the One, Who speaks with every mouth to His ear, Who hears His words with every ear, Who watches His own beauty, With every eye... The Beauty of his Countenance (cemal) is witnessed on each face with a different manifestation. The lover who looks at the Beloved‟s face sees his own face. Since all lovers are different in appearance, the Beloved is witnessed diversely despite the Beloved‟s being one and singular. The one who sees you is the one seeing. The one who hears you is the one hearing. Unless the one becomes unified with you, He can neither see you, Nor hear anything of you, oh my Beloved.

11

The Beloved bestows a Light upon the lover from the Light of His Beauty. With that Light, the lover witnesses the beauty of the Beloved entirely. Soon after tasting the flavor of this beauty in his heart, the lover starts to drink Love‟s wine abundantly. Sometimes the wine is perceived as the cup, and sometimes the cup is perceived as the wine. The lover likes to converse with the Beloved asking nothing in return. The lover is ready to hear whatever the Beloved says. The Beloved‟s will is now the lover‟s will. Therefore, the lover loses all of his own self-interest. The lover always wants to visit and see the Beloved. Sometimes if the lover cannot achieve this and becomes lonely, he starts to make various movements; he performs a spiritual dance because of his loneliness. The lover completely focuses on the Beloved‟s eyes. Wherever the Beloved turns his gaze, the lover looks at only the Beloved‟s eyes. When the lover looks at the place at which the Beloved‟s gaze is turned, he actually separates his eyes from the Beloved‟s eyes. Therefore, the lover who prefers to look at the place at which the Beloved‟s gaze is turned becomes separated from the Beloved just because of his curiosity. Wherever you gaze, I look at your gazing eyes, oh my Sweetheart. I do not mind whoever you look at, I insist on looking at you, my Beloved. The lover surrenders himself to the Beloved‟s choices. He loves the thing that is also loved by the Beloved. He becomes the friend of the one who is also the Beloved‟s friend. Such an attitude will bring a great harmony between the lover and the Beloved. Because of his Love, the lover shows a great courtesy to the Beloved. The lover acts very carefully in order not to make any mistake that may annoy the Beloved. With patience, the lover bears all the troubles, which emanate from the Beloved. In a state between fear and hope, the lover patiently waits for the day of unification with the Beloved (vuslat). If the lover makes mistakes, he immediately becomes very regretful and asks for the forgiveness of the Beloved. The lover does not hide his faults from the Beloved. He never tells lies to the Beloved. In the beginning the lover‟s ego is the biggest barrier between the lover and the Beloved. Unless the ego disappears the lover cannot be unified with the Beloved. The lover loses all of his claims. He always acknowledges the Beloved to be right in every incident. The lover who cannot lose his claims loses his closeness to the Beloved. As he cannot accept the Beloved, his closeness to the Beloved decreases day by day. The lover harvests what he sows in the field of Love. In whatever way the lover looks at the Beloved, in return the Beloved looks at the lover in the same way. If the lover looks at the Beloved with good intentions, his heart becomes the target for the Gaze of God. The lover becomes satisfied with that Gaze which removes his ego. The lover becomes nothing. Only the ones who are satisfied in their hearts can bear all the troubles of the Beloved and can drink the wine of unification.

12

We drank the wine of Love, We lost ourselves within the Beloved, With the gaze of that Gazelle Whose gazes are so beautiful, In this drunkenness We forget all trouble and all sorrow. Unless the lover drinks the wine of unification from the cup in His Powerful Hands, he cannot become one with the Beloved whose Power is infinite. If the lover cannot drink this wine, his eyes cannot see with the Light of God and his soul, which is a drop from the sea, cannot fall into the Ocean of Truth. Separation is a fire that makes the lover meet Love. If the Beloved prefers the separation despite the lover‟s wish of becoming one with the Beloved, the lover also prefers separation, leaving aside his wishes and desires. Such a separation, if the Beloved so prefers, is more significant than a thousand times of unification. If my Beloved wants separation, It is better than unification with the Beloved. In every separation, there is closeness, Which is much more special Than coming together. The lover is in the state of nothingness before the Beloved. He loses his self. The Beloved quashes the lover‟s self through trouble and ruin.

