Purifying Oneself from False Loves
The Sufi path is a process of gradually purifying the heart from false loves and dedicating it entirely to the Absolute One (Allah). An ordinary believer avoids sins and desires the blessings of Paradise; however, for a perfect lover (one possessing gnosis), even Paradise itself is not the ultimate goal. Abdülkadir Geylani (q.s.) teaches this summit that true love reaches with the following awe-inspiring supplication: “Soul, wealth, paradise be yours. Let all things other than Your Essence be yours; give us Your Essence. We desire nothing else.” If a servant’s sole purpose in worship is to obtain mansions and houris in the afterlife, it still indicates that the ego is pursuing its own interests. The true lover serves solely for the pleasure of the Beloved (Allah), not for any reward (Paradise).
Desiring the Owner of the House, Not the House
If a person enters the palace of the sultan who invites them and neglects the sultan’s beauty in favor of decorations on the palace walls or the food served, they would be showing great disrespect to the sultan. Geylani (q.s.) emphasizes the worthlessness of everything beyond beholding the beauty of Allah (rü’yetullah) by saying, “If You give us a house, what use is it without You?” “A person with faith and gnosis does not desire the world from Allah. They do not make requests for the afterlife. They desire the Lord from their Lord.” The one who finds the owner of the house already possesses all the blessings of the house.
The Sacrifice of a True Merchant
The price of attaining this exalted station is to wholeheartedly renounce everything transient. True saints say, “What use is the journey if our companion is not You?” They lived with asceticism while in the world, suppressing the endless demands of their egos. Whoever sacrifices their existence, selfhood, and worldly expectations for Allah’s path, Allah bestows upon them the nearness of His infinite and unique being. These gnostics, who burn away their fleeting desires into ashes, rule over the greatest spiritual sovereignty as invisible kings of the earth.