Among the requirements of such things, the most noble types are present. For this reason, these have not been made steps to the love that is particular to the people of maʿrifa (experiential knowledge of God) and felicity. (Ravza, 524)
Love (maḥabba) is a claim which, unless there is evidence, does not suffice by itself to establish the Real (al-Ḥaqq). The evidences and signs of love can be enumerated as follows: being content with the actions of the Beloved, feeling yearning and passion for Him, experiencing fear and hope towards Him; jealousy, hayba (awe), veneration, contraction (qabḍ), expansion (basṭ), and continual remembrance of the Beloved. Some of these are related to the very essence of love and never separate from it. Other signs, however, are transient; they may increase, decrease, become difficult, or rare. (Ravza, 630)
Love is divided into three. The first is related to action (fiʿlī). The second is related to attribute (ṣifa), and the third is related to the Essence (dhāt). The love related to action is the love of the common people (ʿawām). This love is the servant seeking Allah in the things he needs and in the beneficence (iḥsān) he receives, in order to increase iḥsān (spiritual excellence).
The love related to attribute is the love of the elite (khawāṣṣ). These love Allah not for the sake of the unveiling of the veil or the lifting of the covering, but solely for His beauty (jamāl) and majesty (jalāl). Their love arises from reasons particular to themselves. For their love is not purely of the kind directed solely to Allah, but arises from nafsānī (egoic) causes. However, the one who is truly a lover (muḥibb) is distant from such feelings.
The love of the most select of the elite (akhaṣṣ al-khawāṣṣ) is an essential passion in which the Beloved (the Beloved Allah) leaves an imprint in the lover with all His light and power. Accordingly, just as the soul (rūḥ) takes on the form of the body due to the love between them, so too does the lover appear in the attribute of his Beloved.
The love of the common people is related to action. The love of the martyrs is related to attribute. The love of the ones brought near (muqarrabūn) is related to the Essence (dhāt). (Insān, II, 94)
I asked, "What is the reality (ḥaqīqa) of love?" He answered me: "O Shiblī! By Allah, if a single drop of love were to fall into the seas, all would turn to hellfire. If a single particle of love were placed upon the mountains, they would be pulverized. So what of the state of those hearts which are clothed in the anxiety and fire of passion, and are burned by black longing?" (Mashāriq, 12)
The vigilance of love (murāqabat al-maḥabba) ("They love Allah and He loves them" [Qur'an 5:54])... In this greatest type of walāya (friendship with God), which is the walāya of the prophets, different states appear in the one possessing true perception from his initial states. Then, in the other three elements apart from the element of earth, the state of vigilance called by the name of the inner (bāṭin) arises. This walāya is called the highest walāya (walāyat al-ʿulyā, the exalted walāya). After this, in the element of earth, the vigilance of the perfections of prophethood arises. Then, the perfections of messengership (risāla) arise.
After the perfections of messengership, the perfections of the great (ulu'l-ʿazm) prophets arise. After these perfections, the unity-assembly (wahdāniyya hay'a), that is, the assembly composed of ten subtle faculties (laṭīfa), arises. Five of these laṭīfas are from the world of command (ʿālam al-amr): the qalb (heart), rūḥ (spirit), sirr (secret), khafī (hidden), and akhfā (most hidden). The other five are from the world of creation (ʿālam al-khalq): the nafs-i nāṭiqa (rational soul) and the four elements. When these laṭīfas reach perfection (kamāl), they all become as a single laṭīfa and become the source of spiritual effusion. (Bughyat, 154)
Shādhilī said: "Love is Allah's drawing the servant's heart away from everything other than Himself. In this state, you see that the nafs inclines to Allah's obedience; the intellect is devoted to knowing Him; the spirit (rūḥ) is stripped of all but His presence; the secret (sirr) is inhabited by witnessing Him. Whatever the servant desires is given to him, the sweetest intimate discourse is opened to him. As a result, he is clothed in the garment of proximity (taqrīb) upon the spread of nearness (qurb), and he touches truths and new knowledges untouched by love. For this reason, it is said: 'The friends of Allah (awliyāʾ) are His bridegrooms; the criminals cannot see them.'
