One becomes united; whoever unites (with Him) comes to know (Him); whoever knows (Him) draws near (to Him); and whoever draws near never finds rest, for the lightning of sorrow surrounds him.
It is to love everything that Allah loves. (Ādāb, 145)
At the beginning, I erred in four things: I thought that it was I who remembered Him, knew Him, loved Him, and desired Him. When I reached the end (of the Path), I saw that His dhikr (remembrance of God) preceded my dhikr, His maʿrifa (gnosis, experiential knowledge of God) preceded my maʿrifa, His maḥabba (love) preceded my maḥabba, and His will preceded my will.
The sign of ḥubb (love) is to strive in mujāhada (spiritual struggle) by drawing near to the Beloved with one's wealth and life, seeking His riḍā (contentment with God's decree), and exerting oneself to remove every obstacle that hinders nearness to the Beloved. (Kūt, II, 53)
The beginning of proximity is taqarrub (seeking nearness), and the beginning of love is striving to love. They possess the qualities of taʾalluf (harmonization), talīf (unification), and taʿrīf (definition). They are those who are among the abrār (the righteous). (Kūt, I, 241)
The essence of love comes from pre-eternity. In Arabic, the dot of the letter bāʾ in the word yuhibbuhum (He loves them) and the phrase yuhibbūnahu (they love Him) (al-Māʾida 5:54) are sown as a seed in its soil. If the dot had not been cast upon hum (them), yuhibbūnahu would not have appeared. When the narcissus of love grows, the seed and the fruit take on the same color.
If it is said, "Subḥānī (I declare myself free from imperfection)...," it is for this reason.
These words are either the words of the dot, or the words of the Lord of the dot, or such claims are made through the fruit; yet the fruit is the same as the seed. (Sawāniḥ, 93)
Nothing purifies iman (faith) more powerfully than loving for Allah's sake and hating for Allah's sake. (Ādāb, 9)
According to us, hawa (passion) is nothing but the initial descent of love into the qalb (the heart) of the lover; it is nothing else. When no other state shares in it, when it is pure and sincere for itself, it is called ḥubb (love). When this love becomes firm and established, it is called wudd. When it encompasses the heart, the inner self, and inclinations, leaving nothing but the heart's attachment, it is called ʿishq (passionate love). The intended meaning of ʿishq is a thorny plant. (Tercümān, 14)
My heart is ready to be adorned with all colors
It has become a pasture for gazelles
A monastery for monks
A temple for idols
A Kaʿba for the circumambulator
The Tablets of the Torah
The pages of the Qur'an
Now, wherever the caravans of love turn,
that is my religion and my iman (faith).
What is the sharāb-i ḥubb (wine of love)? The answer: It is the manifestation between two manifestations. This is a perpetual manifestation, never ceasing, and for the ʿārif (gnostic) servants of God, it is the highest maqām (spiritual station) in which the manifestation occurs. The beginning of this manifestation is the manifestation of dhawq (taste, direct experience).
The manifestation in which the manifestation of rayy (satiation) occurs is the manifestation of the people of dhikr (remembrance). Their goal in shurb (drinking) is rayy (satiation). The manifestation of the people of saʿa (expansiveness), as experienced by Abū Yazīd (al-Bisṭāmī), is never to be sated with drinking. The first thing I mentioned in this matter is the maʿrifa of ḥubb. When one possesses this maʿrifa, he knows the wine and its cup attributed to him. Know that ḥubb (love) has three degrees: one is natural love (ḥubb-i ṭabīʿī), which is the love of the common people. Its aim is union at the level of the animal soul. Each soul among the united elements becomes a single soul, depending on the stimulation of pleasure or shahwa (desire). Its practical end is marriage. The desire of love flows in every temperament as water flows through a piece of wool, carrying with it the dye of the color it possesses.
Rūḥānī ḥubb (spiritual love) is of the nafs (the lower self). Its aim is to resemble the beloved, provided that the right of the beloved is not violated and the other is recognized.
Ilāhī ḥubb (divine love) is the love of Allah for the servant and the servant for his Lord, as in "He loves them and they love Him." Its aim, from both sides, is for the servant to witness Allah's creation as the manifestation of the Real (al-Ḥaqq). Thus, it is the manifest Real. The inner aspect, which is like the soul of the body, is the unseen within it. None but the lover can perceive and witness it.
The manifestation of the Real for the servant is that the servant is characterized by what he is characterized with. These attributes, definitions, measures, and accidents may be of various kinds. The servant witnesses these. Then he becomes one who loves with the Real. As we have said, love has no known, essential definition. It can only be defined by one of its forms or verbal definitions; it cannot be defined by anything else. Whoever defines love does not understand it. Whoever says, "I am sated with it," does not know it. For love is to desire without knowing satiation. (Futūḥāt, II, 108-109)
What is the kaʾs-i ḥubb (cup of love)? The answer: The lover's heart has neither intellect nor sensation. For the heart passes from one ḥāl (spiritual state) to another. Just as Allah is the Beloved, He is in a state of perpetual creation. Thus, the state of the lover changes with the state of the beloved, since his love is attached to Him. Just as a clear white glass cup takes on the color of the liquid inside, so does the lover's color become that of the beloved. This applies only to the heart.