Love is a suffering, It is neither a pleasure nor an enjoyment. Love is the secret of existence, It is naught but loyalty from beginning to end. The lover must act in a manner of courtesy towards the Beloved. Otherwise, the lover cannot take any share from Love. The Beloved shows great peace to the lover who acts with respect and with modesty. Love starts with courtesy, Such a lover both loves and is loved. The ill-mannered lover, Deserves nothing but rebuke. Having seen the loyalty and devotion of the lover, the Beloved gives up all coyness shown to the lover. The Beloved is now conquered by the lover and both the Beloved and the lover unburden their attributes of „the Beloved‟ and „lover‟. Therefore, together they wear the apparel of unity.

13

The Beloved is conquered by the lover, And all coyness disappears. The lover has conquered the Beloved’s heart, With devotion and loyalty. The lover who wants union with the Beloved must assume the whole of the character traits of the Beloved. The lover who wants union with God must assume all the names and attributes of God. I assumed your character traits, my Beloved! I was given a light from your Light, My Beloved! The lover is nourished with the troubles and sorrows of Love. The lover who complains about them unwillingly loses his Love. If the sorrows of Love disappear, then Love disappears. Only memories of Love are left to the lover. The lover must be afraid of losing the Beloved as much as he is afraid of losing his own life. I heard that you are complaining, You are escaping From your sorrow of Love. While you are trying to run away From your trouble, Indeed you are fleeing from Love. If the Beloved is not a true lover of God, the lover cannot be bestowed with the beautiful blessings of Love. His Love cannot be true Love. The lover cannot liberate himself from base desires, the self-ego, and he cannot be united with God. During the time when the lover cannot be together with the Beloved, he finds the Beloved within his heart. The lover never looks for other beauties and he does not feel love towards them. The lover‟s heart never separates from the Beloved and he does not run after temporary beauties. He is never attracted with their appearances. If you have already seen a beautiful one Do not look for another. If you love, love that beautiful one, Do not think there is another beauty. The lover desires the Beloved while the Beloved desires the lover. In this way, both desire Love. In truth, the lover and the Beloved are both Love. Sometimes the lover is Love and sometimes the Beloved is Love. The one who wants to attain the secret of Love must disappear within the being of the Beloved who is indeed the Beauty of Truth. The lover must have no aim or desire other than the Beloved. A true lover is the Beloved at the same time. He both loves and is loved. He feels love to someone, but in truth he loves himself. His Love is embodied within himself. He

14

both tortures himself and becomes loyal and devoted to himself. He himself is Love. He destroys his being for Love. His eyes see the secret of unity and his ears hear the inspiration of unity. He sees the oneness within the multiplicity of appearances and forms. I love and I am loved. In fact I am Love, I became a two-faced person. If the lover who is not mature enough in his Love is still praised and appreciated by the Beloved, he may be deeply influenced by this attitude. He might be bored and depressed due to the excess of love and admiration he receives from the Beloved. The lover might be unable to act in response to such love and appreciation. The lover cannot understand the Beloved is now the lover. In this situation the Beloved returns to the role of the Beloved again until the lover matures in his Love. Only then will the Beloved declare his Love to the lover once more. You loved very much, You were loved very much, You learned how to love, You could not know how to be loved, You are tired of being loved, You could not mature in Love. The Beloved is Powerful only because of the Power of God. The true Beloved whose being has disappeared within God is the Beloved of God. God Himself holds with his hands; God sees with his eyes; God walks with his feet. In his apparent form he is a human being like everyone else but he is actually the Beloved of God. He becomes the Beloved since he loves very much. He is the Desired One, for he desires God very much. When the lover is together with the Beloved, he never wants to be separated. When the lover is separated from the Beloved, the lover suffers very much and becomes uneasy. If it could be possible the lover would like to be together with the Beloved every day and night. If the separation from the Beloved is fire, Do not look for any other consolation. If the Beloved comes into your heart, Do not look for any other consolation. When the lover‟s attachment increases to the Beloved, he becomes a true lover who loves unconditionally. He liberates himself from the slavery of all desires, wishes and joys. Come to your Beloved,

