DÖRDÜNCÜ BÂB · İKİNCİ FASIL · Yirmi İkinci Madde
The Twenty-Second Item
Concerning the manifest attributes, hidden secrets, and exalted glory of Divine Love.
O beloved! Know that the friends of God have said: The cumberous intellect, which is human reason, is bewildered in the matter of God’s love.
The love has seventy-two divisions, severing connection and interest from both worlds.
Love itself is hidden, while its bewilderment is manifest. The souls of the lovers yearn for it, awaiting its path. Divine Love is a sea of annihilation; reason is a broken crutch in understanding it. Love is the wine of attaining truth, and the cupbearer for every true friend.
*Quatrain*
1. Grant me the wine of love,
That fear and hope may cease.
Deliver me from anxieties,
Intoxicate me with your draught, O cupbearer!
2. I desire no bread, nor water,
Nor the comfort of sleep.
I want no companions or friends,
Love’s wine suffices for me.
In its beginning, love is at odds with the lover, so much so that if they are frightened and flee, then they are outside of that love. When love encompasses the lover, it renders every beauty ugly in the lover's eyes. Love is the sustenance of both the seasoned and unseasoned (bread without bread) lover, not bound to the body. The true lover has no dealings with the lover’s body, for his profit is abundant despite lacking capital. Lovers have pitched their tents in annihilation. They have become a single hue, a single being. The lover perceives existence within annihilation. As the discerning one sees wine in grapes. The lover dies before death and finds eternal life through everlasting love. The lover's heart is broken, filled with sorrow and grief. The lover’s joy lies in humbling the self and afflicting it. Just as the discernment of the wise resides in honor and dignity.
*Quatrain*
1. For a time, the grief of love has been my religion.
Sorrow and sadness are the delight of my grieving heart.
2. The officials and commanders frighten us; they do not know that the dwelling place of my bewildered heart is the abode of the Sultan.
3. Love was the desire of the people of existence, O God! The thorn of my grief and pain is my rose, my fragrance.
The obedience of the wise is reluctant and forced. The lover’s obedience is with love, affection, and willingness. This is why the two options in Surah Fussilat – “Come willingly” – is a feast for lovers, while “[come] by compulsion” [74] is the halter for the wise. For their love of God is bound to a certain cause. The lover’s love is purely friendship. Whether wise or lover, all people desire the love of the Lord. God draws them all towards Himself through various means. But at the moment of this attraction, the lovers perceive the poison of pain and sorrow [291/a] as sweetness and syrup, finding joy in the distress of anguish. They delight in being humiliated and find pleasure in insults, escaping enslavement to the pursuit of honor and status.
*Versified Poem*
1. The lover is a hostage to faithfulness and affection, without doubt.
The knower is close to truthfulness and purity, without doubt.
2. The wise follows the intellect that seeks excuses.
The lover is a friend to adversity and affliction, without doubt.
3. Be a companion of love, so that you may find it in your heart.
Surely, bliss, intimacy, and encounter are certain, without doubt.
4. The world is a ship within the ocean of love.
That ocean is not water, but air, without doubt.
5. If the heart were to be filled with the draught of love, it would remain eternally alive.
God! This description of love is God’s attribute, without doubt.
Love has been bequeathed to us from our forefather Adam. Zeyreklik (a state of intellectual attachment) came through Satan into the heart. For Zeyreklik is like traveling in a sea that destroys the soul. Love is like Noah's Ark for the lover. The grasp of reason (Zeyreklik) consists only of conjecture and reports. The bewilderment of love is direct vision. Therefore, it is inevitable that one who sacrifices reason to love should be captivated by the beauty of the beloved’s face.
With love, cumberous intellect becomes helpless. As a lamp becomes useless when morning arrives. For reason is merely a guard, an official. Love is the supreme sovereign. Reason is but a shadow of love's sun.
*Quatrain*
1. Journey to the pilgrimage of love with your heart; that is the qibla of every soul.
Do not befriend reason and understanding, for they are your enemies.
2. The world is a caravanserai; thousands have come and gone with their grief.
Cast off sorrow and regret; become captivated by the beauty of love.
3. Close your eyes, do not waste that light in the outer layer of things.
So that you may pleasantly survey the inner essence of the universe.
The lover’s entire grief and joy are the Beloved, and only He is the reward for all his service. If a lover seeks anything other than the Beloved, he is not a lover. Rather, he has been swayed by the desires of his self and his whims. For Divine Love is a fire that leaves nothing belonging to "others" in the heart of the lover.
It burns and reduces to ash. A life spent without love is nothing more than a burdensome load for the body. To live heedless of God is a present death. The countenance of Love is both grace and pride. Love is only attained through countless displays of grace.
*Nazm*
1. It is such that the style of graceful coyness initiates love;
The lover immediately sacrifices his heart and soul to it.
2. He becomes free in the world, finding eternal life;
That believing soul who follows after it.
3. Our desire is only the desire of the Friend;
Whatever exists in the world, God makes it so.
4. The lover finds suffering as grace within the heart;
If he inflicts injustice and suffering, he experiences delight and purity.
5. Do not remain in darkness, come to your heart, find the light of love;
God, whose love is a sun that illuminates you.
The love of God is a mine of faithfulness; the lover’s heart is filled with purity within it. The perfection of the lover is annihilation and non-existence. The lover who attains the station of annihilation, considers himself to be the beloved, feeling shame with respect and joy with affection – this is part of his distinction.
