DÖRDÜNCÜ BÂB · İKİNCİ FASIL · On birinci Madde
The Eleventh Article
Regarding Essential Love (Mahabbah).
Know, O beloved! The friends of the Divine have said: The love of the Essence of God is like a sun that has risen upon the realities of existence, illuminating them. The atoms of the world are filled with this light and emerge onto the stage of being.
The degrees of emergence of the essences of beings into existence have been brought about by its illumination. The forms of created things have become beautiful with its light. As it is said in poetry:
Poetry
1. The sun of love shone upon realities,
And stars sparkled, and entities became manifest.
2. Existence came forth through the light of love,
Its light overflowed, illuminating possibilities.
3. And with it beauty arose from all creation,
In its Essence, the worlds adorned themselves.
(Translation of the Poetry)
1. The sun of love shone upon realities.
2. Existence appeared through the light of love. It overflowed and illuminated possibilities.
3. With it, every created thing found its beauty; it adorned itself with a splendid garment in its Essence.
Indeed, absolute beauty belongs to the Essence of the One God, and cannot be conceived apart from Him. For absolute love, the existence of realities is necessarily required.
Therefore (love) has been distributed from that Absolute Beauty to the realities of existence, and each one has received its share of supreme delight. However, they are deprived of attaining the perfection of that beauty due to the impediment of the world of possibilities. Every reality has loved what it observes as its own portion. Thus, every reality has become identical with its beloved. If the observation of that reality was in terms of absolute essence, and if one perceives and understands it, distinguishing it from all connection—that is, free from all attribution—then that lover is a sincere monotheist.
If the lover is veiled by his own self and observes the Absolute Beauty in terms of attributing it to a place, then he is in heedlessness and has been infected with polytheism. For that reality is the beauty of God in the first observation; seeing His Essence with His Essence, and loving His Essence with the love of His Essence. And in the second observation, it is the imagination of created things, seeing their own self as identical to itself, and being enamored of his own ego within the veil of the attributes of the Most High God.
As for the state of the lover according to the first view, he looks at his own self with the eye of non-existence and finds love and friendship from that which he loves. In the second instance, the lover looks at his own self with the eye of existence (the eternal essence) and is driven away by enmity and aversion from the door of his beloved. The veil in this station is the veil of egoism (selfhood). As Iblis said: “I am certainly better than him” (Surah Al-A’raf 7:12), and as Pharaoh said: "Indeed, I am your lord most high" (Surah Naziat 79:24)—these are within the veil of egoism.
Of those who attain nearness to the Most High God through spiritual means, whoever purifies himself from attribution and designation in love, his state remains consistent in hardship as well as ease; his love does not change in times of trial or grace.
Poetry
1. I abandoned the people for their desires,
And orphaned my children so you might see me.
2. If you weaken me in love,
My heart will stray and lose itself to another.
Those who are recipients of essential love are sincere in loving essences and souls. They are lovers of one another with their essences and spirits. They do not experience pain from each other’s afflictions. When they commit faults, they do not question each other; their hearts are joyful, they know no bitterness of patience. Their love is for each other's Essence, so they are content with everything pertaining to the existence, attributes, actions, and customs of one another; they do not look at each other’s flaws.
For in essence it is a luminous essence and in truth, utterly pure, so that some actions which produce darkness do not harm the lover nor does the obscurity arising from those deeds. It is that divine dye with which the lover has been dyed. It is that eternal purification with which the lover has been purified. That dye and that purification have prevented the lover's essence from being stained by the colors of the veils formed by material impediments. They have also protected his reality from being muddied by created beings and losing its purity. In this state, even if he encounters all spiritual darkness, he does not lose his purity; even if he mixes with all spiritual obscurity, his heart is not defiled. Like the sea, it repels impurities and remains in its pure description.
Poetry
1. The personalities of the purified ones are pure,
Their holy souls are not changed by afflictions.
2. Their secrets are clear, their realities are pleasing. They are like a sea; only fate stirs up the waves.
Verses
1. Greetings, O pure love, greetings, dear friend! [41] Every heart’s delight is you, O lovely one!
2. You are the soul of my intellect, the life of my life, O father.
3. You are the soul of the world and the manifestation of reality; with your joy, you have made the world restless.
4. You are both the beauty of the beloved and the sorrow of the lover; you are the beloved and friend in the world.
5. Day and night find light and darkness from you. Your hair and face are the opposite of night and day.
6. You are the gardener, eternal cupbearer; you are the splendor of the world, O garden and spring!
7. You are the soul of the garden, O sea of life; with your beauty and grace, you have achieved renown.
8. Your delightful moments have intoxicated the world; you are the soul and heart, O musk of Tatar.
9. The Most High is found in solitude through your conversation; you are the most exalted helper, O Joseph!
2. The Universal Intellect yearns with a profound yearning, O Father! The management of this affair is entirely within Your powerful hand.
3. You are the life of the world, and also the primordial essence of existence. The universe revolves through Your love, and remains unsettled by Your exhilaration.
4. Beauty resides in the beloved, and sorrow in the lover. In the world, it is always to You – You are the Beloved; You are the Friend.
5. Day draws its light from You, night its darkness. The brightness of Your face is the day, and the shade of Your hair, the night.
6. You are the gardener of my heart, eternally. You are the beauty of the world, O garden and spring!
7. You are the life-garden, the spring; O sea of life! Through Your beauty you have attained renown, through Your generosity, recognition.
8. Your blessed times have intoxicated the world. O Tatar Musk! You are the fragrance of soul and heart.
9. Truth found fellowship in heartfelt discourse, solely with You. O one with Yusuf’s cheeks! You are the exalted *Gawth*.