15

Come without any conditions. Liberate yourself From the slavery of desires and wishes, And come without your body. The lover may also love other people around the Beloved but he does not become disloyal by falling in love with them. The lover loves everybody with the Beloved; and he wants to make everybody love the Beloved. If you cannot see your Beloved, Show the Beloved, To whom you see. The lover must be sincere. First he must be sincere to himself. The lover does not deceive himself. The lover who deceives himself also tries to deceive the Beloved. His lies turn out to be a wall between him and the Beloved. Even small lies, which are viewed as unimportant, may harm Love. If the lover tells lies because of being afraid of losing the Beloved, he harms the heart of the Beloved. The Beloved cannot love the lover anymore. This situation destroys Love. If you lie being afraid of losing the Beloved, You will lose the Beloved. The lover must protect his eyes, and his heart from anything that can harm his Love. The lover must be careful not to disturb and harm the states of others as much as he is careful about protecting himself. That is, the lover must not disturb the hearts of others with his words, acts, and mode of dressing. The lover should not be an image through which others satisfy their desires and passions in their imagination. Protect your eyes and your heart, Protect your inside and outside, Be merciful to others, Dress in modesty, Protect both yourself and others. When the lover sees the Beloved he must be the happiest person in the world even if he is sad at the moment when he sees the Beloved. Whenever the lover hears mention of the Beloved, he must be very happy and roses must blossom on his face. The lover who is not content and happy with the Beloved is not really aware of the importance of Love. The one who is together with the Beloved, Within his heart and the outside, Will never lose his happiness. When the lover‟s love of the Beloved increases, the light within his eyes increases; his beauty and his attraction increase. Therefore, people who see the lover show great

16

interest in him. People may praise and admire the lover. If he shows any tendency towards these compliments and interests, he loses the Beloved. The lover eventually becomes deprived of the source of beauty that makes him beautiful. That beauty of yours would disappear, Unless you feel love within your heart. Nobody would care about you, Unless you feel love within your heart. At the beginning the lover is immature. Burning within the fire of Love, the lover becomes more mature and then ripens. The mind cannot be a guide for the lover on this path. The lover plunges into the depth of Love only following his heart. His soul is nourished with the blessings of Love. I was immature, I burnt and burnt, And I became a lover. While running after my Beloved, I found my mind on the path. The lover does not try to imitate anybody; he does not resemble anybody. The lover tries to make everybody resemble himself. He only imposes his attributes and acts onto others. The lover catches people from their hearts. The one who is looking for Love in his heart must be a close friend of a true lover and accept him as the Beloved, for a true lover is also a true Beloved. I loved you very much, But I could not realize my wish. While I thought that I attained my wish, I could not give what you asked from me. The one who wants Love must lose all of his own attributes and character traits. He must assume the attributes and character traits of the Beloved at once. He must carefully obey the Beloved‟s advice. Love is not a path of the mind; it is the path of the heart. Therefore, on the path of Love, one can expect nothing but Love. Only Love can be asked for. On the path of love, The lover asks for love from the Beloved, And the Beloved invites the lover to Love, They meet in Love. They enjoy themselves in Love. The one, who comes with Love, Also goes with Love.

17

The lover remembers the Beloved in his heart day and night. He becomes loyal and faithful to the Beloved. His heart is only with the Beloved. His interests are only with the Beloved. The lover is in pursuit of a treasure hidden within the heart. Unless the key of Love is discovered by the lover‟s secret, he cannot find this treasure. If he is the lover of an experienced and adept Beloved, the lover can easily reach this treasure. The lover who is influenced and easily hurt by the sorrows of Love and who is continuously complaining of the Beloved cannot find these blessings. The lover must listen to the Beloved and follow the path he describes to reach the treasure within the Beloved‟s heart. The hearts that are in ruins, Carry beautiful treasures. I came to your door, Please open your heart my Beloved. Everything of the Beloved whether pleasing or not must be pleasant for the lover. The lover must be patient with all kinds of criticisms uttered by the Beloved. The lover should not care about what others would think of him because of such criticisms. The lover smells the Beloved, And loves the Beloved’s fragrance. Even if the lover is separated from the Beloved The Beloved’s fragrance still touches his nose. The lover believes in the eternity of Love. He knows that this life is temporary and will end in the future so he loves the Beloved eternally. The lover does not show any interest in worldly desires. Being determined and certain of his Love, he protects his Love. He believes that nothing is created without any aim, whether it is beautiful or ugly, good or bad, clean or dirty. The lover believes the inner meanings of everything whether they are right or not; belief or denial, good or bad. The lover becomes a sharer of the Beloved‟s secrets after he opens his heart to the Beloved. The lover does not have any secret unknown to the Beloved because if he conceals his secrets from the Beloved, he cannot entirely love the Beloved. At the beginning the Beloved shows everything Whether they are beautiful or ugly. At the end he asks for the beauty, He only gives the beauty. Lovers do not reveal every secret of Love to people. They can reveal some secrets but they cannot go further. Love itself does not allow them to reveal all secrets. The affairs between the lover and the Beloved are of secrets of Love that can never be revealed. Lovers prefer to die rather than to disclose these secrets. The lover who discloses secrets of Love betrays Love. In return, Love annihilates the lover who discloses these secrets. In history there are many examples of lovers who were destroyed