The intellect, however, belongs to the realm of restriction. That is why it is called ʿaql (from the root meaning to bind, as in the rope used to tie a camel's leg) and to sense. Thus, it is known that the intellect is from the realm of restriction. The heart is the opposite. This is due to the many and often contradictory rulings of love. Only that which has the capacity for change can accept these rulings, and this is none other than the heart. (Futūḥāt, II, 111)
Ḥubb (love) is a divine maqām (spiritual station), for He has described Himself with love and in the hadiths is called Wadūd (the Loving). Among the things revealed to Moses in the Torah is: "O son of Adam! I love you for My right upon you; so love Me for My right upon you."
In the Qur'an and Sunnah, maḥabba (love) is mentioned in relation to both Allah and creation. Allah has described the types of those He loves and their attributes in the Qur'an. He has also specified the attributes He does not love, and mentioned the types of those He does not love. Allah, Exalted is He, has commanded His Prophet to say to us: "Say, 'If you should love Allah, then follow me, [so] Allah will love you...'" (Āl ʿImrān 3:31). (Futūḥāt, II, 317)
Ḥubb is when He reaches the heart and purifies it from the turbidity of anything that might attach to it. When the heart is with its beloved, it has no aim or will of its own. (Futūḥāt, II, 318)
The sign of maʿrifa is ḥubb (love). Whoever knows Him, loves Him. The sign of maḥabba is not to prefer anything that can be loved over Him. Whoever prefers something that can be loved over Him, his heart is sick—like a stomach that prefers to eat clay over bread. Such a stomach, due to illness, loses the desire to eat bread. (Qudāma, 159)
Ḥubb is the second hajj. The nafs (lower self) of the murīd (aspirant, disciple) does not prevent him a second time. Its path is tajrīd (detachment), its increase is dhikr, its circumambulation is maʿrifa, and its attribution is fanāʾ (annihilation in God). When departing from ʿArafāt and heading towards (Muzdalifah), "Remember Allah at al-Mashʿar al-Ḥarām. And remember Him as He has guided you, for indeed, you were before that among those astray" (al-Baqara 2:198). Excessive attachment to hubb-i dunyā (love of the world) makes its bitterness harder. Entering into it is forbidden. What is not in it are lofty conditions. Whoever knows what he has taken does not care much for what he has left. Your Lord creates what He wills and chooses. (Rawḍa, 373)
There are four paths to intending (and desiring) Allah. Whoever possesses all of them is among the realized truthful ones (muḥaqqiq ṣiddīqūn); whoever possesses three is among the muqarrab awliyāʾ (those brought near, friends of God); whoever possesses two is among the witnesses with certainty (yāqīn); and whoever possesses one is among the righteous servants of Allah. The first is dhikr; its spread is righteous action, its fruit is light. The second is contemplation; its spread is sabr (patient endurance), its fruit is knowledge. The third is faqr (poverty); its spread is shukr (gratitude), its fruit is the increase of gratitude. The fourth is ḥubb (love); its spread is hatred for the world and its people, its fruit is union with the Beloved. (Jāmiʿ, 61, 171)
Ḥubb (love) is divided into three: hubb-i ṭabīʿī (natural love) is distinguished in the realm of mulk (the physical world); rūḥānī ḥubb (spiritual love) is distinguished in the realm of malakūt (the spiritual world); ḥubb-i ḥaqīqī (true love) is distinguished in neither mulk, malakūt, nor jabarūt (the realm of divine power). (Rihla, 339; Nafahāt, 115)
(See also: maḥabba)
hubb-i dunyā (love of the world): The most beneficial task for a believer regarding his religious affairs is to erase hubb-i dunyā (love of the world) from his heart. When he does this, abandoning the world loses its significance for him, and desiring the hereafter becomes easy. However, it is not possible to erase love of the world without the necessary means.
The means I have not yet mentioned are: faqr (poverty), scarcity of possessions, abundance of fasting, prayer, pilgrimage, and the tools of mujāhada (spiritual struggle). The foundation of these means is contemplation (tafakkur), reducing hope, tawba (repentance), returning to ṭahāra (purification), removing pride from the heart, embracing humility, cultivating the heart with taqwa (God-consciousness), perpetual sorrow (ḥuzn dāʾim), and frequent anxiety regarding matters that come to him (concerning the defects of his actions and their consequences in the hereafter). (Ādāb, 133)