*Qasida*
1. Love initially annihilates the lovers from their existence;
Then, He bestows existence upon them through His generosity.
2. Existence is love; the Preserved Tablet is that; everything is within it.
The one who knows does not say, the one who says does not know those mysteries of emergence.
3. "For God's sake," said the beggar wandering from door to door;
He appears until that hidden treasure reveals itself from his tattered cloak.
The love of God has ten thousand wings, each reaching from above the heavens to beneath the earth. God prevents anxiety through love and detaches the individual from contention. With love, the articulate self becomes speechless. The one who loves God does not pay attention to what is other than Him, does not seek good or evil in an action, but follows love, and thereby attains the pleasure of his beloved. The love of God is the patron of lovers; the solution for the helpless, the hope of the hopeless. It is through His management that order and regularity prevail in the world’s affairs.
*Nazm*
1. We are born of love, a breath from God's vast sea;
We are children; how do we go and call out?
2. We drink that mother’s milk constantly, always;
From east and west, sustenance is given from the earth and sky.
3. In cities and deserts, we are companions with Him continually.
Our soul is the servant of that beautiful, well-mannered mother.
4. The heart becomes a city for souls; when love’s sun shines upon it,
The heart becomes a nest; when that heart-thief comes to seclusion.
5. For he is the guardian of every heart and soul's garden.
That saki has found eternal dwelling with Him in good cheer.
The lover’s path is annihilation, being non-existent in the sky of non-existence. The lover rejects his own existence and exists through love. With love, law and order cannot dwell in a single heart. The lover has no dealings with people. Love is such a powerful ruler that the lover is a diligent servant who sees to His work. Love is a lion; the lover is its prey. Those who are the prey of love have freed themselves from the burden of their own selves, and have gained freedom against his unending desires. Love is a gentle breeze that has swept before it those who love. Love is a swift torrent; lovers yearn towards it.
*Qasida*
1. There came that tumultuous river, with nine heavens revolving around it;
There came that sun which makes the moon and Venus wondrous.
2. There came that spiritual dart which in the desert of souls,
From every direction turns a thousand hearts into whirling tops.
3. Whoever wears his cloak tears away his existence;
Whoever partakes of his sustenance, Lokman makes him Lokman.
The lover has no dealings with anyone. For he knows nothing but his own heart. The lover is a drunkard who cares for nothing; his state is obedience to his beloved.
*Bayt*
The world’s kingdom is permissible for those attached to the body;
We are servants of the eternal kingdom of love.
The lover desires a life filled with love, he does not grieve over his soul. He wishes to be intoxicated with the wine of love, and does not desire bread or water. The lover has passed beyond himself, and is filled within and without with the wine of love. When that wine has leaked from the “eye,” it has become a speaking book about love.
*Nazm*
1. Love’s point is a book;
Love’s particle is a sun.
2. The universe and the world are drowned in its droplet;
Every two worlds are hidden within its particle.
3. Through pure love, man becomes man;
He becomes the perfect guide, most revered.
4. Love is the light of the eyes of the lovers;
Love is a companion and a mule for the seeker.
5. The conscience of love burns in the tongue;
The human soul is worthy of love.
6. Whoever has become a captive in the hand of love,
1. The point is the book of love; the atom, the sun of love.
2. The entire world is drowned in a droplet; both worlds are concealed within an atom.
3. Through pure love, one becomes a man; generous, a perfect guide.
4. The light of the lovers’ eyes is love; the seeker's companion and mount are love.
5. The essence of love lies hidden in hearts. Only humanity can attain to it.
6. Whoever becomes captive in the hand of love, there is no need for the self-awareness to turn elsewhere.
7. Love makes man a madman, bewildering him. To sever him from attachments.
8. For worldly attachment has become an obstacle to communion with the Presence of the Beloved Lord.
9. The servant of love becomes the king of the world. He is joyful and free, embracing the pain of love.
10. The lover becomes one devoted to resignation (tawakkul). Progressing onward, he finds his station.
11. One day it will be that secrets are revealed, and with love, the eye of the soul awakens from slumber.
12. All the realities of things become manifest; the veil of the Divine Presence is lifted.
13. Were one to cast a glance at a single point, he beholds the entire world from within it.
14. The point becomes a mirror reflecting the world; the atom, a sun illuminating the heart.
15. At this secret, intellect and soul are astonished. The sciences of the world are rolled up into a point.
16. Within the world, in accordance with the truth of the Prophet’s light, become a sorrowful warrior in the fountain of love.
17. O one whose insight opens to vision! And o one who journeys on the path of love within the world!
18. When love becomes the guide of humankind, then his eye of understanding is surely opened.
19. An atom becomes a window to expanding light; a droplet, a storehouse for oceans.
20. From the body that beholds the realm of the soul, one sees the light of love through this window.
21. This very existence is a veiler to the lover; this existence is dust in the eye of the soul.
22. To be a lover is absolute annihilation (fana). It is to burn for love and become ashes.
23. Be, o lover, one of the people of inwardness, so that you may become aware of the secrets.
24. Do not gaze upon the beauty of the beloved; do not look at the form, but contemplate the character.
25. Is it fitting for you to be a friend through bones and blood, and a pelt?
26. He who became a close friend (ḥabīb) to the Presence of the Real, found within his heart’s Ka'bah the light of beauty.