18

by Love since they had disclosed Love‟s secrets. Some people with bad intentions might slander and malign lovers because they cannot learn the secrets of love completely. Because of these slanders many lovers lost their heads and were killed in the past. One of these lovers is Shams of Tabriz who is a sun that burned Rumi with Love‟s fire. Those great lovers who lost their life for Love were saved from such slanders and found the true admiration and courtesy that they deserved in history. Although such slanders still exist today, they can neither destroy nor ruin Love. Most of these slanders are due to the wrong interpretations of lovers‟ affairs and the unknown secrets of lovers. As an answer to them, Rumi, the great master of Love says, “Be like me! Only then you can know what Love is!” One cannot know love if he is not a lover, One cannot find the secret if he does not love, Lovers give their life but They never give their secrets. The lover does not care about the appearances of beings. They look for the meaning beyond appearances. The form is the shell of the spiritual realm. It has a temporary existence while the beauty of the spiritual realm is eternal. Looking from the heart the lover sees the beauty of the spiritual realm. Within the beauty of the spiritual realm lovers see the meaning. The form is only an appearance. The beauty of the spiritual realm addresses the soul of the human being whereas the form and the appearance affect his body. The Creator looks at the lover‟s heart, not his form or appearance. That is, the Creator gives importance to spiritual beauty alone. When the lover becomes mature in Love, God becomes his Beloved. At this stage, when the lover wants to smell the Beloved, he smells the fragrances of flowers; if he wants to listen to the Beloved, he listens to the songs of birds. If he wants to see the Beloved, he watches nature. With this intention in his mind even the lover‟s smelling a rose is a meaningful act in Love. Those whose noses cannot smell cannot hear. Those whose ears cannot hear cannot see the Beloved. The lover does not try to find fault with people. Instead he observes his own faults and tries to rid himself of them. The lover believes that faults exist in those eyes that see faults. The lover does not expect toleration and understanding from others, instead he becomes tolerant and shows understanding. Everybody asks for the wealth of this world and paradise from God. The lover asks for Him from Himself; he wants union with God. I neither want paradise Nor run away from hell If you gave me just my Beloved, I would release myself And fly towards my Beloved.

19

The Beloved of all Beloved ones, the Creator, created human beings from His love to share His love. Although He gave human beings countless blessings from His Beauty, they do not share their youth and beautiful times with Him. They look for Him when they are old and poor. They look for that Beloved only after they lose their youth and beauty. But it is not an appropriate time to turn back to True Love. One must go to the Beloved when the beauty of his inner and outer realms reaches its peak. The lover loves the Beloved within his heart and finds a way from the Beloved‟s eyes to his heart. There the lover is unified with Truth. Shams of Tabriz was such a lover. He was the reason that Rumi was unified with God. It was only after his union with God that Rumi became Mawlana. The lover does not hurt and torture others since he fears God. The lover liberates himself from arrogance, jealousy, and hypocrisy. Lovers are bashful and respectful. Whenever he makes a mistake, he asks for forgiveness immediately. He fears God because of his Love for Him. Love does not simply mean affection. It is an admiration, adoption, and imitation beyond mere affection. Only after the lover adopts the Beloved, does he become familiar with him. Then the lover cannot feel love for anyone else other than the Beloved. Some lovers are inclined towards other people to whom they feel affection if they do not feel love to the Beloved anymore. Therefore, the lover whose heart has a liking for others is separated from the Beloved. Because of this separation, the lover now understands how much he loves the Beloved. However, the Beloved does not show any interest in the lover anymore due to his disloyalty. Thus, many great lovers perish and die in this path just because of their disloyalty. When the lover loses the Beloved because of his disloyalty, he burns within the fire of regret and repentance; he cries day and night to save his Love. The lover goes to the Beloved and asks for forgiveness with a deep sincerity. Therefore, the lover bears all the rebukes of the Beloved with patience to save his Love again. Love starts with affection, But it is not only affection. The lover admires the Beloved, He adopts the Beloved but he is not He. Only those who are separated can know Love, Those who are unified cannot feel love, Love is loyalty and faithfulness, The one who is disloyal cannot know Love. The lover becomes sad because of the rebukes of the Beloved and wants to share his sorrows with someone that can understand him. He does not try to find remedies in base desires and passions. The lover who satisfies his base desires and passions unwillingly betrays the Beloved.