When Shādhilī was asked, "You know what love is, but do you know the wine of love, the cup of love, its cupbearer, its taste, the act of drinking, being quenched, intoxication, and sobriety?" he replied: "Yes, I know. The wine is the light shining from the beauty of the Beloved. The cup is the grace that brings this light to the lips of hearts. The cupbearer is Allah, the helper of the chosen and righteous servants. Whoever has one or two breaths of this beauty of Allah unveiled to him, and then a veil (ḥijāb) is drawn over him, that person is in a state of tasting (dhawq) and longing. If this state continues for an hour or two, that person is truly in a state of drinking (shurb) that wine. If this state continues, and he keeps drinking until his veins and joints are filled with the abundant lights of Allah, he is in a state of being quenched (rayy). The one who, to the extent that he no longer knows what he says or what is said to him, is absent from matter and rational states, is intoxicated. Sometimes cups are passed around to them, their states change. They engage in dhikr (remembrance) and obedience, and the attributes are not hidden from them along with the decreed states. At this time, their gaze of wakefulness expands and their knowledge increases. These are the stars of knowledge, and with the moon of tawḥīd (the oneness of God) in their nights, they find their way by the suns of maʿrifa (gnosis), and illuminate their days as well. (Jāmiʿ, 49)
Know that the roots of the stations of certainty (yaqīn) attained by the branches of the states of the people of certainty are seven: tawba (repentance), sabr (patient endurance), shukr (gratitude), rajāʾ (hope), khawf (fear), zuhd (asceticism), tawakkul (reliance upon God), maḥabba (love), and riḍā (contentment with God's decree). (Jāmiʿ, 218)
In language, maḥabba means to love. According to the people of knowledge, maḥabba means will (irāda). According to the people of reality, Allah's loving His servant means that He wills him with many blessings, brings him near to Himself, bestows favors upon him, and grants him beautiful states and lofty stations. Allah's will is one, but it differs according to what it is attached to.
If the will is attached to a general blessing, it is called mercy (raḥma); if it is attached to a specific blessing, it is called love (maḥabba). As for the love understood from attributes such as the creature loving his beloved and finding intimacy with him, Allah Most High is exalted above this. The sign that Allah loves His servant is that the servant loves Allah. The sign that the servant loves Allah is a state found in his heart, which cannot be contained in expressions, cannot be described by any attribute, and cannot be defined to the intellect in a way clearer or closer than love itself.
People have put forward various views about the linguistic origin of the word maḥabba. According to these views, it is said that maḥabba is derived from the word "ḥabāb," which means the whiteness and brightness of teeth. Accordingly, maḥabba expresses the purity of love.
It is also said that maḥabba comes from the word "ḥabāb," which is the name given to the bubbles that form on the surface when water is poured into a jug. According to this meaning, maḥabba is the boiling and excitement of the heart with longing for the beloved, just as the bubbles boil on the surface of water.
It is also said that maḥabba is derived from the phrase "ḥibābu'l-māʾ," which means a large mass of water. According to this, maḥabba is the name for the majority of feelings in the heart. It is also said that the essence of maḥabba is not to separate and to persevere (thabāt).
It is also said that the word maḥabba is taken from the phrase "ahabba'l-baʿīr" (the camel knelt down and could not get up). Just as the camel stays put, so too does the lover remember his beloved in his heart, remain still, and cannot be separated from him.
It is also said that maḥabba is derived from the word "ḥabb," which means a barrel or cask used to carry water. Because when the vessel is full of water, it cannot take anything else. The heart is also like a water vessel; when it is filled with love, the love of anything else cannot enter it. All these are definitions given by linguistic scholars.