20

You could not stand the rebukes of the Beloved, And found remedies in the joys of this world. You could not ask for help from your Love, Without looking for Love’s remedies for your sorrows, You have not woken up since you delude yourself. When the lover makes mistakes or becomes disloyal unwillingly the Beloved may forgive the lover because the Beloved never forgets how devoted the lover was in the past. If the lover does not relinquish these mistakes and insists on making them again, the Beloved stops caring about the lover from then on. If the lover makes a mistake, If the lover forgets Love And finds himself in the joys of this world, The Beloved forgives the lover If He remembers his devotions. While the lover is suffering from the rebukes of the Beloved and if he is inclined towards others because he enjoys their compliments, he is separated from Love. He must remember that the rebukes of the Beloved are much more important and lovely than the compliments of others. For me the rebukes of my Beloved are Much more lovely than the compliments of others. If my Beloved wants me to be sorry, The Joys of the whole universe are meaningless for me. The lover cannot go further if he yearns for the past. If the lover has other yearnings in his heart, he cannot see the true beauty of the Beloved since his heart is not pure. He cannot reach the true Love of the Beloved. Only the one who yearns for the Beloved, Can go to the Beloved. I do not know where the one, Who does not yearn for the Beloved will go, Even if he goes to the Beloved. If our Love is mature enough, while we are gazing at a bird, or smelling a flower, or listening to a lovely voice, or fondling a lamb, or drinking a glass of water we might become one with the Beloved. The lover who becomes unified with the Beloved loses himself and is liberated from his body; he thus finds the unity of souls. Soil and minerals become unified with the Beloved through plants while plants become unified with the Beloved through animals; animals become unified with the Beloved through human beings and human beings become unified with God through His lovers. The Creator, the Almighty One who is the only Being (wujud) is alone the source of Love Himself. He loves Himself. He embraces Himself. He adores Himself. He is the one

21

who loves and is loved among the whole of creation. Love is He alone. The lover who has already matured in his love in the end understands he loves the only Being, the Creator; what he loves is indeed the Almighty One, God, in every existent thing. In the later stages the lover finds Him within himself. He loves Him within himself; while loving himself, the lover at the same time loves Him. He is the one who has created every thing out of love. Therefore, every creature carries traces of love within themselves. If someone finds love within creation, then he finds Truth (Haqq) who has created all things out of His love, for love. Truth, the only craving of lovers‟ hearts, is a Divine Light (Nur). When compared to the physical light in this world, Truth or Divine Light can be understood easily because both have some common attributes. Lovers who contemplate these attributes become more aware of the Being of Truth, and thus they realize Truth more readily. Light is the single entity that is perceived within all colors, forms, and things in this world. Yet, it cannot be seen. Light can only be perceived within the existent things through colors that are in truth the attributes of light itself. When we understand that the source of all colors perceived within the existent things is light itself, we also realize that what we see as colors in this world is only light itself. Just as light cannot be seen, Truth also cannot be seen. However, His attributes (sifat) are perceived within the existent things. Truth can only be seen through His attributes. Therefore, lovers recognize the attributes of Truth and they witness and see Haqq within His attributes. As mentioned above, we can see the things in this world only when light exists. We cannot see when there is no light or when we are in darkness. In truth, the things we perceive around us are just light. Like this, whatever we see within the existent things is only this manifested light or Nur, which is the Being of Truth. This wisdom of lovers is that which can see Haqq within all existent things. If we turn back to our example of the physical light, it will be wrong to believe that each color is different and distinct because they are indebted for their existence only to light itself. They cannot exist if light does not exist. The sole reason of their existence is light itself. Similar to this example, the things exist because of the Being of God. The reason and aim of their existence is God Himself. Only God is seen within the existent things. Therefore, lovers see only God within the existent things because they know the reason of their existence is God Himself alone. The multiplicity or multitude of colors cannot destroy the oneness of light. Like this, the multiplicity of the existent things cannot change the oneness of God. He is the oneness within multiplicity. In truth, what lovers see is only the Being of God both in terms of His manifested and non-manifested forms. Therefore, lovers know the source of life for the existent things is the breath of God. The breath of God has uttered infinite words with His command of “Be!” (“Qun!”). The words uttered by the breath have been created as the innumerable existent things in the cosmos. In other words, the existent things are only the words of God or the breath of God that has uttered these words. Lovers see the existent things as the words of Truth and they perceive the breath of Truth wherever they look. They witness that all words are indebted for their existence to the breath whereas the breath does not need them. Just as any manifested color cannot alone encompass light, words cannot also embrace the one who has uttered them.

22

One must understand the breath before further understanding the source of Love. The following question must be asked here to understand the breath. Is the breath of a human being the same as that person? His breath is not himself; He is himself. Man without breath is just a corpse and a breath without man is only air. Therefore, his breath is both himself and not-himself. Like this, the breath of God is both He and notHe. There is neither certain difference nor certain sameness between the Creator and an existent thing that is His word. But lovers witness God within words. They perceive God wherever they look because the Creator says, “I am apparent and manifest everywhere.” On the other hand, the Essence (dhat) of God, the Almighty One who is the only Being and the source of Love cannot be known and understood by reason. The mind cannot perceive Him. He alone knows Himself. He alone sees Himself. He sees with the eyes of the lover and He speaks from the mouth of the lover because the lover is the one who carries Him within his heart. The Creator who cannot be embraced by the cosmos is carried within the heart of the lover who loves Him. The lover who realizes the divine attributes of the Creator begins to understand His Oneness. No one can grasp knowledge of God if he cannot understand the divine names and attributes of God. The names and attributes of the one and only Beloved are infinite. Every existent thing in the cosmos manifests one of His attributes and names and each thing is given a name according to the attribute that it carries. Accordingly, every existent thing is assumed to be one of the divine names and attributes of God. For this reason Yunus, one of the great lovers says, “I will call You, my God, with the stones and mountains.” Every created thing carries one or more of the divine attributes of God. Each manifests some of His attributes and the perfection of the existent things depends on the degree of their capacity to manifest the attributes of God. Thus perfection is closely related to the capacity and to the extent that the existent things are able to realize and manifest His attributes. Only man, the noblest of the creatures, has this capacity and power to carry and manifest all of the Divine attributes of God. Man is like the cosmos in the way that he has the ability to gather all the divine attributes which are spread on every creation in the universe. The perfection of lovers is dependent on how far they are able to realize and manifest these divine attributes hidden within them. In truth, these attributes are the attributes of God and the lover who realizes and manifests them within himself is also a representative of God. Furthermore, such a lover has already assumed the divine traits of the Creator. The one who realizes all of the attributes of God and thus assumes the noble charter traits is known as the true Friend of Truth (Haqq Dost). The true Friends of Truth are also the lovers of Truth. The one who loves them also loves Truth. They are guides for human beings to commune and to be in harmony with Truth– the source of Love, Beauty, and Goodness. They are worthy of being loved because they are only “Divine Beloved Ones.” The Divine Beloved One who introduces human begins to Love acts as a representative of God among people. From another perspective, they are the sole reason and aim of God‟s creating the cosmos and man because the Almighty One has created man and the cosmos to become