The definitions of our shaykhs regarding maḥabba are as follows: Maḥabba is the servant's loving Allah, exalting Him, preferring His pleasure, having little patience, and always finding intimacy in the dhikr (remembrance) of Allah.
According to one view, maḥabba is to hasten to perform acts of worship, whether obligatory or supererogatory, and to avoid sins as much as possible. (Jāmiʿ, 230)
Our shaykhs have spoken about maḥabba. Imām Shihāb al-Dīn Suhrawardī said: Love is divided into two, general and special. General love is interpreted as following commands. Love is mostly a love formed from the mine of knowledge through blessings. This love arises from attributes. The servant's own acquisition also has an effect in love. In this sense, love is counted among the stations (maqām). As for special love, it is nothing but loving the Essence, which arises from the contemplation of the spirit (rūḥ). This love, which is accompanied by a state of intoxication, is that which the Generous Allah creates for His servant and chooses for him. This love is a state (ḥāl), for it is a gift from Allah and has no contribution from acquisition. As is understood from the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), "The thing I love most is cold water." For this saying comes from the conscience of the spirit that finds pleasure in the love of the Essence.
The origin of exalted states and the special love which is the cause of these states is, among the states, what repentance (tawba) is among the stations. Whoever's repentance is perfected and correct, realizes stations such as asceticism (zuhd), contentment (riḍā), and reliance (tawakkul). Whoever's special love is correct, realizes states such as fanāʾ (annihilation in God), baqāʾ (subsistence in God), salb (removal), and maḥw (effacement).
Suhrawardī also said: Whenever the lights of special love arise upon the Beloved, the lover (muḥibb) removes the garments of the attributes and qualities of the nafs. Again, he said: All the stations purify and cleanse the nafs from attributes and qualities. For example, the station of zuhd purifies it from desire; the station of tawakkul from the distrust that arises from the ignorance of the nafs; the station of riḍā from the tensions that may be caused by the vein of contention. Since there remains in the nafs a residue of original love (maḥabbat-i aṣliyya), the sun of special love has not arisen upon contention, and thus the darkness and dullness of the nafs remain. The nafs of the one who can realize special love becomes softened and its dullness departs.
(I also said:) That is, when the sun of love rises upon the lover who has been seized by one of the attractions (jadhbāt) of the Real (al-Ḥaqq), nothing remains in the nafs for the stations to purify.
It has been said: Change is directed towards the advancement of the stations for the lovers from among the common people (ʿawām). Traversing the couches of progress is for the lovers from among the elite (khawāṣṣ). These are the beloved ones (maḥbūbūn). (Nabhānī, I, 351)
When Abū'l-Qāsim Junayd was asked, "What is love?" he replied: "Love is the establishment of the attributes of the Beloved in place of the attributes of the lover." (Nabhānī, I, 356)
The reality of love is this: Love is a fire that burns the livers, a passion that grows and increases.
The reality of love is to conceal the secret of the Beloved that manifests to the lover in the witnessing of the unseen. (Qawānīn, 20)
Love is to go to excess in inclination without the thought of attaining. That is, it is the inclination of the heart to its Lord and to the commands that bring it near to Him, without any expectation of beneficence or reward. (Riḥla, 209)
If you take a lump of gold or silver to a jeweler and ask him to make a chain or necklace from it, what does he do? The jeweler takes this lump, puts it into a crucible, then places it over the fire and stokes the fire. The fire blazes and its heat increases. When the lump in the crucible melts, he takes it out, puts it on the anvil, and hammers it thoroughly until he gives it the desired shape. Then he makes it into a necklace that adorns the chests of sultans.
The state of love is similar to this. Love is the fire of Allah. Dhikr (remembrance) is the air that stokes this fire. The murīd (aspirant) is the lump placed into that fire. The hammer is the states (aḥwāl), and the jeweler is the murshid (spiritual guide). (Nafahāt, 115)
(See also: hawā; ḥubb; maʿrifa)