23

known and all of His Divine attributes and names are to be manifested. Therefore, His attributes are dispersed among the existent things within the cosmos and only man in his comprehensiveness realizes and manifests every attribute of God. No existent thing but the true friend of God, the lover of God, has this capacity and power to manifest all of the divine attributes of God. Despite the fact that the Essence of God cannot be seen, He is manifested (tajalli) within the true friend of Truth who is the lover of Truth and He is witnessed as Truth. The beauty of the countenance of Truth (Haqq cemal) that lovers yearn for in their lifetime is manifested on the face of the Divine Beloved One. Therefore, lovers witness the beauty of the countenance (cemal) on the face of their Divine Beloved One. The Friends of Truth, who are the true lovers of Truth, are one and the same even though they are called by different names and they appear differently and live in different countries. The Creator, the Almighty One, has created every creature and decreed that it is their duty to serve human beings– the noblest of the creatures. He has created man in His form. He has taught man the totality of His Divine names. Therefore, man manifests the infinite diversity of the Divine “faces”. He shows a different “beauty of countenance” (cemal) to His lovers within each gaze; He attracts and intoxicates them. The station (maqam) of lovers is defined and delimited by their capacity to realize and manifest the divine attributes of God. On the other hand, this spiritual station is continuously changing until the last breath of their life. When they walk to God, leaving this world, their station becomes fixed. Apart from man, the cosmos itself has been created in the form of God because with the whole of the existent things the cosmos also manifests the entire Divine attributes and names. It is the locus of manifestation of God‟s names and attributes. In this respect, the cosmos resembles man. However, the cosmos manifests the whole of the Divine names and attributes within a diverse configuration in which each existent thing displays the divine names and attributes only in a limited and imperfect manner. Only the true friend and lover of Truth, realizes and displays the entire divine names and attributes within his comprehensiveness and perfection. Human beings can conduct research into the cosmos; they can know and understand it. Furthermore, they can give forms to the cosmos within their hearts and imagination. However, the cosmos does not have this ability to understand or analyze itself. In this respect, man is the soul (ruh) of the cosmos. The cosmos without man is just like a man without Love or a corpse without soul. As far as the cosmos contains the human being within it, it is the “macroman” or “Great Man.” It must be noted that it is not the common man we are talking about here. What is meant by the human being is the true Friend of Truth (Haqq Dost), the True Human Being or the Perfect Human Being. Therefore, the cosmos without “the true friend of Truth” or “the True Human Being” collapses in ruins; it eventually dies. This will happen when the last “True Human Being” leaves this world. It is unfortunate for us now the number of such human beings living in our world decreases day by day. They are the only beings that have the true capacity to manifest the Divine names and

24

attributes of God and only through them does He become known. If they did not exist in this world, the reason and aim of creation itself also disappears. Since there would be no reason for the cosmos to exist, it also collapses and dies. The lover who has realized the Divine names and attributes cannot have his own will. He has already surrendered himself to Truth. He acts in accordance with the will of Truth. He lives for it only; He and the people around him undergo many things in life for Truth only. They are the true friends and lovers of Truth. The one who sees them sees Truth only. They love for Truth only; they are loved for Truth only. The mind cannot conceive their acts and secrets (sir). The one who criticizes the actions of such human beings actually criticizes himself because they carry the Light of Truth within; they are the mirror of Truth. The one who looks at them sees his self only. They are the purified ones who are the true friends of souls. The true friends of God in their perfection speak to God; they hear the resonance of God addressed to them at the moment of the manifestation of God (tajalli). No spatial direction can be defined for God‟s resonance. It comes without any direction. For example, the Almighty God addressed The Pole (Qutb) Abdul-Qadir Gilani, The Supreme Helper, Gaws Al-Azam, one of the Great Lovers of God, in the following manner, “You are My Lover! You are the One whom I love! You are the One who is desired! You are My Face amongst my slaves... You are the One who is the most wanted and looked for… You are My Secret within secrets… You are My Light within lights! You are the Beauty of My Countenance (Cemal)… You are My Perfection (Kemal)… You are My Name… You are My Essence… You are My Attribute (Sifat)! Come nearer to witness Me! Do not stay far away from Me… You are the essence of the universe! Come nearer to Me, My Lover! Ascend to Me, My Lover! I desired you for My Essence. I have created you for Me alone… Do not look for anything else other than Me. Do not crave for anything else other than Me! My Lover, smell Me within all fragrances… My Lover, devour Me within all foods… My Lover, touch Me in whatever you touch. My Lover, you are My Yearning!” Having liberated themselves from any base desires, passions, and worldly interests, they have become the slave of Love. When they do something, whatever it is, they do it just for Love. Any act that they do for Love never corrupts or makes them impure because Love burns and purifies man. Their Love also purifies those in relationship to them. What make man corrupt and impure are not the faults in his actions but his intentions while doing these actions. Man is completely responsible for his acts when he harmfully influences and changes the intentions of other people.

25

O You who are looking for Love! Until you come across a true friend of God, you will never know Love and yourself. Your craving for Love will never be satisfied. The “Divine Beloved Ones” are those who give Love to the whole of humanity.